The Concise Encyclopedia of Symbolism

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"In the last decade of the nineteenth century, the term Symbolism came to represent a literary, artistic and intellectual movement of great influence. Orginating in France around 1880, then spreading throughout Europe and America, it was above all a movement of protest against positivism, scientism and philistinism, and embraced all the idealist aspirations of the age, having in some respects strong links with other movements of the time such as Decadence and Art Nouveau. Symbolism turned towards the shadows of our inner nature, and explored man's fascination for the strange, the unusual, the dark, the mysterious. Closely connected with the Romantic spirit, and inseperable from Naturalism and Impressionism through its violent reaction against them, it in many ways heralded Expressionism and Surrealism-and is thus a movement found at the very heart of our contemporary culture."--BOOK JACKET.