What is symbolism in literature? Brief definition. Symbolism as a literary movement - abstract. Paul Verlaine "Autumn Song"

A movement in the art of the last third of the 19th - early 20th centuries, which is based on the expression of intuitively comprehended entities and ideas through symbols. The real world in symbolism is thought of as a vague reflection of some otherworldly true world, and the creative act is the only means of knowing the true essence of things and phenomena.

The origins of symbolism are in the romantic French poetry of the 1850-1860s, its characteristic features are found in the works of P. Verlaine, A. Rimbaud,. The symbolists were influenced by the philosophy of A. Schopenhauer and F. Nietzsche, creativity and. Baudelaire’s poem “Correspondences” played a great role in the development of symbolism, in which the idea of a synthesis of sound, color, smell, as well as the desire to combine opposites was voiced. The idea of matching sounds and colors was developed by A. Rimbaud in the sonnet “Vowels”. S. Mallarmé believed that in poetry one should convey not things, but one’s impressions of them. In the 1880s, the so-called Mallarmé group united around the world. “small symbolists” - G. Kahn, A. Samen, F. Viele-Griffen and others. At this time, criticism calls the poets of the new movement “decadents”, reproaching them for being out of touch with reality, exaggerated aestheticism, fashion for demonism and immoralism, decadence of worldview.

The term “symbolism” was first heard in the manifesto of the same name by J. Moreas (Le Symbolisme // Le Figaro. 09/18/1886), where the author pointed out its difference from decadence, and also formulated the basic principles of the new direction, defined the meaning of the main concepts of symbolism - image and ideas: “All the phenomena of our life are significant for the art of symbols not in themselves, but only as intangible reflections of primary ideas, indicating their secret affinity with them”; an image is a way of expressing an idea.

Among the largest European symbolist poets are P. Valery, Lautreamont, E. Verhaerne, R.M. Rilke, S. George, features of symbolism are present in the works of O. Wilde, etc.

Symbolism is reflected not only in poetry, but also in other forms of art. Dramas by G. Hofmannsthal later contributed to the formation of the Symbolist theater. Symbolism in the theater is characterized by an appeal to the dramatic forms of the past: ancient Greek tragedies, medieval mysteries, etc., strengthening the role of the director, maximum convergence with other types of art (music, painting), involving the viewer in the performance, affirmation of the so-called. “conventional theater”, the desire to emphasize the role of subtext in drama. The first Symbolist theater was the Parisian Theater d'Art, headed by P. Faure (1890-1892).

The forerunner of symbolism in music is considered to be R. Wagner, in whose work the characteristic features of this direction appeared (the French symbolists called Wagner “the true exponent of the nature of modern man”). Wagner was brought closer to the symbolists by the desire for the inexpressible and unconscious (music as an expression of the hidden meaning of words), anti-narrative (the linguistic structure of a musical work is determined not by descriptions, but by impressions). In general, the features of symbolism appeared in music only indirectly, as the musical embodiment of symbolist literature. Examples include the opera “Pelias and Mélisande” by C. Debussy (based on the play by M. Maeterlinck, 1902), songs by G. Fauré based on poems by P. Verlaine. The influence of symbolism on the work of M. Ravel is undeniable (ballet “Daphnis and Chloe”, 1912; “Three Poems by Stéphane Mallarmé”, 1913, etc.).

Symbolism in painting developed at the same time as in other forms of art, and was closely associated with post-impressionism and modernism. In France, the development of symbolism in painting is associated with the “Pont-Aven school” grouped around (E. Bernard, C. Laval, etc.) and the “Nabi” group (P. Sérusier, M. Denis, P. Bonnard, etc.). The combination of decorative convention, ornamentation, with clearly defined figures in the foreground as a characteristic feature of symbolism is characteristic of F. Knopf (Belgium) and (Austria). The programmatic pictorial work of symbolism is “Island of the Dead” by A. Böcklin (Switzerland, 1883). In England, symbolism developed under the influence of the Pre-Raphaelite school of the 2nd half of the 19th century.

Symbolism in Russia

Russian symbolism arose in the 1890s as a contrast to the positivist tradition prevailing in society, which most clearly manifested itself in the so-called. populist literature. In addition to the sources of influence common to Russian and European symbolists, Russian authors were influenced by classical Russian literature of the 19th century, especially the work of F.I. Tyutcheva, . Philosophy, in particular his teaching about Sophia, played a special role in the development of symbolism, while the philosopher himself was quite critical of the works of the symbolists.

It is customary to divide the so-called "senior" and "junior" symbolists. The “seniors” include K. Balmont, F. Sologub. To the younger ones (began to be published in the 1900s) -, V.I. Ivanov, I.F. Annensky, M. Kuzmin, Ellis, S.M. Solovyov. Many “Young Symbolists” in 1903-1910 were members of the literary group “Argonauts”.

The lecture by D.S. is considered to be the programmatic manifesto of Russian symbolism. Merezhkovsky “On the causes of decline and new trends in modern Russian literature” (St. Petersburg, 1893), in which symbolism was positioned as a full-fledged continuation of the traditions of Russian literature; The three main elements of the new art were declared to be mystical content, symbols and the expansion of artistic impressionability. In 1894-1895 V.Ya. Bryusov publishes 3 collections “Russian Symbolists”, where most of the poems belong to Bryusov himself (published under pseudonyms). Critics greeted the collections coldly, seeing in the poems an imitation of French decadents. In 1899, Bryusov, with the participation of Y. Baltrushaitis and S. Polyakov, founded the Scorpion publishing house (1899-1918), which published the almanac “Northern Flowers” (1901-1911) and the magazine “Scales” (1904-1909). In St. Petersburg, symbolists published in the magazines “World of Art” (1898-1904) and “New Way” (1902-1904). In Moscow in 1906-1910 N.P. Ryabushinsky published the magazine “Golden Fleece”. In 1909, former members of the Argonauts (A. Bely, Ellis, E. Medtner, etc.) founded the Musaget publishing house. One of the main “centers” of symbolism is considered to be V.I.’s apartment. Ivanov on Tavricheskaya Street in St. Petersburg (“Tower”), where many prominent figures of the Silver Age visited.

In the 1910s, symbolism experienced a crisis and ceased to exist as a single direction, giving way to new literary movements (Acmeism, Futurism, etc.). The crisis is also evidenced by the discrepancy between A.A. Blok and V.I. Ivanov in understanding the essence and goals of modern art, its connection with the surrounding reality (reports “On the current state of Russian symbolism” and “Testaments of Symbolism”, both 1910). In 1912, Blok considered symbolism to be a defunct school.

