French Symbolism at the Fin-de-Siecle

Les études concernant l'image de Venise dans la littérature européenne ne se comptent plus. Curieusement, la multiplication de ces essais ne s'est accompagnée d'aucun renouvellement du corpus : on continue d'invoquer le témoignage des mêmes auteurs, du XVIe au XXe siècle ; on questionne les mêmes textes. La recherche s'est trouvée tributaire de cette stagnation.
Tandis qu'on passait les récits de voyage au crible, on a ignoré les romans, les nouvelles, situés à Venise. Or, entre le dernier quart du XIXe siècle et l'entre-deux-guerres, on assiste à une spectaculaire floraison des récits évoquant cette ville où l'on voyage moins qu'on n'y séjourne, périodiquement, rituellement. Romans anglais, allemands, italiens mais surtout français. C'est d'un véritable établissement de la fiction qu'il s'agit, révélateur de l'engouement des écrivains pour une cité où le snobisme, essentiellement parisien, s'épanouit chaque automne suivant des itinéraires thématiques et géographiques bien particuliers. Dans cette perspective, les pages vénitiennes de Proust apparaissent comme la chevelure d'une comète largement inexplorée.
Aucun ouvrage sur Venise n'avait pris en compte les textes dont il est question dans cette étude. Tantôt illustres, les auteurs de ces fictions vénitiennes sont pour la plupart ignorés, oubliés, voire méprisés. Seul l'examen de leurs textes permet cependant de mesurer l'importance d'un phénomène capital pour l'appréhension littéraire d'une ville trop souvent réduite à un cortège de préjugés immuables : la « folie vénitienne », engouement dont l'apparente futilité masque mal l'angoisse d'un monde qui refuse de croire à sa fin.

Depuis longtemps introuvables, les Esquisses vénitiennes font pendant à la Vie vénitienne, régulièrement réimprimée, du quotidien d'un Français à Venise au début du XX ème siècle. Petits tableau, tantôt réalistes, tantôt fantastiques, sans autre prétention que celle de suspendre des instants ou des circonstances privilégiés par la mémoire, tantôt réalistes, tantôt fantastiques, les esquisses de cet écrivain issu du Symbolisme forment un chapelet d'impressions variées, vives et mélancoliques, reflet d'une époque où les irisations ne jouaient pas dans une flaque d'essence mais sur les flacs d'un vase de Gallé.

Suffering for one’s art is a stereotype commonly associated with poets, as they are known to delve into the extremes of their emotions in order to express them beautifully in words. But even among such poets, there are still those who go the extra mile, the ones who turn heaven and hell over for that one journey that they believe is worth everything.

This paper focuses on two such poets, namely, Arthur Rimbaud and Jim Morrison. They were known as rebels of their respective times, the epitome of the counter-culture, of the adolescent rebelling against the authority. By immersing themselves in a life of alcoholism, sex, and depravity, they sought novel ways of perceiving reality, to the point of overturning it. Hence, the subsequent discussion will involve an examination of their journeys as poets of the counter-culture.

Hartigan offers an alternate reading of playwright-avant garde artist Alfred Jarry's "overly performative public conduct," placing it within the context of fin-de-siècle Parisian Symbolism, focusing on performance, artifice, authenticity, and self. He discusses the premiere of "Ubu Roi" as well as Symbolist "self-as-performance."

Als Ende einer ›Welt von Gestern‹ und zugleich als Beginn der Moderne zieht das Fin de Siècle heute zunehmend das Interesse auf sich: Weltschmerz und Endzeitstimmung sind für die Zeit zwischen 1885 und 1914 ebenso typisch wie Zukunftseuphorie und Aufbruchstimmung; die Epoche ist gekennzeichnet von einem Hang zur Todessehnsucht und der Faszination der Vergänglichkeit genauso wie von Leichtlebigkeit, Frivolität und Dekadenz. Im Grunde sind sie alle Symptome derselben Krankheit: des Bewusstseins der Krise, das Intellektuelle, Künstler und Literaten der Zeit gleichermaßen ergriffen hatte. Im Angesicht zunehmender Technisierung, am Vorabend des Ersten Weltkrieges, in einer Welt, in der die Grundwerte des sozialen Lebens ins Wanken gerieten, flüchtete man sich in ästhetische Gegenwelten und schuf Kunstfiguren wie den Bohemien, den Dandy, den Snob, die Femme fatale, um sich vom verachteten Philister, vom Kleinbürger und Spießer abzuheben. Das Handbuch unternimmt erstmals den Versuch, die so vielgestaltige Epoche in all ihren Ausprägungen, von der Politik und der Gesellschaft über Literatur, Kunst und Musik bis hin zu den Geistes- und Kulturwissenschaften, zu erfassen und dabei das gesamte europäische Umfeld in den Blick zu nehmen. Entstanden ist ein facettenreiches Bild von einer schillernden Zeit – eine gewinnbringende Lektüre für den professionellen wie den privaten Leser.

