FROM THE PUBLISHER

Made famous by poets such as Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud, the Symbolist movement is one of the most analyzed of literary schools. The many journals which it inspired, however, have often been overlooked by critics. Though infact they represent a crucial forum for cultural exchange and for multifaceted artistic expression.
Pamela Genova explores in detail the intellectual concerns, aesthetic significance and interdisciplinary dialogue which lie at the heart of such Symbolist reviews as La Revue Indépendante, Le Décadent, La Revue Blanche and Le Mercure de France. Beginning with an examination of the evolution and development of Symbolist thought and criticism in the second half of the nineteenth century, Genova moves on to discuss the history of the Symbolist journal and its culmination in la guerre des petites revues.
Along with poetry, two additional art forms in particular preoccupied Symbolist journalism: painting and music. The latter chapters of the book centre on the relationship, often antagonistic, between poetry and these other arts. Genova analyzes the Symbolist interest in artists such as Eduard Manet, the English Pre-Raphaelites and Gustave Moreau. In the realm of music, Richard Wagner proved a powerful figure for the Symbolist poets and critics, provoking widespread debate on the importance of myth and legend in art.
The wide ranging discussion of artistic ideas is one of the aspects of the Symbolist journals which gives them such vital cultural significance in the context of a rapidly changing society. In the pages of these reviews, Genova argues, today's reader can unearth an 'other' nineteenth century; one where writers could test their experimental theories, and the greater artistic freedom offered them enabled fresh and exciting correspondences among the arts to emerge.

Author Biography: Pamela A. Genova, Associate Professor of French, University of Oklahoma, USA

FROM THE CRITICS

Booknews