The development of symbolist theater in Russia is closely connected with the idea of a synthesis of arts, which was developed by many theorists of symbolism (V.I. Ivanov and others). He repeatedly turned to symbolist works, most successfully in the production of the play by A.A. Blok “Balaganchik” (St. Petersburg, Komissarzhevskaya Theater, 1906). The Blue Bird by M. Maeterlinck, directed by K.S., was a success. Stanislavsky (M., Moscow Art Theater, 1908). In general, the ideas of symbolist theater (conventionality, the dictates of the director) did not meet with recognition in the Russian theater school with its strong realistic traditions and focus on the vivid psychologism of acting. Disappointment in the capabilities of the Symbolist theater occurred in the 1910s, simultaneously with the crisis of Symbolism in general. In 1923 V.I. Ivanov, in the article “Dionysus and Pre-Dyonisianism,” developing the theatrical concept of F. Nietzsche, called for theatrical performances of mysteries and other mass events, but his call was not realized.

In Russian music, symbolism had the greatest influence on the work of A.N. Scriabin, which became one of the first attempts to connect together the possibilities of sound and color. The desire for a synthesis of artistic means was embodied in the symphonies “Poem of Ecstasy” (1907) and “Prometheus” (“Poem of Fire”, 1910). The idea of a grandiose “Mystery”, uniting all types of art (music, painting, architecture, etc.) remained unrealized.

In painting, the influence of symbolism is most clearly visible in the work of V.E. Borisov-Musatov, A. Benois, N. Roerich. The artistic association “Scarlet Rose” (P. Kuznetsov, P. Utkin, etc.), which arose in the late 1890s, was symbolist in nature. In 1904, an exhibition of the same name by group members took place in Saratov. In 1907, after an exhibition in Moscow, a group of artists of the same name arose (P. Kuznetsov, N. Sapunov, S. Sudeikin, etc.), which existed until 1910.

Symbolism as a literary movement arose during the period of the crisis in Russia at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries and rightfully belongs to the culture of our country.

Symbolism - historical period

In Russian symbolism there are:

"older generation"- representatives: D. Merezhkovsky, A. Dobrolyubov, Z. Gippius, K. Balmont, N. Minsky, F. Sologub, V. Bryusov
"younger generation"- Young Symbolists - A. Bely, Vyach. Ivanov, S. Soloviev, Y. Baltrushaitis and others.

Almost each of these poets and writers experienced the processes of rapid growth in the spiritual self-determination of the individual, the desire to join historical reality and put oneself in the face of the elements of the people.

The Symbolists had their own publishing houses (Scorpio, Vulture) and magazines (Libra, Golden Fleece).

Main features of symbolism

Dual worlds among the Symbolists

the idea of two worlds (real and otherworldly)
reflection of reality in symbols
a special view of intuition as a mediator in comprehending and depicting the world
development of sound writing as a special poetic device

mystical comprehension of the world
poetics of multifaceted content (allegory, allusions)
religious quest (“free religious feeling”)
denial of realism

Russian symbolists rethought the role of the individual not only in creativity, but also in Russian reality, and life in general.

Religiosity among the Symbolists

Interest in the personality of a poet, writer, person led poets of this movement to a kind of “expansion” of personality. This understanding of human individuality is characteristic of all Russian symbolists. But this was reflected in different ways - in articles, manifestos, and in poetic practice.

Symbolist aesthetics

Their manifestos expressed the main requirements for new art - mystical content, multifunctionality of artistic imagination and transformation of reality.

The true personality, according to Merezhkovsky, is

this is a mystic, a creator, who is given the ability to directly comprehend the symbolic nature of life and the world.

At the turn of the era, D. Merezhkovsky was puzzled by two ideas:

« the idea of a new person»
« the idea of life creativity“—creation of a second reality.

Both of these ideas inextricably link the Symbolists with the spiritual quest of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The theme of the disproportionality of the Eternal Universe and the instantaneity of human existence, the human world, characteristic of representatives of the creative intelligentsia of the Silver Age, is present in many symbolist poets:

For example, from A. Blok:

“Worlds are flying. The years fly by. The empty / Universe looks at us with the darkness of its eyes. / And clinging to the sliding, sharp edge, / And always listening to the buzzing ringing, - / Are we going crazy in the change of motley / invented reasons, spaces, times..// When end? The annoying sound / will not have the strength to listen without rest... / How scary everything is! How wild! - Give me your hand, / Comrade, friend! Let's forget ourselves again./.

Characteristic features of the symbolist movement

individualism
idealism
awareness of the tragedy of the world, the crisis of Russian reality
romantic search for meaning
content and structural unity of poetry
predominance of the general over the particular
thematic cyclization of each author's work
poetic and philosophical mythologemes (for example, the images of Sophia and the Eternal Femininity by V. Solovyov)
dominant images (for example, the image of a snowstorm, blizzard by A. Blok)
the playful nature of creativity and life

Thus, symbolism as such sees reality as infinite, diverse in content and form.

Our presentation on the topic

Understanding the symbol

Among Russian poets - representatives of this movement - it varied greatly.

Symbolists' understanding of symbols

philosophical symbolism sees in it a combination of the sensual and spiritual (D. Merezhkovsky,).
Mystical symbolism leans towards the predominance of the spiritual, towards the achievement of the kingdom of the spirit, a frantic desire for other worlds, denies sensuality as something flawed, something from which one must free oneself (such is the poetic world of A. Bely).

The role of the symbolists in the creation of new poetic forms, new trends and new ideas, new themes and a new understanding of life as such for the history of Russian literature, and more broadly, Russian culture, is priceless.

Did you like it? Don't hide your joy from the world - share it

2. Symbolism as a literary movement. Senior symbolists: circles, representatives, different understandings of symbolism.

Symbolism- the first and most significant of the modernist movements in Russia. Based on the time of formation and the characteristics of the ideological position in Russian symbolism, it is customary to distinguish two main stages. Poets who made their debut in the 1890s are called “senior symbolists” (V. Bryusov, K. Balmont, D. Merezhkovsky, Z. Gippius, F. Sologub, etc.). In the 1900s, new forces joined symbolism, significantly updating the appearance of the movement (A. Blok, A. Bely, V. Ivanov, etc.). The accepted designation for the “second wave” of symbolism is “young symbolism.” The “senior” and “younger” symbolists were separated not so much by age as by the difference in worldviews and the direction of creativity.

