Editing Symbolism (movement) (section)

==In other media==
===Visual arts===
{{See also|Symbolist painting}}
[[File:On the Edge of the Sea.jpg|thumb|[[Pierre Puvis de Chavannes]], ''Jeunes Filles au Bord de la Mer'' ("Young Girls on the Edge of the Sea"), 1879, [[Musée d'Orsay]], Paris]]

Symbolism in literature is distinct from symbolism in art although the two were similar in many aspects. In painting, symbolism can be seen as a revival of some mystical tendencies in the [[Romanticism|Romantic tradition]], and was close to the self-consciously morbid and private [[decadent movement]].

There were several rather dissimilar groups of Symbolist painters and visual artists, which included [[Paul Gauguin]], [[Gustave Moreau]], [[Gustav Klimt]], [[Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis]], [[Jacek Malczewski]], [[Odilon Redon]], [[Pierre Puvis de Chavannes]], [[Henri Fantin-Latour]], [[Gaston Bussière]], [[Edvard Munch]], [[Fernand Khnopff]], [[Félicien Rops]], and [[Jan Toorop]]. Symbolism in painting was even more widespread geographically than symbolism in poetry, affecting [[Mikhail Vrubel]], [[Nicholas Roerich]], [[Victor Borisov-Musatov]], [[Martiros Saryan]], [[Mikhail Nesterov]], [[Léon Bakst]], [[Elena Gorokhova]] in Russia, as well as [[Frida Kahlo]] in Mexico,{{Citation needed|date=January 2017}} [[Elihu Vedder]], [[Remedios Varo]], [[Morris Graves]] and David Chetlahe Paladin in the United States. [[Auguste Rodin]] is sometimes considered a symbolist sculptor.

The symbolist painters used mythological and dream imagery. The symbols used by symbolism are not the familiar [[emblem]]s of mainstream [[iconography]] but intensely personal, private, obscure and ambiguous references. More a philosophy than an actual style of art, symbolism in painting influenced the contemporary [[Art Nouveau]] style and [[Les Nabis]].<ref name="ReferenceA" />

===Music===

Symbolism had some influence on music as well. Many symbolist writers and critics were early enthusiasts of the music of [[Richard Wagner]],<ref>Jullian Phillipe, ''The Symbolists'', 1977, p. 8</ref> an avid reader of Schopenhauer.

[[File:Waterhouse, John William - Saint Cecilia - 1895.jpg|thumbnail|upright=1.2|[[John William Waterhouse]], ''Saint Cecilia'', 1895]]

The symbolist aesthetic affected the works of [[Claude Debussy]]. His choices of ''[[libretto|libretti]]'', texts, and themes come almost exclusively from the symbolist canon.  Compositions such as his settings of ''[[Cinq poèmes de Charles Baudelaire]]'', various [[lieder|art songs]] on poems by Verlaine, the opera ''[[Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)|Pelléas et Mélisande]]'' with a libretto by [[Maurice Maeterlinck]], and his unfinished sketches that illustrate two Poe stories, ''[[The Devil in the Belfry]]'' and ''[[The Fall of the House of Usher]]'', all indicate that Debussy was profoundly influenced by symbolist themes and tastes.  His best known work, the ''[[Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune]]'', was inspired by Mallarmé's poem, ''[[L'après-midi d'un faune (poem)|L'après-midi d'un faune]]''.{{cn|date=August 2022}}

The symbolist aesthetic also influenced [[Alexander Scriabin]]'s compositions. [[Arnold Schoenberg]]'s ''[[Pierrot Lunaire]]'' takes its text from German translations of the symbolist poems by [[Albert Giraud]], showing an association between German expressionism and symbolism. [[Richard Strauss]]'s 1905 opera ''[[Salome (opera)|Salomé]]'', based on the play by [[Oscar Wilde]], uses a subject frequently depicted by symbolist artists.

===Prose fiction===
Symbolism's style of the [[wikt:static|static]] and [[wikt:hieratic|hieratic]] adapted less well to narrative fiction than it did to poetry. [[Joris-Karl Huysmans]]' 1884 novel ''[[À rebours]]'' (English title: ''Against Nature'' or ''Against the Grain'') explored many themes that became associated with the symbolist aesthetic.  This novel, in which very little happens, catalogues the psychology of Des Esseintes, an eccentric, reclusive [[antihero]]. [[Oscar Wilde]] was influenced by the novel as he wrote ''[[Salome (play)|Salome]]'', and Huysmans' book appears in ''[[The Picture of Dorian Gray]]'': the titular character becomes corrupted after reading the book.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Decadent novel ''A rebours, or, Against Nature'' |url=https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/decadent-novel-a-rebours-or-against-nature |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807203804/https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/decadent-novel-a-rebours-or-against-nature |archive-date=Aug 7, 2020 |website=The British Library}}</ref>