შესავალი

კარგა ხნის წინ (უნივერსიტეტი ახალი დამთავრებული მქონდა),  „არტისტულ ყვავილებზე“ და მთლიანობაში, გალაკტიონის 1915 – 1927 წლების პოეზიაზე ფიქრისას, მის დასახასიათებლად, როგორც მაშინ ვფიქრობდი, მოკლე და ყოვლისმომცველ ფორმულას მივაგენი: „უკვდავი პოეზია - პოეზიის უკვდავების შესახებ“. დღეისათვის, მკითხველისათვის წარმოდგენილი ნარკვევის დასრულებისას, სურვილი გამიჩნდა მსგავსი ლაკონური ფორმულა გამომეყენებინა სათაურად. თემა, რომლის განხილვაც მსურს შემოგთავაზოთ ამ წერილში, ეხება გალაკტიონის მიერ საკუთარი პოეტური კანონის ფორმულირებას ახალი პოეტური ენის მეშვეობით, - ენის, რომელიც სხვადასხვა მოდერნისტული სტილის გავლენით არის გამდიდრებული. სათაურის მოფიქრებული ვარიანტები - „ახალი პოეტური ენით - ახალი პოეზიის შესახებ“, ან „ახალი სტილით - ახალი სტილის შესახებ“ - ვერ გამოდგა მაინცდამაინც მოხდენილი, ამიტომ სათაურად ისევ ის ძველი, „ნასტუდენტარი ფიზიკოსის“ მიერ მოფიქრებულ ფორმულა ვამჯობინე. ამ მცირე განმარტების შემდეგ, საკვლევი თემის ჩარჩოები მინდა დავაკონკრეტო.
არავისთვის სიახლე არ იქნება თუ ვიტყვით, რომ გალაკტიონი - პოეტი, რომლის სახელთანაც არის დაკავშირებული  ქართული ლიტერატურული ენის ძირეული რეფორმა და ახალი ქართული პოეტიკის ფორმირება  -  ბევრს ფიქრობდა ხელოვნების განვითარების გზებზე, ახალი პოეზიის ამოცანებზე, ახალ ფორმებსა და შინაარსზე, მსოფლიო კულტურის განვითარების ზოგად ტენდენციებზე და საკუთარ პოეტურ სტრატეგიაზე. ამ თემებზე შექმნილი ტექსტების ნაწილი - პროზაული მეტატექსტების ფრაგმენტები და რამდენიმე პროგრამული ხასიათის პოეტური ტექსტი - ცხადი სახით, ან შედარებით ადვილად “კითხვადი” მეტაფორების მეშვეობით გადმოსცემს სათქმელის შინაარსს. მკითხველის ყურადღებისათვის წარმოდგენილ წერილში, განხილვის საგანი გალაკტიონის სხვა სახის - თავისი მუსიკალობით შთამბეჭდავი, მაგრამ „ბუნდოვანი“ - რამდენიმე  ლექსი  იქნება, ტექსტები, რომელთა ძირითადი შინაარსიც, გვეჩვენება, გალაკტიონის  პოეტური კანონის სხვადასხვა ასპექტებს უნდა შეეხებოდეს. ამ მოკლე ნარკვევის წერისას, ჩვენ, ცხადია, არ დაგვისახავს მიზნად გალაკტიონის „ახალი პოეტური კანონის“ ამომწურავად ან, თუნდაც, მრავალმხრივ აღწერა. მიზანი უფრო მოკრძალებულია: სულ რამდენიმე, კონკრეტული „ბუნდოვანი“ ტექსტის ინტერპრეტაცია, - ტექსტების, რომლებიც გაერთიანებული არის ერთი ანალიტიკური წერილის ფარგლებში მხოლოდ იმ მიზეზით, რომ მათში, არაცხადი სახით მოცემული შინაარსი, საერთო თემას - გალაკტიონის „ახალი პოეზიის“  პრეზენტაციას უნდა ეხებოდეს. განხილვის ძირითად ღერძს ქმნის  სამი ლექსი: „არტისტულ ყვავილებში“ წარმოდგენილი  - „ჭიანურები“ (ტაბიძე 2016ა: 84) და „სიბერე“ (ტაბიძე 2016ა: 117) და უფრო გვიანდელი  - „ობელისკი“ (ტაბიძე 2016ბ: 185).  იმავე თემატური კონტექსტის ფარგლებში, ნარკვევის ბოლოს გავაანალიზებთ კიდევ ორ მნიშვნელოვან ლექსს - „ისევ ეფემერას“ (ტაბიძე 2016ბ:31) და  „სტიროდა სული ცისფერ ღვინოებს“ (ტაბიძე 2016ბ: 188).  ახალი პოეზიის შინაარსზე მსჯელობის ფარგლებში, ასევე გაკვრით შევეხებით გალაკტიონის კიდევ ორ მუსიკალურ შედევრს: “ეგვიპტის სასაფლაონი“ (ტაბიძე 2016ბ: 118)  და „ოფორტი“ (ტაბიძე 2016ა: 22).
ნარკვევის პირველი ნაწილი ფოკუსირებული არის, ერთის მხრივ, ქართული პოეზიის რეფორმირების ამოცანის  და შესაბამისი სტრატეგიის ფორმულირებაზე  გალაკტიონის მიერ და მეორეს მხრივ, ახალი პოეტური ენის იმ თავისებურებებზე, რისი ათვისებაც მნიშვნელოვნად მიაჩნია პოეტს. ნარკვევის პირველი ნაწილი  არ ეხება ახალი პოეზიის მსოფლმხედველობრივ ასპექტებს.  იგივე პოეტური ტექსტების ანალიზის საფუძველზე, ახალი პოეზიის მსოფლმხედველობრივი საფუძვლების წარმოჩენას, ახალი პოეტური ენის მეშვეობით ამ ახალი პარადიგმების გადმოცემას, ეძღვნება ნარკვევის II ნაწილი.  მთლიაონობაში,  ჩვენ ვეცდებით გავერკვეთ, თუ რა შინაარსი არის კოდირებული ზემოთ ნახსენებ ტექსტებში და რა ფორმით, რა მხატვრული ხერხების მეშვეობით არის გადმოცემული ეს შინაარსი.

