This presentation accompanies a talk on Valery Briusov's founding of Decadence and Symbolism in Russia.

1. Founding a Literary Movement:
Decadence in Russia

2. Meet Valery Briusov
(1873-1924)

3. Photograph, c. 1900

4. Portrait by Mikhail Vrubel, 1905

6. Creating a Literary Movement

7. “I must find a guiding star in the mist…
And I see it: it is decadence:
Yes!
You can say what you like,
that it’s false, ridiculous,
but it is advancing, developing,
and the future will belong to it,
especially when it has found a worthy leader.
And I will be that leader! Yes, I!”
1893 Diary (Age 19)

8. “I indulged in all the tricks
of a trained beast—
talked about Symbolism,
recited poetry,
waved my arms
(a sign of originality).”
Diary, 1894

9. ‘Briusov’: “A completely independent
Petersburg circle of symbolists
has already been formed, and now, among us,
the participants in the edition
The Poetry of the Russian Symbolists,
you can find the most disparate views.”
‘Interviewer’: “You’re starting off very badly,
my friends.
You haven’t even scribbled twenty poems,
and already you have a schism.”
“Moscow Decadents,” An “Interview” Made Up by Briusov, 1894

10. O, cover your pale legs!
1895 poem

11. “It is of great importance
what mask we were wearing
the first time
we appeared before the public.
We lie a great deal,
not because we want to deceive,
but simply because we have to
preserve the mask
we once assumed.”
1899 Letter

12. Briusov’s Definitions
of Decadence and Symbolism

13. “The conception of life
cherished by all the decadents...
is extreme individualism.”

14. “The world is my conception [of it].
Only my thoughts, my sensations,
my desires are given to me—
never anything else or anything more.”

15. “[We] should be afraid
of the commonplace
more than anything else.”

16. “We accept all religions,
all mystical teachings,
only in order to avoid reality.”

17. “What is most valuable
in the new art
is eternal thirst,
anxious seeking.”

18. “The aim of symbolism is...
to hypnotize the reader and
to evoke in him a certain mood
by the juxtaposition
of a series of images.”