The philosophy and aesthetics of symbolism developed under the influence of various teachings - from the views of the ancient philosopher Plato to the philosophical systems of V. Solovyov, F. Nietzsche, A. Bergson, contemporary to the symbolists. The symbolists contrasted the traditional idea of understanding the world in art with the idea of constructing the world in the process of creativity. Creativity in the understanding of the symbolists is a subconscious-intuitive contemplation of secret meanings, accessible only to the artist-creator. Moreover, it is impossible to rationally convey the contemplated “secrets”. According to the largest theoretician among the Symbolists, Vyach. Ivanov, poetry is “the secret writing of the ineffable.” The artist is required not only to have super-rational sensitivity, but also to have the subtlest mastery of the art of allusion: the value of poetic speech lies in “understatement,” “hiddenness of meaning.” The main means of conveying the contemplated secret meanings was the symbol.

Category music- the second most important (after the symbol) in the aesthetics and poetic practice of the new movement. This concept was used by symbolists in two different aspects - general ideological and technical. In the first, general philosophical meaning, music for them is not a sound rhythmically organized sequence, but a universal metaphysical energy, the fundamental basis of all creativity. In the second, technical meaning, music is significant for symbolists as the verbal texture of a verse permeated with sound and rhythmic combinations, that is, as the maximum use of musical compositional principles in poetry. Symbolist poems are sometimes constructed as a bewitching stream of verbal and musical harmonies and echoes.

Symbolism enriched Russian poetic culture with many discoveries. The symbolists gave the poetic word a previously unknown mobility and ambiguity, and taught Russian poetry to discover additional shades and facets of meaning in the word. Their searches in the field of poetic phonetics turned out to be fruitful: K. Balmont, V. Bryusov, I. Annensky, A. Blok, A. Bely were masters of expressive assonance and effective alliteration. The rhythmic possibilities of Russian verse have expanded, and the stanzas have become more diverse. However, the main merit of this literary movement is not associated with formal innovations.

Symbolism tried to create a new philosophy of culture and, after going through a painful period of revaluation of values, sought to develop a new universal worldview. Having overcome the extremes of individualism and subjectivism, the symbolists at the dawn of the new century raised the question of the social role of the artist in a new way and began to move towards the creation of such forms of art, the experience of which could unite people again. Despite the external manifestations of elitism and formalism, symbolism managed in practice to fill the work with the artistic form with new content and, most importantly, to make art more personal, personalistic.

Symbolism is characterized by:

Form of decadence,

Worship of individualism

Personal preaching.

The poet must strive to depict the path of ascent to other worlds. The knowledge of realists does not penetrate into these worlds. They have a rational, horizontal understanding of the world. So-called causal connections.

3 stages of development:

1.1890s The period of decadence. First manifesto Lecture by Dm. Merezhkovsky “On the causes of the decline and new trends in Russian literature.” The basic principles are:

Mystical content

Symbolism of images

The concept of dual worlds (the earthly world, the empirical world - reality; the other world - superreality). Merezhkovsky, Gippius (Anton Krainy), Nikolai Minsky. At this time, the first symbolist magazine, “World of Art,” appeared.

2. 1900s The rise of Russian symbolism. All major manifestos appear. Magazines: “Libra”, “New Path”, “Apollo”, “Questions of Life”, “Golden Fleece” (aimed at antiquity). Balmont, Bryusov, Sologub, Ivanov.

3.1910s The crisis of Russian symbolism. The current gives way to Acmeism.

Also called Parnassian poets (Parnassus is a Greek mountain where muses and poets lived; nearby is Mount Gerrikon, where inspiration existed).

Senior Symbolists." Senior Russian Symbolists ( 1890s) at first they were met with mostly rejection and ridicule from critics and the reading public. As the most convincing and original phenomenon, Russian symbolism declared itself at the beginning of the twentieth century, with the advent of a new generation, with their interest in the nationality and Russian song, with their more sensitive and organic appeal to Russian literary traditions. The first signs of the symbolist movement in Russia were Dmitry Merezhkovsky’s treatise “On the Causes of Decline and New Trends in Modern Russian Literature” (1892), his collection of poems “Symbols”, as well as Minsky’s books “In the Light of Conscience” and A. Volynsky “Russian Critics” . During the same period of time - in 1894–1895 - three collections “Russian Symbolists” were published, in which poems of their publisher, the young poet Valery Bryusov, were published. This also included the initial books of poems by Konstantin Balmont - “Under the Northern Sky”, “In the Boundless”. In them, too, the symbolist view of the poetic word gradually crystallized.

The symbolism of D. Merezhkovsky and Z. Gippius was of a distinctly religious nature and developed in line with the neoclassical tradition. Merezhkovsky's best poems included in collections Symbols,Eternal companions, were built on the “homogenization” with other people’s ideas, were dedicated to the culture of bygone eras, and gave a subjective revaluation of world classics. In Merezhkovsky’s prose, based on large-scale cultural and historical material (history of antiquity, the Renaissance, national history, religious thought of antiquity), there is a search for the spiritual foundations of existence, the ideas that move history. In the camp of Russian Symbolists, Merezhkovsky represented the idea of neo-Christianity, looking for a new Christ (not so much for the people as for the intelligentsia) - “Jesus the Unknown.”

In the “electric”, according to I. Bunin, poems of Z. Gippius, in her prose there is a gravitation towards philosophical and religious issues, the search for God. Strictness of form, precision, movement towards classicism of expression, combined with religious and metaphysical emphasis, distinguished Gippius and Merezhkovsky among the “senior symbolists”. Their work also contains many formal achievements of symbolism: music of moods, freedom of conversational intonations, the use of new poetic meters (for example, dolnik).

If D. Merezhkovsky and Z. Gippius thought of symbolism as the construction of artistic and religious culture, then V. Bryusov, the founder of the symbolic movement in Russia, dreamed of creating a comprehensive artistic system, a “synthesis” of all directions. Hence the historicism and rationalism of Bryusov’s poetry, the dream of the “Pantheon, the temple of all gods.” A symbol, in Bryusov’s view, is a universal category that allows one to generalize all truths and ideas about the world that have ever existed. V. Brusov gave a concise program of symbolism, the “testaments” of the movement in a poem To the young poet:

Affirmation of creativity as the goal of life, glorification of the creative personality, aspiration from the gray everyday life of the present into the bright world of the imaginary future, dreams and fantasies - these are the postulates of symbolism in Bryusov’s interpretation. Another, scandalous poem by Bryusov Creation expressed the idea of intuition, unaccountability of creative impulses.

