PPT - Symbolism - IIA2

1. Universidad Central de Venezuela
Facultad de Humanidades y Educación
Escuela de Idiomas Modernos
Members:
Medina, Scarleth
Suárez, Mariel

2. Images suggesting further meanings and associations in ways that go
beyond the fairly simple identifications of metaphor and simile are often
called symbols.
A symbol is something that represents something else, either by
association or by resemblance. It can be a material object or a written
symbols by which we communicate. Every word is a symbol because it
represents a sound as well as physical object.
In writing, symbolism is the used of a word, a phrase, or a description,
which represents a deeper meaning than the words themselves. This kind of
extension of meaning can transform the written word into a very powerful
instrument.

3. In literature, symbolism is used to provide meaning to the writing beyond
what is actually being described. The plot and action that take place in a story
can be thought of as one level, while the symbolism of certain things in the
writing act on another level to enhance the story.
There are several ways to recognize symbolism in literature. One is the
frequency an object or character in mentioned in a piece of literature. If it is
mentioned often, it is probably important . Another way to find a symbol is to
look at how much detail is used in describing an object. These two methods
give clues that the writer wants you to infer something about a particular
object.

4. A river in a scene could represent the
flow of life, from birth to death.
Flowers in a scene could
symbolize youth or beauty.

5. A transition from day to night, or spring to winter, could symbolize a
move from goodness to evil, or hope to despair.

6. Not everything in a story is necessarily symbolic.
A garden landscape is just
a garden… until it is
contrasted with a bustling
city, at which point the
garden could symbolize
tranquility, peace, or
escape.

7. Symbolism’s History
Symbolism initially developed as a French
literature movement in the 1880s gaining popular
credence with the publication in 1886 of Jean
Moréas’ manifesto in Le Figaro. Reacting against the
rationalism and materialism that had come to
dominate Western European culture, Moréas
proclaimed the validity of pure subjectivity and the
expression of an idea over a realistic description of
the natural world. This philosophy, which would
incorporate the poet Stéphane Mallarmé's
Stéphane Mallarmé
conviction that reality was best expressed through
(1842-1898)
poetry because it paralleled nature rather than
replicating it, became a central tenet of the
movement. In Mallarmé's words, "To name an
object is to suppress three-quarters of the
enjoyment to be found in the poem... suggestion,
that is the dream."

8. Though it began as a literary concept, Symbolism was soon identified
with the artwork of a younger generation of painters who were similarly
rejecting the conventions of Naturalism. Symbolist painters believed that
art should reflect an emotion or idea rather than represent the natural
world in the objective, quasi-scientific manner embodied by Realism and
Impressionism. Returning to the personal expressivity advocated by the
Romantics earlier in the nineteenth century, they felt that the symbolic
value or meaning of a work of art stemmed from the recreation of
emotional experiences in the viewer through color, line, and composition.
In painting, Symbolism represents a synthesis of form and feeling, of
reality and the artist's inner subjectivity

9. Wanting to imbue their works with spiritual value,
the progenitors of Symbolism produced imaginary
dream worlds populated with mysterious figures from
biblical stories and Greek mythology as well as
fantastical, often monstrous, creatures. Their
suggestive imagery established what would become
the most pervasive themes in Symbolist art: love, fear,
anguish, death, sexual awakening, and unrequited
desire. Woman became the favored symbol for the
expression of these universal emotions, appearing
alternately as wistful virgins and menacing femmes Gustave Moreau
fatales. In this latter category, Gustave Moreau (1826-1898)
popularized the motifs of Salome brandishing the head
of John the Baptist and the man-eating sphinx through
paintings such as Oedipus and the Sphinx in
the Salons of the mid-1860s and 1870s. These two
mythical female types—the virgin and the femme
fatale—would become staples of Symbolist imagery,
appearing frequently in both visual and literary
sources from the 1880s through the first decade of the
twentieth century.