Proust has shown little interest in the decorative arts of his time, but his work bears the mark of the "submarine style" distinctive of Art nouveau. The low bookshelves with glass panes in the Grand Hôtel room at Balbec ― the symbol of À la Recherche’s unity, according to Georges Poulet in Proustian Space ― prove to be authentic witnesses of “modern style”. But what does “modern style” actually mean? À la Recherche includes five occurrences of the expression that could lead to misunderstanding. Contrary to a preconceived idea, it is not the English name for Art nouveau. This French coined anglicism refers to the international revival of the decorative arts at the beginning of the twentieth century, a fascinating but disturbing blend of aesthetics and social ideas. Proust detected at once and discreetly highlighted the cosmopolitan and "rastaquouère" (so to speak "métèque") inspiration of an ephemeral artistic movement contemporary with the Dreyfus affair. Enriched with an abundant and entirely original iconography, full of new discoveries and identifications, Rastaquarium brings back to life an epoch of which the novelist caught the essence. For the first time the whole question of decorative arts in À la recherche is fully tackled in all its ramifications, in a fascinating instance of the network of connections at the heart of Proust’s system.

Proust n’a manifesté que bien peu d’intérêt pour les arts décoratifs de son temps, mais son œuvre ponctuée d’aquariums est marquée par le «style sous-marin» caractéristique de l’Art nouveau. Les «bibliothèques vitrées» de la chambre de Balbec ― dans lesquelles Georges Poulet voyait le symbole de l’unité de l’œuvre ― se révèlent d’authentiques témoins du «modern style». Mais qu’est-ce que le «modern style»? L’expression, qui revient cinq fois dans À la Recherche du temps perdu, n’avait jamais vraiment été élucidée. Contrairement à une idée reçue, ce n’est en rien le nom anglais de l’Art nouveau. Cet anglicisme bien français désigne un renouveau international des arts décoratifs qui, mêlant esthétique et idées sociales, fascine et inquiète… Proust a parfaitement perçu et discrètement mis en valeur l’inspiration cosmopolite et «rastaquouère» d’un courant artistique dont le bref épanouissement coïncide avec les années de l’affaire Dreyfus. Enrichi d’une vaste iconographie, entièrement originale, fourmillant de trouvailles et d’identifications nouvelles, Rastaquarium fait revivre une époque dont l’écrivain a su capter l’essentiel. Toujours abordée de façon fragmentaire, la question des arts décoratifs dans la Recherche n’avait jamais été traitée dans son ensemble, seule manière de saisir les réseaux de correspondances si chers à Proust.


Table of Contents

Note sur l’iconographie – Remerciements – Abréviations

Rastaquarium

Qu’est-ce que l’Art « nouveau » ?

Le « modern style » n’est pas un style

Naissance d’une expression

Le mobilier des Proust

Le monde de Liberty

Contre Ruskin

1905 : « Sur la lecture »

La Femme inconnue de Lille et le Printemps par « Brown »

Le moment Maple

Bing !