The neo-romanticism of K. Balmont differed significantly from the work of D. Merezhkovsky, Z. Gippius, V. Bryusov. In the lyrics of K. Balmont , singer of vastness - the romantic pathos of elevation above everyday life, a view of poetry as life-creativity. The main thing for Balmont the symbolist was the celebration of the limitless possibilities of creative individuality, a frantic search for means of its self-expression. Admiring the transformed, titanic personality affected the intensity of life sensations, the expansion of emotional imagery, and an impressive geographical and temporal scope.

F. Sologub continued the line of research begun in Russian literature by F. Dostoevsky on the “mysterious connection” of the human soul with the disastrous beginning, and developed a general symbolist approach to understanding human nature as an irrational nature. One of the main symbols in Sologub’s poetry and prose was the “unsteady swing” of human conditions, the “heavy sleep” of consciousness, and unpredictable “transformations.” Sologub’s interest in the unconscious, his deepening into the secrets of mental life gave rise to the mythological imagery of his prose: so the heroine of the novel Little devil Varvara is a “centaur” with a nymph’s body covered in flea bites and an ugly face, the three Rutilov sisters in the same novel are three moiras, three graces, three harites, three Chekhov sisters. Comprehension of the dark principles of mental life, neo-mythologism are the main signs of Sologub’s symbolist style.

Huge influence on Russian poetry of the twentieth century. influenced the psychological symbolism of I. Annensky, whose collections Quiet songs And Cypress casket appeared at a time of crisis, the decline of the symbolist movement. In Annensky's poetry there is a colossal impulse to renew not only the poetry of symbolism, but also all Russian lyric poetry - from A. Akhmatova to G. Adamovich. Annensky's symbolism was built on the “effects of revelations”, on complex and, at the same time, very objective, material associations, which makes it possible to see in Annensky the forerunner of Acmeism. “A symbolist poet,” wrote the editor of the Apollo magazine, poet and critic S. Makovsky, about I. Annensky , - takes as a starting point something physically and psychologically specific and, without defining it, often without even naming it, depicts a series of associations. Such a poet loves to amaze with an unexpected, sometimes mysterious combination of images and concepts, striving for the impressionistic effect of revelations. An object exposed in this way seems new to a person and, as it were, experienced for the first time.” For Annensky, a symbol is not a springboard for a leap to metaphysical heights, but a means of displaying and explaining reality. In Annensky’s mournful-erotic poetry, the decadent idea of “prison”, the melancholy of earthly existence, and unquenched eros developed.

In the theory and artistic practice of the “senior symbolists”, the latest trends were combined with the inheritance of the achievements and discoveries of Russian classics. It was within the framework of the symbolist tradition that the works of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, Lermontov (D. Merezhkovsky L. Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, M.Yu. Lermontov. Poet of Superhumanity), Pushkin (article by Vl. Solovyov The fate of Pushkin; Bronze Horseman V. Bryusov), Turgenev and Goncharov ( Books of Reflections I. Annensky), N. Nekrasov ( Nekrasov as a poet of the city V. Bryusova). Among the “Young Symbolists”, A. Bely became a brilliant researcher of Russian classics (book Gogol's poetics, numerous literary reminiscences in the novel Petersburg).

One of the most common definitions of art is the following: Art is a special form of social consciousness, as well as human activity, which is based on the artistic and educational reflection of reality.

Introduction. Literature as a form of art.

Symbolism and naturalism in literature

As part of artistic culture, art is the core of spiritual culture as a whole. In the process of historical development, various types of it have emerged: architecture, fine arts (painting, sculpture, graphics), decorative and applied arts, literature, choreography, music, theater, cinema, design, etc.

The reason for dividing art into types is the variety of types of human social practice in the sphere of artistic exploration of the world. Each type of art tends to certain aspects of reality. The relationships and mutual attraction between art forms are historically changeable and fluid.

Each type of art is unique and has its own specifics, means of expression, and materials.

Literature, as an art form, aesthetically masters the world in artistic words. In its various genres, literature covers natural and social phenomena, social cataclysms, and human spiritual life.

Initially, literature existed only in the form of oral verbal creativity, therefore the building material of any literary image is the word. Hegel called the word the most plastic material, directly belonging to the spirit. Fiction takes a phenomenon in its integrity and the interaction of its various properties and features. Literature occupies one of the leading places in the art system and has a significant influence on the development of other types of art.

Symbol (from the Greek symbolon - sign, omen) is one of the types of tropes *. A symbol, like an allegory and a metaphor, forms its figurative meanings based on what we feel - the relationship, the connection between the object or phenomenon that is denoted by some word in the language, and another object or phenomenon to which we transfer the same verbal designation. For example, “morning” as the beginning of daily activity can be compared with the beginning of human life. This is how both the metaphor “morning of life” and the symbolic picture of morning as the beginning of life’s journey arise:

In the morning fog with unsteady steps

I walked towards mysterious and wonderful shores.

(Vl. S. Soloviev)

However, a symbol is fundamentally different from both allegory and metaphor. First of all, because it is endowed with a huge variety of meanings (in fact, innumerable), and all of them are potentially present in every symbolic image, as if “shining through” each other. So, in the lines from A. A. Blok’s poem “You were strangely bright...”:

I am your loving caress

I am illuminated - and I see dreams.

But, believe me, I think it’s a fairy tale

An unprecedented sign of spring

“spring” is the time of year, and the birth of first love, and the beginning of youth, and the coming “new life” and much more. Unlike allegory, the symbol is deeply emotional; in order to comprehend it, you need to “get used to” the mood of the text. Finally, in allegory and metaphor, the objective meaning of a word can be “erased”: sometimes we simply don’t notice it (for example, when Mars or Venus are mentioned in 18th-century literature, we often hardly remember the vividly depicted characters of ancient myths, but only know what is being said is about war and love. Mayakovsky’s metaphor of “the days of the bull is peg” paints an image of the motley days of human life, and not the image of a spotted bull).

The formal difference between a symbol and a metafaphor is that a metaphor is created, as it were, “before our eyes”: we see exactly which words are compared in the text, and therefore we guess what their meanings are converging to give rise to a third, new one. A symbol can also enter into a metaphorical structure, but it is not necessary for it.

