The Development of the Symbolist Movement in Poland and Russia

Anna Klis Written for Professor Evtuhovs History of Russia II 29 April 2010

For in the Word there is a literal sense and there is a spiritual sense. The literal sense insists on such things as are in the world, but the spiritual sense of such things as are in heaven; and since the union of heaven with the world is effected by correspondences, therefore a Word was provided with which everything down to the minutest detail has its correspondence. Emanuel Swedenborg1

1 Introduction
Literature and history crawl together. The newest works reflect their contemporaneous political trends, while the oldest texts preserve knowledge on the past. Literary movements demonstrate the intersection of these two fields, when a style of writing is actually accepted to describe a particular stretch of history. Symbolism, as a literary device, has been around for thousands of years: from ancient myths and biblical stories to modern prose and poetry. The Symbolist movement, however, is largely defined by a time period stretching from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, originating in France and spreading across Europe.2 As it trickled into and bloomed throughout Russia and Poland, the movement focused on aspects more decadent and more religious. It worked its way through the prose, poetry, music, and graphic art of the time. Two particularly interesting Symbolist authors to compare are Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Blok of Russia and Tadeusz Miciski of Poland. While Blok was certainly better known than Miciski, both shared a raw point of view, though Bloks is a bit darker and

Balakian, Anna Elizabeth. 1977. The symbolist movement: a critical appraisal. New York: New York University Press, p. 14 2 Ibid, p. viii

more mystical than Miciskis. Both serve as excellent examples of the Symbolist movement in Eastern Europe.

2 What is Symbolism?
Symbolism in the sense of a use of symbols in literature is clearly omnipresent in literature of many styles, periods and civilizations. Symbols are all-pervasive in medieval literature and even the classics of realism Tolstoy and Flaubert, Balzac and Dickens use symbols, often prominently.3

As a literary device, symbolism is self-referential: the use of certain words and images to stand in for others. Symbolism is found in parables and fables which tell simple stories in order to explain lessons that are harder to grasp. There are symbols in artwork everywhere, be it the stained-glass window of a Church or the markings on a map. However, the Symbolist movement began with particular focus on using symbols to communicate God, the public, and other authors. The exact time period of the movement varies: in France the period ascribed to Symbolism is between 1885 and 1895,4 while in Russia the span overlaps and reaches to 1910.5 Though he lived much earlier than the actual Symbolist movement, Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772)6 was influential in his own time, and his ideas were carried into the age of symbolism. He focused on mans relation to God, as a creature made in the image of God, and he believed that mans body contains a spirit, knowledgeable of the spiritual realm, while the body is knowledgeable of the natural, earthly realm. His contribution to Symbolism is in his definition of communication between God and man as not [a] direct communication; it occurred through symbols, i.e. phenomena in the physical world that had a dual meaning, one

Wellek, Rene. 1970. The term and concept of symbolism in literary history. New Literary History 1, (2, A Symposium on Periods) (Winter): 249-70, http://www.jstor.org/stable/468631. p. 4. 4 Balakian, p. 3 5 Peterson, Ronald E. 1993. A history of Russian symbolism. Amsterdam; Philadelphia: J. Benjamins Pub. Co. p. 1 6 Britannica Online Encyclopedia, keyword: Emanuel Swedenborg. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/576681/Emanuel-Swedenborg.

recognizable to the earthly perception of many, the other to his spiritual ones.7 His school of thought survived through the Church of the New Jerusalem,8 an agglomeration of Swedenborgian societies dedicated to this type of communication with the divine. However, Swedenborgs so-called symbolism was limited to allegory; 9 his symbols were given strict definitions derived from the Bible. Later symbolism was much more fluid, especially at the start of the movement, and focused less on attaining communication with God as on conveying understanding of the human condition in nature and spirit. The direct forerunner of Symbolism is Romanticism, and in fact, the two overlap slightly at the fin du sicle. Symbolism extended the tenets of Romanticism to another plane of vision, and some Symbolists are indeed described as Neo-romantics. While Romanticism functioned as a passionate rejection of the order and idealization of the Enlightenment period,10 Symbolism went further into rejection of the world and revolt against the accepted ways of writing.11 In fact, the literary values of the Symbolists varied greatly, some rebelling against known literature by darkening the mood of their works, others by heaping in depictions of the natural world, still others by altering conventions of language and turning to tricks of alliteration, assonance, and consonance.12 Three of the better known Symbolist techniques are verbal mystification, the analogy between poetry and music, and the familiar antithesis implied by the early critics and poets of the symbolist movement in the expression symbolist and decadent.13