Le « modern style » dans la Recherche

Les bibliothèques vitrées de Balbec

De la référence anglaise à la référence bavaroise : le Salon d’Automne de 1910

Style « sous-marin »

Le Royaume de Neptune ou la civilisation de l’aquarium

Le « modern style », agent de l’étranger

L’esthétique dreyfusarde

Siegfried n’est pas Samuel

Le règne de l’impur

Le style franco-sémitique

Une nouvelle croisade

Dreyfusards avant Dreyfus

Style rastaquouère

Bibliographie - Index nominum - Table des illustrations

Qu’ils soient naturalistes, décadents, anarchistes ou symbolistes, les romanciers fin-de-siècle se livrent à une quête du rare et de l’étrange, luttent contre les angoisses et les chimères, cherchent à briser, voire dépasser les limites du roman. Le présent ouvrage propose de réfléchir sur la richesse de la création romanesque de l’époque crépusculaire en réunissant quatorze contributions consacrées aussi bien aux classiques qu’aux auteurs rarement étudiés, voire méconnus. Ainsi se rencontrent ou se retrouvent dans ce lieu N. Casanova, G. Darien, L. d’Herdy, J. de Tinan, L. Bloy, H. Céard, O. Mirbeau, J. Lorrain, P. Louÿs, R. Vivien, Rachilde, C. Mendès, J.-K. Huysmans, H. Fleischmann. Voici un guide qui a pour but d’accompagner le lecteur dans la (re)découverte de l’univers finiséculaire en l’invitant à connaître ses mystères.

Avant-propos
Edyta Kociubińska

Marie-France de Palacio                     
Nonce Casanova : les Faces (désespérées) de l’Être

Aurélien Lorig
Georges Darien. Un anarchiste sous le signe de la décadence

Manon Raffard
Un mystère emblématique : le cas Luis d’Herdy (1875-1902)

Fabrizio Impellizzeri
Jean de Tinan écrivain « nègre » à l’ombre de Willy

Yoann Chaumeil
Léon Bloy et l’envers de la sécularisation

Federica D’Ascenzo
Variations sur le thème de la construction chez Henry Céard

Marie-Bernard Bat
Octave Mirbeau romancier : les paradoxes d’une écriture entre deux siècles

Noëlle Benhamou         
La Maison Philibert de Jean Lorrain : entre réalisme et décadence

Anita Staroń
Artistes de la vie. Les femmes créatrices chez Rachilde

Camille Islert
Une femme m’apparut de Renée Vivien : paroxysme ou parodie fin-de-siècle ?

Julie Moucheron
Poétique d’une passion fin de siècle : l’eros marmoréen dans Aphrodite de Pierre Louÿs

Warren Johnson
Dédoublement, séduction et idéal chez Catulle Mendès 

Edyta Kociubińska
Le dandy fin-de-siècle en proie à la névrose. Les (més)aventures de Jean des Esseintes dans À rebours de Joris-Karl Huysmans

Jean de Palacio
Le somptuarisme de la décrépitude. Sur un roman d’Hector Fleischmann

На правах рукописи ЩЕРБАКОВА Наталья Вадимовна СЦЕНИЧЕСКИЙ ОБРАЗ-МАСКА В ИЗОБРАЗИТЕЛЬНОМ ИСКУССТВЕ ФРАНЦИИ XIX ВЕКА. ОТ ОБРАЗОВ ТЕАТРА К ТЕАТРАЛЬНОСТИ ОБРАЗОВ Специальность 17.00.04-изобразительное и декоративно-прикладное искусство и архитектура
Abstract of the PhD thesis devoted to the problem of "the mask", as a visual trope in the XIX cent. French fine arts - culture, theatre, painting and graphics

" Le Roman de l'énergie nationale, dont Les Déracinés forment la première partie, sera sans doute l'ouvrage le plus important de la littérature française depuis vingt-cinq ans, non seulement par le talent, mais par la volonté, la portée, l'étendue. " : né du besoin de dépasser Balzac qui, " enfin, a vieilli " (Barrès) et du souci de mettre en scène " ces mêmes idées qui circulent dans notre société, dans nos coteries, dans la rue, et qui font des héros, des fous, des criminels, parmi nos contemporains ", caisse de résonance des débats du temps et miroir tendu à la littérature d'une époque portée à imaginer la décadence dans le roman, roman à idées voué ouvertement à l'analyse et à la célébration de " l'énergie nationale " et cependant conçu comme l'aboutissement d'un projet égotiste de construction de soi, tel est ce livre peut-être inabouti, parce que terriblement ambitieux, ainsi salué par Léon Blum à sa parution. (quatrième de couverture)

Abstract in english
Between 1820 and 1846 the mime actor Jean-Gaspard Deburau was Pierrot in the Parisian Théâtre des nambules. His reckless and impassable acting style was read as a new poetic and dramatic pattern by two generations of poets.
The Romantic Jules Janin and Théophile Gautier created the myth of the ‘white man’, whose melancholic and cruel gesture interpreted the disease and the spiritual vacuum of an entire group of artists in search for a new ‘poetic drama’. It was nevertheless Charles Baudelaire who built a new theory of drama out of this mute play mode: his essay De l’essence du rire et généralement du comique dans les arts (1855) defines pantomime as the life synthesis, quintessence of comedy, pure comic element: the grotesque. Pantomime shows human tragic greatness, balanced between the vacuum of reality and the light of dream.
Théodore de Banville and Jules Champfleury took up (?) Baudelaire's suggestions and elaborated two dramatic theories that would be seminal for Symbolist and Naturalist Drama.