[[Paul Adam (French novelist)|Paul Adam]] was the most prolific and representative author of symbolist novels.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}} ''Les Demoiselles Goubert'' (1886), co-written with [[Jean Moréas]], is an important transitional work between [[naturalism (literature)|naturalism]] and symbolism. Few symbolists used this form.  One exception was [[Gustave Kahn]], who published ''Le Roi fou'' in 1896.  In 1892, [[Georges Rodenbach]] wrote the short novel ''[[Bruges-la-Morte]]'', set in the Flemish town of [[Bruges]], which Rodenbach described as a dying, medieval city of mourning and quiet contemplation: in a typically symbolist juxtaposition, the dead city contrasts with the diabolical re-awakening of sexual desire.<ref>[[Alan Hollinghurst]], "[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/jan/29/featuresreviews.guardianreview30 Bruges of sighs]" (''[[The Guardian]]'', 29 January 2005, accessed 26 April 2009.</ref> The cynical, misanthropic, misogynistic fiction of [[Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly]] is sometimes considered symbolist, as well. [[Gabriele d'Annunzio]] wrote his first novels in the symbolist manner.

===Theatre===
[[File:Petrutxca de Fokine-1911.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Alexandre Benois]]' set for [[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky]]'s ''[[Petrushka (ballet)|Petrushka]]'' in 1911]]

The characteristic emphasis on an internal life of dreams and fantasies have made symbolist theatre difficult to reconcile with more recent trends. [[Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam]]'s drama ''[[Axël (drama)|Axël]]'' (rev. ed. 1890) is a definitive symbolist play.  In it, two [[Rosicrucianism|Rosicrucian]] aristocrats become enamored of each other while trying to kill each other, only to agree to commit suicide mutually because nothing in life could equal their fantasies.  From this play, [[Edmund Wilson]] adopted the title ''Axel's Castle'' for his influential study of the symbolist literary aftermath.

[[Maurice Maeterlinck]], also a symbolist playwright, wrote ''[[The Blind (play)|The Blind]]'' (1890), ''The Intruder'' (1890), ''Interior'' (1891), ''[[Pelléas and Mélisande]]'' (1892), and ''[[The Blue Bird (play)|The Blue Bird]]'' (1908).
[[Eugénio de Castro]] is considered one of the introducers of Symbolism in the [[Iberian Peninsula]]. He wrote ''Belkiss'', "dramatic prose-poem" as he called it, about the doomed passion of Belkiss, [[queen of Sheba|The Queen of Sheba]], to Solomon, depicting in an avant-garde and violent style the psychological tension and recreating very accurately the tenth century BC Israel. He also wrote ''King Galaor'' and ''Polycrates' Ring'', being one of the most prolific Symbolist theoriticians.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Saraiva |last2=Lopes|first1=António José |first2=Óscar|title=História da Literatura Portuguesa|date=2017|publisher=Porto Editora|location=Lisboa|isbn=978-972-0-30170-3|edition=17th}}</ref>

[[Lugné-Poe]] (1869–1940) was an actor, director, and theatre producer of the late nineteenth century. Lugné-Poe "sought to create a unified nonrealistic theatre of poetry and dreams through atmospheric staging and stylized acting".<ref name=EBS>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Symbolism|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/577796/Symbolist-movement|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=2023-02-21}}</ref> Upon learning about symbolist theatre, he never wanted to practice any other form. After beginning as an actor in the [[Théâtre Libre]] and Théâtre d'Art, Lugné-Poe grasped on to the symbolist movement and founded the [[Théâtre de l'Œuvre]] where he was manager from 1892 until 1929. Some of his greatest successes include opening his own symbolist theatre, producing the first staging of [[Alfred Jarry]]'s ''[[Ubu Roi]]'' (1896), and introducing French theatregoers to playwrights such as [[Henrik Ibsen|Ibsen]] and [[August Strindberg|Strindberg]].<ref name=EBS />

The later works of the Russian playwright [[Anton Chekhov]] have been identified by essayist [[Paul Schmidt (translator)|Paul Schmidt]] as being much influenced by symbolist pessimism.<ref>''The Plays of Anton Chekhov'', trans. Paul Schmidt (1997)</ref> Both [[Konstantin Stanislavski]] and [[Vsevolod Meyerhold]] experimented with symbolist modes of staging in their theatrical endeavors.

Drama by symbolist authors formed an important part of the repertoire of the ''[[Théâtre de l'Œuvre]]'' and the ''[[Paul Fort|Théâtre d'Art]]''.