Where does the symbolic meaning of the image come from? The main feature of symbols is that they, in their mass, appear not only in those texts (or even more so in parts of the text) where we find them. They have a history of tens of thousands of years, going back to ancient ideas about the world, to myths and rituals. Certain words (“morning”, “winter”, “grain”, “earth”, “blood”, etc., etc.) have been imprinted in the memory of mankind precisely as symbols since time immemorial. Such words not only have multiple meanings: we intuitively sense their ability to be symbols. Later, these words especially attract word artists, who include them in their works, where they acquire new meanings. Thus, Dante in his “Divine Comedy” used all the variety of meanings of the word “sun”, which went back to pagan cults, and then to Christian symbolism. But he also created his own new symbolism of the “sun”, which then became part of the “sun” among the romantics, symbolists, etc. Thus, the symbol comes into the text from the language of centuries-old cultures, bringing into it all the baggage of its already accumulated meanings. Since a symbol has an innumerable number of meanings, it turns out to be able to “give” them in different ways: depending on the individual characteristics of the reader *.

Symbolism as a literary movement arose at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. in France as a protest against bourgeois life, philosophy and culture, on the one hand, and against naturalism and realism, on the other. In the “Manifesto of Symbolism,” written by J. Moreas in 1886, it was argued that a direct image of reality, of everyday life, only skims the surface of life. Only with the help of a hint symbol can we emotionally and intuitively comprehend the “secrets of the world.” Symbolism is associated with an idealistic worldview, with the justification of individualism and complete personal freedom, with the idea that art is higher than “vulgar” reality. This trend became widespread in Western Europe and penetrated into painting, music and other forms of art.

In Russia, symbolism arose in the early 1890s. In the first decade, the leading role in it was played by the “senior symbolists” (decadents), especially the Moscow group headed by V. Ya. Bryusov and which published three editions of the collection “Russian Symbolists” (1894-1895). Decadent motifs also dominated the poetry of St. Petersburg authors, published in the magazine “Northern Messenger”, and at the turn of the century - in the “World of Art” (F. K. Sologub, Z. N. Gippius, D. S. Merezhkovsky, N. M. Minsky). But the views and prosaic works of the St. Petersburg symbolists also reflected much of what would be characteristic of the next stage of this movement.

The “senior symbolists” sharply denied the surrounding reality and said “no” to the world:

I don't see our reality

I don't know our century...

(V. Ya. Bryusov)

Earthly life is just a “dream”, a “shadow”. Reality is contrasted with the world of dreams and reality - a world where the individual gains complete freedom:

I am the god of the mysterious world,

The whole world is in my dreams.

I will not make myself an idol

Neither on earth nor in heaven.

(F.K. Sologub)

This is the kingdom of beauty:

There is only one eternal commandment - to live.

In beauty, in beauty no matter what.

(D.S. Merezhkovsky)

This world is beautiful precisely because it “is not in the world” (3. N. Gippius). Real life is portrayed as ugly, evil, boring and meaningless. Symbolists paid special attention to artistic innovation - the transformation of the meanings of a poetic word, the development of rhythm, rhyme, etc. The “senior symbolists” have not yet created a system of symbols; they are impressionists who strive to convey the subtlest shades of moods and impressions.

A new period in the history of Russian symbolism (1901-1904) coincided with the beginning of a new revolutionary movement in Russia. Pessimistic sentiments inspired by the era of reaction of the 1880s - early 1890s. and the philosophy of A. Schopenhauer, give way to apprehensions of grandiose changes. “Younger symbolists, followers of the idealist philosopher and poet Vl., are entering the literary arena. S. Solovyov, who imagined that the old world of evil and deception is on the verge of complete destruction, that divine Beauty (Eternal Femininity, the Soul of the world) descends into the world, which must “save the world” by connecting the heavenly (divine) principle of life with the earthly, material, create the “kingdom of God on earth”:

Know this: Eternal Femininity is now

In an incorruptible body he goes to earth.

In the unfading light of the new goddess

The sky merged with the abyss of water.

(Vl. S. Soloviev)

Among the “younger symbolists,” the decadent “rejection of the world” is replaced by a utopian expectation of its future transformation. A.A. Blok in the collection “Poems about a Beautiful Lady” (1904) glorifies the same feminine principle of youth, love and beauty, which will not only bring happiness to the lyrical “I”, but will also change the whole world:

I have a feeling about you. The years pass by -

All in one form I foresee You.

The whole horizon is on fire - and unbearably clear,

And I wait silently, yearning and loving.

The same motives are found in A. Bely’s collection “Gold in Azure” (1904), which glorifies the heroic desire of people of dreams - the “Argonauts” - for the sun and the happiness of complete freedom. During these same years, many “senior symbolists” also sharply departed from the sentiments of the last decade and moved towards the glorification of a bright, strong-willed personality. This personality does not break with individualism, but now the lyrical “I” is a freedom fighter:

I want to break the azure

Calm dreams.

I want burning buildings

I want screaming storms!

(K. D. Balmont)

With the advent of the “younger”, the concept of symbol entered the poetics of Russian symbolism. For Solovyov’s students, this is a polysemantic word, some meanings of which are associated with the world of “heaven”, reflect its spiritual essence, while others depict the “earthly kingdom” (understood as the “shadow” of the kingdom of heaven):

I follow a little, bending my knees,

Meek in appearance, quiet in heart,

Floating Shadows

The fussy affairs of the world

Among visions, dreams,

(A. A. Blok)

The years of the first Russian revolution (1905-1907) again significantly changed the face of Russian symbolism. Most poets respond to revolutionary events. Blok creates images of people of the new, national world (“Rising from the darkness of the cellars...”, “The Barge of Life”), fighters (“Went to attack. Straight to the chest...”). V.Ya. Bryusov writes the famous poem “The Coming Huns,” where he glorifies the inevitable end of the old world, to which, however, he includes himself and all the people of the old, dying culture. F.K. During the years of the revolution, Sologub created a book of poems “To the Motherland” (1906), K.D. Balmont - collection “Songs of the Avenger” (1907), published in Paris and banned in Russia, etc.