Abstract in french
La deuxième moitié du XIXe siècle a recueilli les suggestions contenues dans la réflexion baudelairienne sur le rire (« significatif » : imitation du réel ; « grotesque » : absolu) ; l’engouement démontré par les Romantiques et par Baudelaire lui-même pour le mimodrame de Deburau a donné lieu entre 1870 et 1895 à ce que j’ai appelé dans cet article la pantomime naturaliste et la pantomime symboliste. Dans les deux cas la pantomime est considérée comme le genre par excellence de la synthèse et partant de la possibilité d’une réforme de l’art dramatique.
Synthèse de la vie pour les Naturalistes (qui à la suite de Champfleury continuaient le comique significatif), synthèse de l’idéalité de l’homme et de son mépris pour la nature pour les Symbolistes (Mallarmé, Huysmans, mais Paul Margueritte aussi, dans une certaine mesure). Dans les toutes dernières années du siècle toutefois les deux écoles semblent se fondre ou plutôt se confondre dans une sorte de cynisme résigné, où le réel, mais le rêve aussi, sont morts : les cas de Hennique et de Laforgue en témoignent. Pierrot est grivois, sarcastique, glacial : un imposteur. Sa face blanche est désormais le moule parfait de la modernité.

RESUMEN:
Dentro de las diversas relecturas de la literatura latina ‘decadente’ del fi n-desiècle, Le latin mystique (1892) de Remy DE GOURMONT ocupa un lugar excepcional, en la
medida en que no se trata solamente de un texto crítico sino también de una antología comentada y traducida. Le latin mystique, texto que se plantea como la exploración de una literatura no estudiada por críticos y profesores, es una obra clave para comprender aspectos de la sensibilidad f n-de-siècle y las lecturas ‘no académicas’ que escritores del siglo XX, tales como Ezra POUND o Jorge Luis BORGES, harán de la latinidad clásica y medieval.

ABSTRACT: Among the various fin-de-siècle reinterpretations
of the ‘decadent’ latin literature, Le latin mystique (1892) of Remy DE GOURMONT has a singular place, because is not only a critical essay but also an annotated and translated anthology. Le latin mystique, book that reviews a literature supposedly not studied by critics and scholars, is a key text for understanding
aspects of the fin-de-siècle sensibility and the ‘non-academic’ readings that twentieth century writers, like Ezra POUND or Jorge Luis BORGES, will make of the classical and medieval latin
literature.

L'article analyse les conceptions du symbolisme phonétique dans les écrits des auteurs symbolistes francophones (S. Mallarmé, R. Ghil, A. Mockel, entre autres) qui ont influencé les paradygmes phono-sémantiques dans le premier théâtre de M. Maeterlinck. Par ailleurs, une analyse du drame maeterlinckien « Les Sept Princesses » d'après les recherches contemporaines dans le domaine du symbolisme phonétique est effectuée.

The essay investigates Siegfried Bing’s (1838–1905) connections with Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933). After traveling to America in 1894, Bing succeeded in obtaining exclusive rights to Tiffany’s works in Europe. On that occasion, the German-born, Paris-based art merchant convinced Tiffany to make eleven stained-glass windows for Bing’s showroom after the cartoons designed by some of the most outstanding painters of the Nabis group: Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Henri-Gabriel Ibels, Ker-Xavier Roussel, Paul Sérusier, Félix Vallotton, Edouard Vuillard, Albert Besnard, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and the designers P.A. Isaac-Dathis
and Eugène Grasset. This essay reconsiders contents and contexts of such commissions: the role of Bing as patron and dealer, not only in terms of marketing strategies and opportunities but also in the broadest analysis of his promotion of modern style in Europe. Artists’ ideas and iconographies
are discussed as a coherent attempt of "œuvre d’art totale" and related to poetics and politics proper of French symbolism, thus connecting visual and iconographical imagery in stained glass.

This volume on the relationships between decadent literature and anthropology in late 19th- and early 20th-century Europe studies the unnoticed connection between, on the one hand, a purposeless and ephemeral beauty, and, on the other hand, the disinterestedness and the spontaneity ascribed by anthropologists to the ceremonial expenditure of “primitive” civilizations. The book highlights how, in those two apparently opposed discourses, prodigality and uselessness challenge the Western cult of profit by working in two directions: beauty is a form of lavishness, and lavishness is a source of beauty. An innovative theoretical and cultural framework at the crossroads of aesthetics, anthropology, and philosophy allows me to reexamine the works of O. Wilde, G. D’Annunzio, and J.-K. Huysmans, and to claim the crucial role of neglected authors like Paolo Mantegazza and Vernon Lee in what I trace as the emergence of a proto-theorization of gift-exchange in the European fin de siècle culture. The pervasiveness of symbolic economy in those writers establishes a new dynamic relationship between decadence and modernism, and also exposes the limits of the allegedly disinterested forms of expenditure that will soon lure the modernists to go “primitive”.

