The Symbolist Movement: Anarchism and the Avant-Garde in Fin de SiÃ¨cle France

Richard Shryock

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ChapterÂ 1 The Symbolist Movement: Anarchism and the Avant-Garde in Fin de SiÃ¨cle France

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Richard Shryock

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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 13â36

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004410428_003

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Abstract

The relationship of the French symbolist movement in literature to anarchism has been the subject of numerous studies. This chapter examines the two movements in fin de siÃ¨cle France as two avatars of the avant-garde: one political and the other aesthetic, each representing the most âadvancedâ positions in their respective fields. Although the ideological role of the symbolist writers has often been questioned, their participation in the dialogue on avant-garde politics and aesthetics was a part of the fabric of the time and drew the attention not only of the anarchists, but the press and the police as well.

In the contact between anarchism and symbolism, the flow of ideas went in both directions but the impact of each group on the other was largely asymmetrical. Symbolism as an avant-garde literary movement may have enhanced the cultural standing of anarchism and potentially its force in society by broadening its acceptability. The attraction of these pure poets to a political movement that preached revolution and even carried out acts of physical terror to achieve its ends contributed to naturalizing anarchism as being more acceptable to a larger number of people in France. Making anarchism appear less threatening to those outside of the movement also made it more threatening to the government.

The cultural benefit to symbolism was limited because of the aesthetic limits of the anarchists. Anarchism did not contribute at all to the aesthetic practices of the symbolists because it had nothing innovative to contribute. If anarchism had an influence on symbolism, it is not in the aesthetic itself but in the discourse on the aesthetic. The influence of anarchism caused the symbolists to articulate exactly how it might influence society, how this esoteric poetry could have a social role.

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Anarchism and the Avant-Garde

Radical Arts and Politics in Perspective

Series:Â Avant-Garde Critical Studies, Volume: 38Â andÂ Avant-Garde Critical Studies, Volume: 38

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004410428

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 23 Sep 2019

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ChapterÂ 1 The Symbolist Movement: Anarchism and the Avant-Garde in Fin de SiÃ¨cle France

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Anarchism and the Avant-Garde

Radical Arts and Politics in Perspective

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