Symbolismo

Symbolismo is a late 19th-century movement in literature and the arts that sought to express ideas, moods, and transcendent realities through symbols and evocative imagery rather than direct description. It emerged as a reaction against naturalism and realism and drew on Romanticism, Decadence, and mysticism. The movement was formalized in Paris in 1886 by Jean Moréas with the Symbolist Manifesto, though precursors include Charles Baudelaire; from France it spread to Belgium and beyond, with national variants developing in Russia and the German-speaking world toward the end of the century and into the early 20th century.

Key ideas and techniques center on the use of symbols to suggest inner truths rather than state them openly, with emphasis on the musicality of language, dream imagery, and the spiritual or occult. Symbolists favored ambiguity, irony, and open-ended meanings, often employing synesthesia and allusion. The arts—poetry, drama, painting, and music—were seen as interconnected in their pursuit of the invisible underlying reality.

Major figures include French poets such as Stéphane Mallarmé and Paul Verlaine, with Baudelaire as an important precursor, and Jean Moréas as organizer; Belgian Maurice Maeterlinck; painters Gustave Moreau, Odilon Redon, and Fernand Khnopff; and Russian Symbolists like Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Zinaida Gippius, and Valery Bryusov. Composers such as Claude Debussy drew inspiration from symbolist poetry, integrating its sensibilities into music.

Legacy: Symbolismo influenced modernist movements, including surrealism and expressionism, contributing to a shift toward subjective experience and mythic, evocative imagery. It declined as a cohesive movement in the early 20th century but left lasting impacts on literature and the arts.