Paul Bourget (1852−1935) ha sido el maestro secreto de un amplio conjunto de intelectuales – Nietzsche, Thomas y Heinrich Mann, Hofmannsthal, Gide, Henry James, D’Annunzio, etc. – atentos a las ambigüedades y tensiones de la modernidad (ante todo la decadencia y el avance del nihilismo), que encontraron en estos ensayos un diagnóstico lúcido y penetrante de la enfermedad del alma europea, efectuado a partir de los signos visibles en el gran cuerpo de la literatura francesa del siglo XIX.
Las obras de Baudelaire, Renan, Taine, Flaubert y Stendhal se presentan aquí como diversos y elocuentes sistemas de síntomas, atentamente examinados e interpretados con miras a detectar las múltiples tendencias de una cultura que a fines del s. XIX parecía amenazada de disolución y muerte.
La edición (la única en nuestra lengua) se completa con las variantes de la segunda edición a pie de página, un indispensable estudio introductorio de Giuliano Campioni,  un aparato de notas al texto y un apartado biobibliográfico sobre Paul Bourget a cargo de Francesca Manno.-

The article from the exhibition catalogue "The Russian Landscape
Large-scale overview of Russian landscape painting".

The Groningen Museum, 13 december 2003 - 02 may 2004

The National Gallery in London (as "Russian Landscape in the Age of Tolstoy"), 23 June-12 September 2004

"Moreau sait tout": with these words, Edgar Degas, a pupil (much less heterodox than one might expect) of Moreau and his traveling companion in Italy in 1858, addressed respectfully to the older master. He referred to his extensive knowledge and to his solitary and yet hard studies carried out in his family library. Even after many years since his death, some of his pupils still dreamt on the extent and nature of this library, mysterious and inaccessible to most people and yet, in all evidence, privileged place for the artist’s education.
After a preliminary survey proposed in 1978 by Pierre-Louis Mathieu, director of Moreau's home-museum in Paris, only occasionally scholars returned to discuss these sources and make Moreau’s painting dialogue with the volumes of his library: an insidious matter, indeed, full of unknowns and outcomes often little guarded, but generously fruitful if carried out through the filter of a strict visual and textual philology.
The most recent literature on Moreau attempted a systematic survey of the sources at the basis of his painting: the bibliographic and artistic collections of his home turned out fundamental instruments and a renewed key of interpretation of his work was thus possible. From ancient history to mythology, from Renaissance theatre to encyclopaedists of the Enlightenment, from travel writing to devotional books, from novels to contemporary poetry, the French master’s oeuvre has been enhanced with new reading hypothesis, now supported by documents or by cryptic or otherwise explicit references to authors and texts transcribed in the artist's notebooks. Through a selection of key-examples, one will attempt to show how the artist's reading oriented his poetics and politics, directing his gaze and acting more often as a sounding board, a way to sediment and rework positions long-meditated and returned, in form of painting, to the public debate in France during the Second Empire first and the Third Republic afterwards.

Alexandre Séon  (1855-1917) compte parmi les meilleurs disciples de Puvis de Chavannes. Figure du mouvement symboliste, il se singularise par son intérêt tout particulier pour les théories néo-impressionnistes. Proche de Seurat, partisan du symbolisme des lignes et des couleurs, il pratique un certain divisionnisme mais l'associe à l'héritage de Puvis, tentant durant un court moment la synthèse entre néo-impressionnisme et attachement à la ligne, dans une veine idéaliste que nourrit la proxiité avec l'entreprise rosicrucienne de Joséphin Példan. Après la mort de Seurat, le critique Alphonse Germain, propose Alexandre Séon comme son "successeur" naturel au moment où le néo-impressionnisme cherche une nouvelle voie.