7 8

Balakian, p. 13 Britannica Online Encyclopedia, keyword: New Church. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/411265/New-Church/411265main/Article#toc=toc9055450. 9 Balakian, p. 14 10 Britannica Online Encyclopedia, keyword: Romanticism. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/508675/Romanticism. 11 Balakian, p. 6 12 Ibid, p. 113. Balakian presents a few poems by Russian symbolists, in the Russian language, including one by Valery Bryusov in which every word begins with the letter m and many of the words contain a sound of y. (First line: Moi mily mag, moya Mariya) 13 Ibid, p. 9

Verbal mystification is the use of imagery to convey the meaning of the literary piece. The most common types of symbols used were natural symbols (birds were especially popular), mythical symbols (Greek and Roman gods and goddesses), and fusion symbols (mixes of the abstract and the concrete, like mirrors).14 The analogy between poetry and music was, at first, a device used by critics to liken the tone, words, and structure of a poem to similar moods, notes, and cadences in music. Later, the distinction blurred more as composers hoped to use synaesthesia (a fusing of the senses) and combine colors and music in spectacular shows of feeling. Symphonies in grey, white, blue quickly took on clear-cut correspondences doubling for emotions: red for anger, blue for imagination, grey for melancholy, etc.15 Finally, decadence was a feature of many Symbolist works, though not all (in fact, some Symbolists reviled the very notion). Many of the Russian Symbolists embraced a worldview of death and despair and the creation of meaning from art. With so many techniques and writing styles, some argue the term Symbolist is merely a moniker applied to contemporaneous authors; nevertheless, the Symbolists were, in fact, united across countries as those who attempted to convey a supernatural experience in the language of visible things, and therefore almost every word is a symbol and is used not for its common purpose but for the association which it evokes of a reality beyond the senses. 16 Thus, the movement spread throughout Europe and even to America, as writers flocked to its origin in Paris and then brought the ideas home with them.

3 Symbolism in Russia
Russian symbolism was at once an aesthetic and mystical movement; it raised the level of poetic craftsmanship, and it was united by a mystical attitude towards the world, which is expressed in the very name of symbolism.17
14 15

Balakian, p. 104 Ibid, p. 108 16 Ibid, p. 4 17 Peterson, p. 1, citing Mirsky.

The turn of the century came under Tsar Nicholas II, who acceded to power after his fathers death in 1894. Both Alexander III (the father of Nicholas II) and Nicholas II enacted policies that affirmed Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality,18 all but reversing the liberal reforms of Alexander II (the father of Alexander III). In this climate of conservatism and even terror, Symbolism began to put down roots. Its abstract passions and mysticism served a direct contrast to the previously growing movement of Positivism, with its clean empirics and forwardly motivation. Thus, the Silver Age of Russian culture began with this new movement, Western in origin, but decidedly shaped by Russian authors and thinkers. Not a Symbolist himself, Vladimir Solovyov was a Russian philosopher that influenced the movements shape in Russia.19 His notions of mysticism were later found in many of the Russian Symbolists works. The actual literary movement was instigated by Dmitry

Merezhkovskys essay On the Reasons for the Decline and on the New Trends in Contemporary Russian Literature (1893). In a way, this essay, as well as the steady creation of salons in Russia, spurred other writers to take notice of this new style. As with the other European Symbolists, the Russian Symbolists also favored individualism to a certain extent,20 making them difficult to group according to literary characteristic. Though the authors varied greatly from each other, in the academic literature

regarding them, the Russian Symbolists are generally split into two waves:
The most traditional grouping of Russian Symbolists is by generations or waves. The first Symbolists who began to publish before the end of the nineteenth century are generally known as the older generation or first wave, that is, Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Zinaida Hippius, Valery Bryusov, Konstantin Balmont, Fyodor Sologub, and others. The chief representatives of the second wave, including Aleksandr Blok, Andrey Bely, and Vyacheslav Ivanov, embarked on their careers in a substantial way after the turn of the century.21

18 19

Knowledge of the period learned in this class, events referred to from class notes. Peterson, p. 3 20 Ibid, p. 6 21 Ibid, p. 8-9

