A SYMBOL in the literature of modern times is a multi-valued, fundamentally inexhaustible allegorical image, excluding only absolutely opposite interpretations, hinting at certain world entities that cannot be adequately defined in words. The stranger in the poem by A.A. Blok is a symbol of unfulfilled hopes for the triumph of Eternal Femininity, the embodiment of some new secrets, a dream that replaces reality, an image of beauty among ugliness, and in general almost everything that associations can suggest.
A symbol, being at least an element of the semantics of a literary text, and not just a verbal allegory, at the same time can be partially expressed in verbal allegories. So, the sail in the poem of the same name by Lermontov is a romantic symbol of a restless soul that does not accept peace and even happiness. Behind it is the opposition of the present world and the imaginary world, irresistibly attracting with its mystery (hence the questions in “Sail”, in fact, excluding any unambiguous answer). However, the central image of the poem “can be interpreted both as a metonymy (someone in a boat is a sail), and as a synecdoche (a sail is a boat), and as a metaphor (someone in the sea of life is a sail)”.
Symbols are used not only in non-realistic art systems, but also in realism. Realistic symbols are, for example, a water ball that Pierre Bezukhov dreamed of, formed by many flowing and spreading drops (a symbol of relations between all people of the world and life in general), in “War and Peace” by L.N. Tolstoy or the cherry orchard at A.P. Chekhov, an image that symbolizes both the outgoing way of local life, and a profitable enterprise for new business people, and all of Russia as a field of activity for the young generation, and much more. At the end of the story, I.A. Bunin’s “The Gentleman from San Francisco”, a symbolic image of the Devil appears, giving the work as a whole a certain infernal shade; in particular, the image of a huge ship bearing the name of the disappeared Atlantis is animated and in turn becomes a symbol. But a symbolic work is not necessarily symbolist.
Often, symbolic and related works are interpreted in a simplified way, as allegorical, for example, Pushkin's "Prophet" is considered an allegory of the poet's purpose and fate. The creation of a poem with Pushkin's biography is really connected. The surviving version of The Prophet was written after his release from Mikhailov's exile, immediately after a long conversation with Nicholas I, a conversation that then inspired great hopes in the poet and inspired him. However, V.F. Khodasevich noted: “The Prophet is by no means a self-portrait and not a portrait of a poet in general. Pushkin had other, much more modest ideas about the poet, corresponding to the difference between prophetic and poetic standing before God. Pushkin portrayed the poet in "The Poet" and not in "The Prophet". Knowing very well that a poet is sometimes more insignificant than the most insignificant children of the world, Pushkin recognized himself as a great poet, but did not in the least claim to be the “important rank” of a prophet” (review “Pushkin’s Lot”, article by Father S.N. Bulgakov). Indeed, The Prophet is written directly about the prophet, not about the poet. And yet Khodasevich is too categorical. Not identifying the poet and the prophet, Pushkin could see something akin to a prophetic feat in a poetic vocation, and in any worthy human behavior and deed. “Prophet” is characterized by symbolic ambiguity.
Symbolism (from the French word "symbolisme") is one of the largest trends in art (literature, painting, music), it arose in France in the 70-80s of the XIX century, and reached its peak in France, Belgium and Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century. Under the influence of this trend, many types of art have radically changed their form and content, changing the very attitude towards them. The followers of the symbolist movement, first of all, extolled the primacy of the use of symbols in art, their work was characterized by a mystical fog, a plume of mystery and mystery, the works are full of hints and understatement. The purpose of art in the concept of adherents of symbolism is the comprehension of the surrounding world at an intuitive, spiritual level of perception through symbols, which is the only correct reflection of its true essence.
For the first time, the term "symbolism" appeared in world literature and art in the manifesto of the same name by the French poet Jean Moréas "Le Symbolisme" (Figaro newspaper, 1886), which proclaimed its basic principles and ideas. The principles of the ideas of symbolism are vividly and fully reflected in the work of such famous French poets as Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, Stéphane Mallarmé and Lautreamont.
Poetic art at the beginning of the 20th century, which was in a state of decline and had lost its energy, former strength and bright creativity due to the defeat of the ideas of revolutionary populism, urgently needed to be revived. Symbolism as a literary trend was formed as a protest against the impoverishment of the poetic power of the word, created in order to return strength and energy to poetry, to pour new, fresh words and sound into it.