Für die Edition des tschechischen Texts dieser zweisprachigen Ausgabe wurde erstmals das Manuskript herbeigezogen, das teilweise aktueller ist als die Erstausgabe. So konnten u.a. Setzfehler der Erstausgabe erstmals korrigiert werden.
Karel Hlaváček (1874–1898), der oft mit Karel Hynek Mácha verglichen wurde, starb mit 23 Jahren an Tuberkulose und gehört neben Otokar Březina und Antonín Sova zu den drei großen tschechischen symbolistischen Dichtern. Außerdem war er Maler und Graphiker. Seine zweite Lyriksammlung "Spät gegen Morgen" verhalf ihm zum Durchbruch. Hlaváčeks Gedichte bestechen teils durch eine äußerst suggestive Klangsprache, teils durch eine gewisse neugierige Jugendlichkeit. — Zugleich scheinen Hlaváčeks Phantasien von Weltuntergang und Machtlosigkeit heutzutage besonders aktuell zu sein.
Der einflussreiche Surrealist Vítězslav Nezval schätzte Hlaváček sehr, besonders für dessen von irrationalen Bildern geprägte Gedichte "Ich lasse die Viola in der tiefsten Stimmung klingen" ("Svou violu jsem naladil co možno nejhlouběji) und "Es spielte wer Oboe" ("Hrál kdosi na hoboj").
Hlaváčeks Sammlung "Spät gegen Morgen" gleicht Variationen auf ein bedrohliches Ende der Nacht, auf ein Ende der Angst, das bedrohlicher wirkt als die Angst selbst, auf das Ende eines Traums, aus dem man all seinen Schrecken zum Trotz nicht erwachen will, weil er ja auch schön ist. Die Düsternis ist stets auch ironisch und lustvoll.
Der Band enthält neben der Sammlung einen Anhang mit Vergleichsgedichten (Edouard Dubus, Paul Verlaine, Otokar Březina), Hlaváčeks bisher unpubliziertem Gedicht "Pubertät" und seinem berühmten "Es spielte wer Oboe…". Nicht zuletzt enthält der Band Reproduktionen von Hlaváčeks bildnerischen Werken.
Das Nachwort widmet sich u.a. dem dekadenten Programm der Zeitschrift "Moderní Revue", analysiert Hlaváčeks Prosagedichte, von denen eines ("Subtilnost smutku" / "Subtilität der Trauer") Franz Kafkas "Verwandlung" vorwegnimmt, und es bietet nicht zuletzt Überlegungen zu Hlaváčeks "politischer Dekadenz" in dessen Essay "Nationalismus und Internationalismus" ("Nationalism a Internationalism").

Серебряный век был богат на дискурсы. В этой статье речь пойдет о дискурсе приятия вещного мира, разрабатывавшемся Кузминым, протоакмеистом, и двумя акмеистами – Мандельштамом и Ахматовой. Он возник в том числе на отталкивании от более раннего – символистского – способа говорения о вещной составляющей мира, в котором материальность вещей и три измерения подавались со знаком «минус». С одной стороны, каждый из трех рассматриваемых поэтов предложил свое видение и художественную подачу вещного мира (и в статье прослеживается, в чем они состояли), с другой же, Кузмин повлиял на Мандельштама и особенно Ахматову (в статье приводятся показательные переклички).

На фоне Кузмина и Ахматовой хорошо видно, чем уникальна мандельштамовская трактовка вещей. К ним применяется концептуальный сценарий, который можно назвать «de rerum natura» [о природе (вещей)]: в поэтическом нарративе, посвященном тому или иному объекту, выявляются его наиболее репрезентативные черты, осмысляется его имя, сам он или его имя вставляются в культурную парадигму и показывается его восприятие лирическим «я». Из этих элементов, проходящих через метафоризацию и всевозможные риторические фигуры, складывается увлекательный текст. Стихотворений об отдельных предметах, птицах, растениях, городах и т. д. у Мандельштама много, и большинство из них выдержаны в традициях французского символизма, полученных как напрямую, так и через посредство Анненского, еще одного поэта вещной тематики. Начав с символизма русского образца, Мандельштам в 1912–1914 гг. побыл акмеистом, а дальше примирил акмеистическую вещность с символистским дискурсом французских поэтов – прежде всего, Бодлера.

Исследование в полном виде в 2017 году вышло в сб. "Эткиндовские чтения" - см. раздел "Papers in Russian/ Статьи по-русски".

The purpose of this critical study is to examine the young Hugo von Hofmannsthal's theory of form departing from the characterization that Kurt Breysig provides of his poetry as Treibhauskunst, that is, greenhouse art. It aims also to illustrate how Hofmannsthal finds in the theoretical developments of Gottfried Semper the most precise expression of his own concept of form. The main point of the paper is to show that, at the turn of the twentieth century, the metaphorization and the figuration of the greenhouse derives from its architectural features both formal means and aesthetic attributes closely linked to moral values.

During the second half of the nineteenth century, painters and writers closely contributed with
each other, the first ones producing works inspired on literary texts, the second ones practicing art criticism. Such is the case of Joris-Karl Huysmans, who, in 1883, gave to be printed a compilation of critical essays in which he dedicated remarkable passages to the works of the symbolist
painter Gustave Moreau. A year later, Huysmans published his novel À rebours, where he took up again literally some extracts from these essays. This article focuses in such superposition and upholds the hypothesis that Huysmans, in À rebours, presents the project of a pure critic, that is,
a critical speech that in spite of having as immediate object an specific work of art, seeks to dissociate itself from this subsidiary condition and raise itself to the category of artwork. Huysmans’ ambition is outlined in different identifications and appropriations, and it places the problem of representation in the spotlight, in the novel of the second half of the nineteenth century as well as in art criticism, as a problem of the relations between different sign systems (word/image), the diverse levels of relations between the speeches (the one concerning critic/the fictional one) and in reference to what is represented.