The first wave began with a loose focus on decadence, while the second wave turned toward mysticism. The decadent spirit, though often criticized at the time, drew distinct parallels with the general atmosphere in Russia at the time. Decadent poems echoed a withdrawn manner, the concern with the mystery of life, the futility of free will, the imminence of death in mans daily existence but, with it all, the consciousness of the role of the artist, the comfort of the arts as the only means of demolishing chance, the permanence of man through the emission of a thought.22 In fact, this decadence appears to be offer a solution to the nihilist movement, an extreme form of positivism preceding the Silver Age. One of Russias most well-known Symbolists is Aleksandr Blok (1880-1921). In 1903, Block published his first poems, in an anthology addressed to The Beautiful Lady. 23 His poems are certainly mystical, twining Orthodox religious ideas and folkloric beliefs and struggling for a higher meaning, as seen in the poem below: GAMAJUN, THE PROPHETIC BIRD24 On waters, spread without end, Dressed with the sunset so purple, It sings and prophesies for land, Unable to lift the smashed wings couple... The charge of Tartars hordes it claims, And bloody set of executions, Earthquake, and hunger and the flames, The death of justice, crimes intrusion... And caught with fear, cold and smooth, The fair face flames as one of lovers, But sound with prophetic truth The lips that the bloody foam covers!...

22 23

Balakian, p. 115 Peterson, p. 53 24 Poem by Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Blok. Taken from Poemhunter.com (http://poemhunter.com/poem/gamajunthe-prophetic-bird/).

Firstly, the Gamajun is, as the title says, a miraculous, prophetic bird of Russian creation legend.25 Its mystical associations dominate the poem and fuse with the grand landscape of water and purple sunset presented. In the poem, the bird portends of violent events, and yet it is not aloof from them it appears that Bloks harbinger feels the pain (or at least shame) of what must arrive. Yet in spite of a flaming face, the bird pronounces destruction. The poem was later arranged into a musical piece by composer Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich in 1967, a fair time after the Symbolist movement, but a testament to the power of Bloks words.

4 Symbolism in Poland
danie od artysty, by wobec opisywanej rzeczywistoci zajmowa postaw wycznie ideow (pozytywizm) lub badawcz (realizm i naturalizm), byo sprzeczne z sam istot twrczoci artystycznej.26 Demanding from an artist, that while writing about reality he take a stand only on ideas (positivism) or experiments (realism and naturalism), was against the very nature of artistic creation. 27

At the turn of the century, Poland was still partitioned among the three empires of Prussia, Austria, and Russia from the agreements in 1772, 1793, and 1795. Rebellions were frequent, including the Kociuszko Uprising of 1794, alliance with Napoleon, the November Uprising of 1830 to 1831, and the January Uprising of 1863 to 1864. 28 In this century, Russias policies toward Poland were actually quite lax, though Polish nationality and Messianism found supporters throughout. Similarly as in Russia, Symbolism came to Poland through the avenue of literary criticism. The critic Teodor de Wyzewa, in his essay Le Symbolisme de M. Mallarme

(published in 1887), thought that symbol was only a pretext and explained Mallarme's poetry

25 26

Encyclopedia Mythica, keyword: Gamayun. http://www.pantheon.org/articles/g/gamayun.html. Wojeski, Teofil. 1946. Historia literatury polskiej. Warszawa: Wiedza. p. 209. 27 Translated by author of this paper. 28 Knowledge summarized from previous education, especially the class History of Eastern Central Europe I, fall 2009, with Professor Andrzej Kaminski

purely by its analogy to music.29 However, while in Russia, the movement appeared to begin from a contemplation of the under-success of the Russian literary world, Symbolism in Poland was more focused on rejuvenation and capturing a modern Polish spirit. The movement was extremely popular in the world of theatre, as it allowed for more creativity than the positivist movement prior.30 Symbolism was integrated into a larger literary movement that of Moda Polska (Young Poland) which rebelled against Realism and Positivism.31 Particularly notable was Stanisaw Wyspiaski, a poet, playwright, painter, and visionary of the Young Poland Movement. He was especially interested in new methods of staging plays, in areas suggestive of the scene as opposed to building sets. Notably, Wyspiaski conceived of his Acropolis as being played within the Royal Castle Wawel in Cracow32; all the characters in the play are animated art works found in the castle (from the Bible or Homer) who have stepped out of their tapestries or off their pedestals.33 Another particularly interesting figure in the Polish Symbolist movement was the PanSlavist Tadeusz Miciski (1873-1918), born in dz, a Polish city under the control of the Russian Empire.34 Like Blok, Miciski wrote a great number of poems, but some of his more interesting ideas were in the realm of theatre. He dearly desired to stage plays such as the Sanskrit drama Shakuntala in the Tatras mountains. He describes the mountains as an

amphitheatre of the dead and living, carved in the mountains, under the azure sky and among the

