Symbolist Movement, French

French Symbolism was a complex and influential literary movement that flourished during the last two decades of the nineteenth century. The works of the Symbolist school were characterized by a desire to suggest the existence of a transcendent realm of being, a concern with moods and sensations rather than lucid statements and descriptions, a hermetic subjectivity, and an obsession with the morbid or occult aspects of life. Although the term Symbolism was first applied to this school of poets by Jean Moréas in 1885, the stylistic, thematic, and philosophic tenets of the movement were established earlier in the works of Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, and Stéphane Mallarmé. Collectively the writings of these poets define the major traits of...