En 1915 Yeats confie à son ami Ernest Boyd : "Je n'ai jamais eu une connaissance précise ou détaillée des symbolistes français" ("Of the French Symbolists I have never had any detailed or acurate knowledge"). Et pourtant Yeats fut lecteur et amateur des "pères" du Symbolisme français : Verlaine, Mallarmé ou Villiers de L'Isle-Adam. C'est donc tout naturellement que le lecteur est en droit de s'interroger sur ce lien visible mais apparemment nié qu'entretint Yeats avec le symbolisme français.

Like the fate of the Symbolist Idealists in France, Elisabeth Sonrel’s work is neglected today. When occasionally appearing in artist biographies, she is described as a student of Jules Lefebre under whom she studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. While the technical, academic training would serve her well throughout her long career, she gravitated toward the more evocative explorations of Symbolism, particularly that of the French Symbolist Idealists.
She exhibited at the Salon des Artistes français in Paris from 1893 to 1941, especially large watercolors that drew inspiration the Florentine Quattrocento, particularly Botticelli. She was awarded a commendation in 1883, a third-class medal in 1895, and a bronze medal in 1900 at the Exposition Universelle. She also won the Henri Lehmann Prize, awarded by the Institut de France.  Her painting Le Sommeil de la Vierge (1895) was widely known through reproductions, and appeared in the Expostion Universelle in 1900 and her work was shown in Liverpool. The collections at Musée des Beaux-Arts, Mulhouse and  Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tours include her work.

Sonrel’s paintings of women, evoking a lost harmony of a past golden age, engage the subjectivity dear to her male Symbolist Idealist counterparts -- where atmospheric, dream-like, images of women intensely engage the beholder’s subjectivity by invoking indeterminate associations of beauty that invite a metaphysical encounter with a transcendent ideal. Such an ideal recalls Benjamin’s reading Baudelaire, where symbolic associations or correspondences invoke an ideal that draws modern consciousness traumatized by modern urban life toward a fleeting sense of reintegration and wholeness.
Even though her work engages these Symbolist motives, it bears the hallmarks of a distinct feminine subjectivity. Her ideal images of women do not eroticize or defeminize her figures, unlike her male counterparts. It may be this embodiment that enabled her work to move fluidly between strongly symbolist motives to the more decorative motives of art nouveau. This paper will trace how Sonrel’s pictures express feminine embodiment in late nineteenth century French Symbolism and the more international movement, Art Nouveau.

Het totaalkunstwerk als ideaal was een streven naar de oneindigheid, een oplossing van alle dichotomieën van het moderne tijdsgewricht in een herstel van verloren gegane eenheden: tussen verleden en heden, tussen heden en toekomst, tussen lichaam en geest, tussen de verschillende kunsten, tussen de verschillende zintuigen, tussen het aardse en het hemelse, het menselijke en het goddelijke, tussen subject en object en tussen de kunstenaar en het publiek, de mensheid.  Het totaalkunstwerk (de vereenzelviging van alle kunsten) is dus een product van de wil van de kunstenaar, de wil tot verlossing van het individu en verlichting van de wereld; het is de veruiterlijking van een onbewuste drang. Schilderkunst, muziek, poëzie en alle andere kunsten moeten vereenzelvigd worden om een oerervaring te bewerkstelligen: het gevoel van eenheid met het Al, in een poging al de als vervreemdend ervaren dualiteiten van de moderne wereld te overbruggen. Wellicht is met het afsluiten van het modernistisch project ook het streven naar het totaalkunstwerk irrelevant geworden.

В статье анализируются особенности функционирования текстовых концептов в поэтическом творчестве классика бельгийской франкоязычной литературы Шарля Ван Лерберга (сборники стихотворений "Меж-видье", "Песня Евы", а также произведения, публиковавшиеся в периодике, автографы). Выделяются элементы традиции и новаторства авторской концептосферы в контексте других франкоязычных символистских авторских картин мира.

“Quattrocento Florence, the Artist’s of the Soul, and Adorno’s Concept of Aura”

In the 1890s in France numerous symbolist painters turned to fifteenth-century Florentine art as a source of inspiration.  This tendency was influenced by the idealism of Joséphin Péladan and G.-Albert Aurier, who conceived of a soul inhabiting early Italian painting which was able to commune with the beholder.  The paper considers this concept in several paintings and drawings by Armand Point, using Theodor Adorno’s concept of auratic receptivity as an interpretative lens.  Auratic receptivity occurs for Adorno when the gaze surrenders to something ‘far away.’  A close consideration of the elements enabling this unique kind of aesthetic experience operates well to show how Point’s aesthetic “surrender” to the past was calculated to undermine materialism and positivism and to reawaken human consciousness toward a transcendent sense of integration and unity in the face of social fragmentation and alienation which were the hallmarks of urban experience in nineteenth-century Paris. 
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Abstract in inglese: Between 1820 and 1846 the mime actor Jean-Gaspard Deburau was Pierrot in the Parisian Théâtre des nambules. His reckless and impassable acting style was read as a new poetic and dramatic pattern by two generations of poets.