29 30

Wellek, Rene. 1970. The term and concept of symbolism in literary history. p. 5. Wojeski, p. 209. 31 Gasyna, George. 2008. Polish literature from 1864 to 1918. Realism and Young Poland. An Anthology. Sarmatian Review(01): 1359. 32 Having personally seen the Wawel a number of times, the author can only dream of what a fantastic spectacle this would be. 33 Gerould, Daniel. "The Symbolist Legacy." PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art 31, no. 1 (2009): 80-90. http://muse.jhu.edu/ (accessed April 13, 2010). p. 5 34 Britannica Online Encyclopedia, keyword: Tadeusz Micinski. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/380171/Tadeusz-Micinski.

deep forests, there will be revealed the mysteries of life on earth,35 the perfect place to examine the inherent symbolist characteristics of the theatre. Miciski believed that the theatre could unite Poland and Russia (and more broadly, the East and West) on the basis of gnosticism and esoteric philosophy.36 This demonstrates that Miciski valued religion less than Blok, and in fact looked on religion as a great source of drama and tension. Miciski also delved into science-fiction in Nietota: Secret Book of the Tatras Mountains (1910) and Father Faust (1913).37 Below is his poem, Ananke,38 in the original Polish and translated into English: ANANKE39 Gwiazdy wyday nade mn sd: - wieczn jest ciemno, wiecznym jest bd. - Ty budowniku nadgwiezdnych wie - bdziesz si tua, jak dziki zwierz. - zapadnie kady pod tob ld - wrd ognia zmarzniesz - stlisz si jak lont. A gwiazdom odpar krlewski duch: wam przeznaczono okrny ruch, mojej wolnoci dowodem bd, serce me dwiga w gbinach ld. Poszumy pacz mogilnych drzew, lecz w barce ycia pynie mj piew. Ja budowniczy nadgwiezdnych miast szydz z rozpaczy gasncych gwiazd. The stars have passed judgement on me: - forever is darkness, forever is error. - You builder of towers higher than the stars - you will wander, like a wild beast. - beneath you will fall every land - in the midst of fire you will freeze - you will burn like a fuse.

35 36

Gerould, p. 4 Ibid. 37 Wellek, 4. 38 Ananke is the Greek goddess of fate, originator of the universe alongside Chronos. She is the mother of the Moirae (the three Fates), with Zeus as the father. The author greatly enjoyed Greek myths as a child, and therefore cannot cite a specific source of her knowledge. 39 Poem by Tadeusz Miciski. Taken from the online database of the University of Gdask (http://univ.gda.pl/~literat/micinski/022.htm). Translated by the papers author.

To the stars replied a kingly ghost: Your fate is to move in orbit, error is my freedoms proof, my heart heaves me into the deepest lands. The rustling of the grabbing trees cries, but in the barge of life flows my song. I the builder of cities higher than the stars scoff at the grief of the dimming stars.

This poem is striking in its confidence. The speaker directly addresses the stars, which are most likely a symbol for Fate or God himself, and refuses to accept the condemnation and meaninglessness that is thrust upon him. This kingly ghost fights the nihilism that would cause him to wander and fall. Miciski mixes the abstract and the concrete to great effect, speaking of towers higher than the stars where towers are certainly tangible, but their quality of being higher than the stars stretches them into infinity. Most interesting, though, is that the poem is not lacking for mysticism; it does not deny the presence of something greater, and in fact calls that presence into further communication. Next is his poem Nokturn (or Nocturne) presented in original and translated format: NOKTURN40 Las paczcych brzz niegiem osypany, pocina mi mrz moje tulipany. Ley u mych stp konajca mewa patrz na jej trup zamylone drzewa. niegiem zmywam krew, lecz jej nic nie zguszy sysz dziwny piew w czarnym zamku duszy.