Even more important is that the years of revolution restructured the symbolic artistic vision of the world. If earlier Beauty was understood (especially by the “younger symbolists”) as harmony, now it is associated with the chaos of struggle, with the elements of the people. Individualism is replaced by the search for a new personality, in which the flourishing of the “I” is connected with the life of the people. The symbolism is also changing: previously associated mainly with the Christian, ancient, medieval and romantic traditions, now it turns to the heritage of the ancient “national” myth (V.I. Ivanov), to Russian folklore and Slavic mythology (A.A. Blok, S.M. Gorodetsky). The structure of the symbol also becomes different. Its “earthly” meanings also play an increasingly important role in it: social, political, historical.

But the revolution also reveals the “indoor”, literary-circle nature of the trend, its utopianism, political naivety, and its distance from the true political struggle of 1905-1907. The main issue for symbolism is the question of the connection between revolution and art. When solving it, two extremely opposite directions are formed: the protection of culture from the destructive force of the revolutionary elements (V. Bryusov’s magazine “Scales”) and aesthetic interest in the problems of social struggle. Only with A. A. Blok, who has greater artistic insight, dreams of great national art, writes articles about M. Gorky and realists.

The disputes of 1907 and the following years caused a sharp division between the Symbolists. During the years of the Stolypin reaction (1907-1911), this leads to a weakening of the most interesting tendencies of symbolism. The “aesthetic revolt” of the decadents and the “aesthetic utopia” of the “younger symbolists” are exhausting themselves. They are being replaced by artistic attitudes of “intrinsic aestheticism” - imitation of the art of the past. Stylization artists (M. A. Kuzmin) come to the fore. The leading symbolists themselves felt the crisis of the direction: their main magazines ("Scales", "Golden Fleece") were closed in 1909. Since 1910, symbolism as a movement ceased to exist.

However, symbolism as an artistic method has not yet exhausted itself. So, A. A. Blok, the most talented poet of symbolism, in the late 1900s-1910s. creates his most mature works. He tries to combine the poetics of the symbol with themes inherited from the realism of the 19th century, with rejection of modernity (the “Terrible World” cycle), with the motives of revolutionary retribution (the “Iambic” cycle, the poem “Retribution”, etc.), with reflections on history ( cycle “On the Kulikovo Field”, play “Rose and Cross”, etc.). A. Bely creates the novel “Petersburg”, as if summing up the era that gave birth to symbolism.

Russian symbolism

Symbolism- a movement in literature and art that first appeared in France in the last quarter of the 19th century and by the end of the century had spread to most European countries. But after France, it is in Russia that symbolism is realized as the most large-scale, significant and original phenomenon in culture. Many representatives of Russian symbolism bring new ones to this direction, often having nothing in common with their French predecessors. Symbolism becomes the first significant modernist movement in Russia; simultaneously with the birth of symbolism in Russia, the Silver Age of Russian literature begins; in this era, all new poetic schools and individual innovations in literature are, at least in part, under the influence of symbolism - even outwardly hostile movements (futurists, “Forge”, etc.) largely use symbolist material and begin with denials of symbolism. But in Russian symbolism there was no unity of concepts, there was no single school, no single style; Even among the symbolism rich in originals in France, you will not find such diversity and examples so different from each other. Apart from the search for new literary perspectives in form and theme, perhaps the only thing that united the Russian Symbolists was a distrust of ordinary words, a desire to express themselves through allegories and symbols. “A thought expressed is a lie” - a verse by the Russian poet Fyodor Tyutchev, the predecessor of Russian symbolism.

Features and predecessors of Russian symbolism

Russian symbolism at first had basically the same prerequisites as Western symbolism: “a crisis of a positive worldview and morality” (in Russia - in the context of the crisis of the populist cultural tradition). Panaestheticism became the main principle of the early Russian symbolists; aestheticization of life and the desire for various forms of replacing logic and morality with aesthetics. “Beauty will save the world” receives new coverage. Russian symbolism, actively absorbing the modernist literature of the West, strives to absorb and include in the circle of its themes and interests all phenomena of world culture, which, according to the Russian symbolists, correspond to the principles of “pure”, free art. Antiquity, revival, romanticism - the eras in which V. Bryusov, D. Merezhkovsky, N. Minsky and others find artists and poets of symbolism. Art itself begins to be understood as an accumulator and preserver of beauty (pure experience and true knowledge). “Nature creates unfinished freaks - sorcerers improve Nature and give life a beautiful face” (K. Balmont) But in Russian literature of the 2nd half of the 19th century, certain principles dominated, if not subordination, then the necessary connection of art with the soil, with the people, the state and etc. Therefore, the first publications of Russian symbolists, not yet adapted to the Russian spirit, met with a more than cold reception. The next generation, to some extent, continues to work hard on the interpretations of “panaestheticism”, but no longer dominates, mixing with increasingly relevant religious, philosophical and myth-making quests.

The older Russian Symbolists (1890s) initially met with mostly rejection and ridicule from critics and the reading public. As the most convincing and original phenomenon, Russian symbolism declared itself at the beginning of the twentieth century, with the advent of a new generation, with their interest in the nationality and Russian song, with their more sensitive and organic appeal to Russian literary traditions.

Through the heads of their “teachers”, who in many ways imitated the West, the younger generation of Symbolists “discovered” more and more new domestic predecessors. Many works by A. Pushkin (“Prophet”, “Poet”, etc.), F. Tyutchev (primarily “Silentium!”, which became a kind of manifestation of Russian symbolism, and others), and St. Petersburg stories by Gogol receive a new interpretation in the light of symbolism ; The legacy of F. Dostoevsky appears ever deeper, larger and more symbolically. An early “representative” of symbolism was also seen in the “mad” for his contemporaries K. N. Batyushkov (1787-1855).

Even more undoubted predecessors of symbolism are Russian poets of the 19th century, close to the ideas of “pure poetry,” such as A. Fet, Y. Polonsky, A. Maikov, E. Baratynsky. Tyutchev, who showed the path of music and nuance, symbol and dream, led Russian poetry, in the opinion of symbolist criticism, away from the Apollonian harmonies of Pushkin’s time. But it was precisely this path that was close to many Russian symbolists.

Finally, it is impossible to imagine the worldview of the younger symbolists without the influence of the personality of Vladimir Solovyov. Sophiology, conciliarity, the ideal of "integral knowledge", the desire to combine epistemology with ethics and aesthetics, the cult of the eternal feminine, Russia and the West, the possibilities of religious modernization and the prospects for the unification of churches are some of the most important themes developed by the younger generation of Symbolists in the early years of the twentieth century influenced by the legacy of Vladimir Solovyov.