The beginning of Russian symbolism, which is also considered the beginning of the Silver Age of Russian poetry, is associated with the appearance of an article by the poet, writer and literary critic Dmitry Merezhkovsky "On the Causes of Decline and New Trends in Modern Russian Literature" (1892). And although symbolism originated in Europe, it was in Russia that it reached its peak and the Russian symbolist poets brought their original sound and something completely new, which was absent from its founders, to it.
Russian symbolists did not differ in unity of views, they did not have a common concept of artistic understanding of the reality around them, they were scattered and disunited. The only thing that united them was their unwillingness to use simple, ordinary words in their works, their worship of symbols, the use of metaphors and allegories.
Literary researchers distinguish two stages in the formation of Russian symbolism, which differ in time and in the worldview concepts of symbolist poets.
The senior symbolists who began their literary activity in the 90s of the XIX century include the works of Konstantin Balmont, Valery Bryusov, Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Fyodor Sologub, Zinaida Gippius, for them the poet was the creator of exclusively artistic and spiritual personal values.
The founder of the St. Petersburg symbolist movement is Dmitry Merezhkovsky, his works written in the spirit of symbolism: the collection "New Poems" (1896), "Collected Poems" (1909). His work differs from other symbolist poets in that he expresses in it not his personal experiences and feelings, as Andrei Bely or Alexander Blok did, but the general mood, feelings of hope, sadness or joy of the whole society.
The most radical and striking representative of the early symbolists is the St. Petersburg poet Alexander Dobrolyubov, who was distinguished not only by his poetic work (a collection of innovative poetry "Natura naturans. Natura naturata" - "nature is generating. Nature is generated"), but by a decadent way of life, the creation of a folk religious sects of "volunteers".
The creator of his own separate poetic world, standing apart from the entire modernist trend in literature, is the poet Fyodor Sologub. His work is distinguished by such a bright eccentricity and ambiguity that there are still no single correct interpretations and explanations of the symbols and images he created. Sologub's works are imbued with the spirit of mysticism, mystery and loneliness, they both shock and attract close attention, not letting go until the last line: the poem "Loneliness", the prose epic "Night Dew", the novel "Small Demon", the poems "Devil's Swing", " One-eyed dashing."
The most impressive and vivid, full of musical sound and amazing melody were the poems of the poet Konstantin Balmont, a symbolist of the early school. In search of a correspondence between the semantic sounding, color and sound transmission of the image, he created unique semantic-sound texts-music. In them, he used such a phonetic means of enhancing artistic expressiveness as sound writing, used bright adjectives instead of verbs, creating his original poetic masterpieces, which, in the opinion of his ill-wishers, were practically meaningless: poetry collections “This is Me”, “Masterpieces”, “Romances without words”, the books “Third Guard”, “To the City and the World”, “Wreath”, “All Melodies”.
The younger symbolists, whose activity dates back to the beginning of the 20th century, are Vyacheslav Ivanov, Alexander Blok, Andrei Bely, Sergei Solovyov, Innokenty Annensky, Jurgis Baltrushaitis. This second wave of this literary trend was also called Young Symbolism. A new stage in the development of the history of symbolism coincides with the rise of the revolutionary movement in Russia, decadent pessimism and disbelief in the future are replaced by a premonition of imminent inevitable changes.
The young followers of the poet Vladimir Solovyov, who saw the world on the verge of death and said that it would be saved by divine beauty, in which the heavenly life principle would unite with the earthly one, thought about the purpose of poetry in the world around us, the place of the poet in developing historical events, the connection between the intelligentsia and the people . In the works of Alexander Blok (the poem "The Twelve") and Andrei Bely, one feels a premonition of impending, turbulent changes, an imminent catastrophe that will shake the foundations of the existing society and lead to a crisis of humanistic ideas.
It is with symbolism that the creativity, main themes and images of poetic lyrics (World Soul, Beautiful Lady, Eternal Femininity) of the outstanding Russian poet of the Silver Age Alexander Blok are connected. The influence of this literary trend and the poet's personal experiences (feelings for his wife Lyuba Mendeleeva) make his work mystical and mysterious, isolated and detached from the world. His poems, imbued with the spirit of mystery and riddles, are distinguished by ambiguity, which is achieved through the use of blurry and obscure images, fuzziness and uncertainty, the use of bright colors and colors is rejected, only shades and half-hints.