40

Poem by Tadeusz Miciski. Taken from the online database of the University of Gdask (http://univ.gda.pl/~literat/micinski/035.htm). Translated by the papers author.

The forest of weeping willows dusted in snow, the frost has cut my tulips. At my feet lies a dying seagull on her corpse gaze the pensive trees. With the snow I wash off the blood, but nothing will mute her I hear strange song in the souls black castle. This poem is much darker than the previously discussed Ananke. Where that one had strength and hope, this one presents a melancholy winter scene. However, the speaker finds beauty within the tragedy, using soft words and anthropomorphism. It appears this night scene (nocturne) is at some point on the boundary between winter and spring the speakers tulips were planted, perhaps starting to bud, but a frost has prematurely chilled them. Perhaps this same frost affected the seagull. All in all, the poems tone is reminiscent of many other Symbolist works, and compares with Bloks poem, presented earlier. Gamajun, however, was more rapid, alive, and mystical, while Nokturn is strangely captivating, gloomy, and macabre. Of further interest is how Bloks poem told a story with no first-person speaker, while both of Miciskis do. In fact, Miciskis speakers both actively struggle against the outer

circumstances: in Ananke, the speaker scoffs at the stars, and in Nokturn, the speaker attempts to wash blood away. Based only on three poems, it is impossible to extrapolate this observation to the rest of the Symbolist movement in Russia and Poland, though it is an intriguing idea that the Polish Symbolists might have been more apt to write of resistance.

5 Conclusion
Believe me, miracles are in us and not outside us. -Seraphita41

As the new century progressed, offshoots of Symbolism grew into movements of their own; Futurism and Acmeism truly broke with Symbolism around 1910.42 With the tide of revolution approaching in Russia, as well as the growing threat of World War, these new movements of an aggressive avant-garde all but declared war on art and ancient knowledge.43 Alongside of them, Symbolism itself grew repetitive:
Gradually these much used symbols, even though they were ambiguous at first, were becoming fixed and specific by the extent to which they were being shared by a long series of authors. If at first they had a multiplicity of meaning, stylization was reducing their ambivalence and the character of their enigma. 44

Symbolist poetry remained popular, but the extravagant and abstract ideas for the theatre fell by the wayside. The changing times and stressful events to follow no longer had need of the decadence of the Symbolist movement.45 Though Symbolism revived in Poland in the 1970s, owing to the theatrical artists Tadeusz Kantor and Jerzy Grotowski,46 the main movement of the turn of the nineteenth century will be best remembered for its contemplation of the hidden spiritual meanings in everyday objects and in literature.

41

Balakian, p. 19. Seraphita is the feminine version of a Romantic fictional character invented by Balzac. Balakian describes her as a seventeen-year-old monster living on the frontiers of both the visible and invisible [not able to] maintain the delicate balance between the rational and irrational. 42 Knowledge from class lecture. 43 Gerould, p. 2 44 Balakian, p. 107. 45 Gerould, p. 8 46 Ibid, p. 9

6 Works Consulted
Polscy symbolici: niecodzienna wsytawa w ramach Polska!Year. 2009 [cited April 21 2010]. Available from http://wiadomosci.onet.pl/1546818,2678,1,polscy_symbolisci,kioskart.html. Balakian, Anna Elizabeth. 1977. The symbolist movement : A critical appraisal. New York: New York University Press. Britannica Online Encyclopedia. http://www.britannica.com/ Charazinska, Elzbieta, and Detroit Institute of Arts. 1984. Symbolism in polish painting, 18901914. [Detroit]: Detroit Institute of Arts. Ferber, Michael. 2007. A dictionary of literary symbols. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press. Gasyna, George. 2008. Polish literature from 1864 to 1918. Realism and Young Poland. An Anthology. Sarmatian Review(01): 1359. Hall, Robert A. 1963. Cultural symbolism in literature. Ithaca, N.Y.: Linguistica. Mchal, Jan,. 1935. O symbolismu v polsk a rusk literature. Praha: Nakl. Slovanskho stavu. Peterson, Ronald E. 1993. A history of Russian symbolism. Amsterdam; Philadelphia: J. Benjamins Pub. Co. Wellek, Rene. 1970. The term and concept of symbolism in literary history. New Literary History 1, (2, A Symposium on Periods) (Winter): 249-70, http://www.jstor.org/stable/468631. Wojeski, Teofil. 1946. Historia literatury polskiej. Warszawa: Wiedza.