Russian Symbolists

Senior Symbolists

Russian symbolism made its presence known in the first half of the 1890s. Several publications are usually cited as the starting points of his history; first of all, these are: “On the causes of the decline...”, the literary critical work of D. Merezhkovsky and the almanacs “Russian Symbolists”, published at his own expense by student Valery Bryusov in 1894. These three brochures (the last book was published in 1895) were created by two authors (often acting as translators within this publication): Valery Bryusov (as editor-in-chief and author of manifestations and under the masks of several pseudonyms) and his student friend A.L. Miropolsky.

Thus, Merezhkovsky and his wife, Zinaida Gippius, were at the origins of symbolism in St. Petersburg, Valery Bryusov - in Moscow. But the most radical and prominent representative of early St. Petersburg symbolism was Alexander Dobrolyubov, whose “decadent lifestyle” in his student years served to create one of the most important biographical legends of the Silver Age.

The myth of Alexander Dobrolyubov, which began to take shape already in the very early period of the development of Russian symbolism - no matter what you call it, “diabolical” (Hansen-Löwe) or “decadent” (I.P. Smirnov) - was finally formed at the beginning of the 20th century century, that is, when Dobrolyubov himself had already left literature and broke with his usual literary and artistic circle... Of course, not only Dobrolyubov came up with the idea of the inferiority of literary creativity in comparison with life. For example, Merezhkovsky, whose name is also associated with the emergence of symbolism as a movement, admitted in his autobiography that in his youth he “walked through the villages, talked with peasants” and “intended to ‘go among the people’ after graduating from university, to become a rural teacher.” The futurist poet Bozhidar later dreamed of going to the ends of the world, to wild peoples unspoiled by civilization. But only Dobrolyubov (and after him, the poet Leonid Semenov) managed to show consistency and overcome the conventionality of creativity. The second side of the myth is the feeling of the constant, as they would now say, virtual presence of the departed poet in everyday literary reality. The repeatedly cited memoirs of G. Ivanov tell how writers walking to the tram stop to go to the editorial office of the Hyperborea magazine met a man in a cap, felt boots, and a sheepskin coat. His question: “Tell me, gentlemen, where is Apollo located?” - shocks and evokes the image of Alexander Dobrolyubov.

“...This mysterious, semi-legendary man,” writes G. Ivanov. “According to rumors, he wanders somewhere in Russia - from the Urals to the Caucasus, from Astrakhan to St. Petersburg, - wanders like this, a man in a sheepskin coat, with a staff - just like we saw him or how he seemed to us on a darkened St. Petersburg street<…>somewhere, for some reason, wandering - for a very long time, since the beginning of the nine hundred years - across Russia<…>
A strange and extraordinary life: something from the poet, something from Alyosha Karamazov, many more different “somethings”, mysteriously mixed up in this man, whose charm, they say, was irresistible.”

- Alexander Kobrinsky Conversation through dead space

In Moscow, “Russian Symbolists” are published at their own expense and receive a “cold reception” from critics; St. Petersburg was more fortunate with modernist publications - already at the end of the century, “Northern Herald”, “World of Art” were operating there... However, Dobrolyubov and his friend and classmate at the gymnasium, V.V. Gippius, also published the first cycles of poems at their own expense; come to Moscow and meet Bryusov. Bryusov did not have a high opinion of Dobrolyubov’s art of versification, but Alexander’s personality itself made a strong impression on him, which left a mark on his future fate. Already in the first years of the twentieth century, being the editor of the most significant symbolist publishing house that appeared in Moscow, Scorpion, Bryusov published Dobrolyubov’s poems. According to his own later admission, at the early stage of his work, Bryusov received the greatest influence of all his contemporaries from Alexander Dobrolyubov and Ivan Konevsky (a young poet whose work was highly appreciated by Bryusov; died in the twenty-fourth year of his life).

Independently from all modernist groups - apart, but in such a way that one cannot help but notice - Fyodor Sologub (Fyodor Kuzmich Teternikov) created his own special poetic world and innovative prose. The novel “Heavy Dreams” was written by Sologub back in the 1880s, the first poems are dated 1878. Until the 1890s he worked as a teacher in the provinces, and since 1892 he has settled in St. Petersburg. Since the 1890s, a circle of friends has been gathering in the writer’s house, often uniting authors from different cities and warring publications. Already in the twentieth century, Sologub became the author of one of the most famous Russian novels of this era - “The Little Demon” (1907), introducing the creepy teacher Peredonov into the circle of Russian literary characters; and even later in Russia he is declared the “king of poets”...

But perhaps the most read, most sonorous and musical poems at the early stage of Russian symbolism were the works of Konstantin Balmont. Already at the end of the nineteenth century, K. Balmont most clearly declares the “search for correspondences” characteristic of symbolists between sound, meaning and color (similar ideas and experiments are known from Baudelaire and Rimbaud, and later from many Russian poets - Bryusov, Blok, Kuzmin, Khlebnikov and etc). For Balmont, as for example for Verlaine, this search consists primarily in creating the sound-semantic fabric of the text - music that gives birth to meaning. Balmont’s passion for sound writing, colorful adjectives that displace verbs, leads to the creation of texts that are almost “meaningless”, according to ill-wishers, but this interesting phenomenon in poetry leads over time to the emergence of new poetic concepts (sound writing, abstruse, melodic recitation); Balmont is a very prolific author - more than thirty books of poetry, translations (W. Blake, E. Poe, Indian poetry and others), numerous articles.

I am the sophistication of Russian slow speech, Before me are other poets - forerunners, I first discovered in this speech the deviations, Recited, angry, gentle ringings. K. Balmont

Young Symbolists (second “generation” of Symbolists)

Younger Symbolists in Russia are mainly called writers who made their first publications in the 1900s. Among them were really very young authors, like Sergei Solovyov, A. Bely, A. Blok, Ellis, and very respectable people, like the director of the gymnasium I. Annensky, scientist Vyacheslav Ivanov, musician and composer M. Kuzmin. In the first years of the century, representatives of the younger generation of symbolists created a romantically colored circle, where the skills of future classics matured, which became known as the “Argonauts” or Argonautism.

I emphasize: in January 1901, a dangerous “mystical” firecracker was laid in us, which gave rise to so many rumors about the “Beautiful Lady”... The composition of the circle of Argonauts, students in those years, was extraordinary... Lev Lvovich Kobylinsky (“Ellis”), who joined in the same years to us and who has become the soul of the circle; he was literary and sociologically educated; an amazing improviser and mime... S. M. Solovyov, a sixth-grade high school student who surprises Bryusov, a young poet, philosopher, theologian...
...Ellis called it the circle of the Argonauts, coinciding with an ancient myth telling about the journey on the ship "Argo" of a group of heroes to a mythical country: behind the Golden Fleece... the "Argonauts" did not have any organization; those who became close to us walked in the “Argonauts”, often without suspecting that the “Argonaut”... Blok felt like an “Argonaut” during his short life in Moscow...
...and yet the “Argonauts” left some mark on the artistic culture of Moscow in the first decade of the beginning of the century; they merged with the “symbolists”, considered themselves essentially “symbolists”, wrote in symbolic journals (me, Ellis, Solovyov), but differed, so to speak, in the “style” of their identification. There was nothing of literature in them; and there was nothing of external splendor in them; and meanwhile a number of the most interesting personalities, original not in appearance, but in essence, passed through Argonautism...

Andrey Bely, “Beginning of the Century.” - P. 20-123.

In St. Petersburg at the beginning of the century, the “tower” of Vyach is perhaps most suitable for the title of “center of symbolism”. Ivanova, is a famous apartment on the corner of Tavricheskaya Street, among the inhabitants of which at different times were Andrei Bely, M. Kuzmin, V. Khlebnikov, A. R. Mintslova, which was visited by A. Blok, N. Berdyaev, A. V. Lunacharsky, A. Akhmatova, “world artists” and spiritualists, anarchists and philosophers. A famous and mysterious apartment: legends tell about it, researchers study the meetings of secret societies that took place here (Haphysites, Theosophists, etc.), gendarmes carried out searches and surveillance here, in this apartment most famous poets of the era read their poems publicly for the first time, here for several years, three completely unique writers lived simultaneously, whose works often present fascinating riddles for commentators and offer readers unexpected language models - this is the constant “Diotima” of the salon, Ivanov’s wife, L. D. Zinovieva-Annibal, composer Kuzmin (author of romances first, later - novels and poetry books), and - of course the owner. The owner of the apartment himself, the author of the book “Dionysus and Dionysianism,” was called “Russian Nietzsche.” With undoubted significance and depth of influence in culture, Vyach. Ivanov remains a “semi-familiar continent”; This is partly due to his long stays abroad, and partly to the complexity of his poetic texts, above all, requiring from the reader a rarely encountered erudition.

Examples of poetic decadence in Russia can be found in the early works of V. Bryusov, for example, “Creativity” - a poem that, according to Vl. Solovyov, is a decadent gem and completely devoid of any meaning -

Creativity The shadow of uncreated creatures sways in a dream, Like patching blades On an enamel wall. Violet hands On the enamel wall Half-asleeply they draw sounds In the ringing silence. And transparent kiosks, In the ringing silence, Grow like sparkles, Under the azure moon. The naked month rises Under the azure moon... Sounds soar half asleep, Sounds caress me. The secrets of created creatures caress me with affection, And the shadow of patches trembles on the enamel wall.

and in many poems by Z. Gippius (the illustrative poem “Everything is Around” is often quoted). The features of decadence are often seen in the peculiar mythological symbolism of the poetic world of F. Sologub. The younger Symbolists often speak of “overcoming decadence”; however, strictly speaking, one can discern the features of romantics in them, but there is not a single decadent.

Symbolist poets in Russia

Symbolism in Russian art

Symbolism was a multifaceted cultural phenomenon, and covered not only literature but also music, theater, and visual arts. The main motives of this trend can be seen in the works of such outstanding composers as Alexander Scriabin, Igor Stravinsky and others. The art magazine “World of Art” under the leadership of S. P. Diaghilev becomes not only the brightest magazine about art in Russia, but also a powerful means of promoting Russian culture in Europe through the organization of international exhibitions and the publication of reproductions of works of Russian art in the European press. This magazine was based on the work of the founders - a group of young artists: A. Benois, L. Bakst, M. Dobuzhinsky. In addition to those mentioned, V. Borisov-Musatov, M. Vrubel and others collaborated with this magazine at different times.

Each currently famous representative of the symbolist movement had his own path to it, and the work of all symbolists cannot always be united by one characteristic feature. In their work, the symbolists sought to create a complex, associative metaphor, abstract and irrational. This is the desire for “what is not in the world” in Gippius, “ringing-resonant silence” in Bryusov, “And rebellion is dark in bright eyes” in Vyach. Ivanov, “the abyss of azure torn to shreds” by Blok, “dry deserts of shame” by A. Bely. Symbolists defined the concept of “symbol” as that sign that connects two realities, two worlds - earthly and heavenly, and this connection is established only by feelings, intuitively, irrationally. Bryusov called symbolism “the poetry of hints.” Bely approached this phenomenon more broadly: he perceived symbolism as a modus cogitandi (way of thinking) and as a modus vivendi (way of life), and devoted a number of articles to this, which were later included in the book “Symbolism as a Worldview.” Representatives of this movement believed that only art helps to achieve ideals and join the kingdom of the soul. They elevated the role of the symbolist poet to the fact that he is the creator of new life, a prophet, he helps to create a new person. The symbolists considered the poet’s mission to be the highest on earth, since for them art was above all spheres of human life.

The decline of symbolism as a single movement was discussed in 1910. All its representatives continued to work fruitfully and create, but from about this time their paths, including creative ones, began to diverge: they began to focus more on their own creativity. But this did not mark the death of symbolism, as many assumed. Symbolism had a huge impact on the literature and art of subsequent generations and established many creative traditions that are followed to this day.

Notes

All sections up to “Symbolism in Russian Art” are written based on materials from author’s lectures approved for use in the higher education system. This publication does not violate anyone's copyright. All the facts presented in the article can be verified.

Literature

Literary heritage. - M.: 1937. - T. 27-28.
Bely A. Symbolism as a worldview / Comp., intro. Art. and approx. L. A. Sugai. - M.: Republic, 1994. - 528 p. - (Thinkers of the 20th century).
Payman Avril. History of Russian symbolism / Authorized trans. from English V. V. Isaakovich. - M.: Republic, 2000. - 415 p.
Tukh B.I. Guide to the Silver Age: A short popular essay about one era in the history of Russian culture. - M.: “Octopus”, 2005. - 208 p. - 2nd ed.
Encyclopedia of Symbolism, ed. Jean Cassou. - M., 1998.
Kolobaeva L. A. Russian symbolism. - M.: Moscow State University Publishing House, 2000. - 296 p.