The end of the first decade of the 20th century was marked by the decline of the Symbolist movement, new names no longer appear, although individual works are still being created by the Symbolists. Symbolism as a literary trend had a huge impact on the formation and development of poetic art at the beginning of the 20th century; with its masterpieces of poetic literature, it not only significantly enriched world art, but also contributed to the expansion of the consciousness of all mankind.
A SYMBOL in the literature of modern times is a multi-valued, fundamentally inexhaustible allegorical image, excluding only absolutely opposite interpretations, hinting at certain world entities that cannot be adequately defined in words. The stranger in the poem by A.A. Blok is a symbol of unfulfilled hopes for the triumph of Eternal Femininity, the embodiment of some new secrets, a dream that replaces reality, an image of beauty among ugliness, and in general almost everything that associations can suggest.
A symbol, being at least an element of the semantics of a literary text, and not just a verbal allegory, at the same time can be partially expressed in verbal allegories. So, the sail in the poem of the same name by Lermontov is a romantic symbol of a restless soul that does not accept peace and even happiness. Behind it is the opposition of the present world and the imaginary world, irresistibly attracting with its mystery (hence the questions in “Sail”, in fact, excluding any unambiguous answer). However, the central image of the poem “can be interpreted both as a metonymy (someone in a boat is a sail), and as a synecdoche (a sail is a boat), and as a metaphor (someone in the sea of life is a sail)”.
Symbols are used not only in non-realistic art systems, but also in realism. Realistic symbols are, for example, a water ball that Pierre Bezukhov dreamed of, formed by many flowing and spreading drops (a symbol of relations between all people of the world and life in general), in “War and Peace” by L.N. Tolstoy or the cherry orchard at A.P. Chekhov, an image that symbolizes both the outgoing way of local life, and a profitable enterprise for new business people, and all of Russia as a field of activity for the young generation, and much more. At the end of the story, I.A. Bunin’s “The Gentleman from San Francisco”, a symbolic image of the Devil appears, giving the work as a whole a certain infernal shade; in particular, the image of a huge ship bearing the name of the disappeared Atlantis is animated and in turn becomes a symbol. But a symbolic work is not necessarily symbolist.
Often, symbolic and related works are interpreted in a simplified way, as allegorical, for example, Pushkin's "Prophet" is considered an allegory of the poet's purpose and fate. The creation of a poem with Pushkin's biography is really connected. The surviving version of The Prophet was written after his release from Mikhailov's exile, immediately after a long conversation with Nicholas I, a conversation that then inspired great hopes in the poet and inspired him. However, V.F. Khodasevich noted: “The Prophet is by no means a self-portrait and not a portrait of a poet in general. Pushkin had other, much more modest ideas about the poet, corresponding to the difference between prophetic and poetic standing before God. Pushkin portrayed the poet in "The Poet" and not in "The Prophet". Knowing very well that a poet is sometimes more insignificant than the most insignificant children of the world, Pushkin recognized himself as a great poet, but did not in the least claim to be the “important rank” of a prophet” (review “Pushkin’s Lot”, article by Father S.N. Bulgakov). Indeed, The Prophet is written directly about the prophet, not about the poet. And yet Khodasevich is too categorical. Not identifying the poet and the prophet, Pushkin could see something akin to a prophetic feat in a poetic vocation, and in any worthy human behavior and deed. “Prophet” is characterized by symbolic ambiguity.
SYMBOLS OF SPACE: CENTER
We managed to get acquainted with many of the most influential groups of symbols that came into fiction from the depths of mythology, ritual, religion, folklore. These are the symbols of "one's own" - "foreign" space, and the symbolism of the other world, and the symbolism of the border and contact.
It's time to talk about the most "strong", significant and powerful of the symbolic groups - the symbolism of the center.
To begin with, let's ask ourselves the question: what is common between an oak in an open field (from epics and folk songs) and the fabulous hut of Baba Yaga? Between the hearth in the ancestral dwellings of the Slavs (and even the predecessors of the Slavs, people of the Trypillian culture) and the "cramped stove" in which "fire beats" (from the famous song of the war years "Dugout" by A. Surkov)? Between the "alatyr stone" of pagan conspiracies, the abode of the owners of diseases and misfortunes (but also happiness-share, and love luck), and the throne in the altar of the Christian church, and the gospel Mount Golgotha in Jerusalem? Between Koshchei the Immortal in his palace and Stalin in his office, all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful, according to the neo-mythology of those years?
The common thing is that all of these are symbols of the center.
Formed in the depths of primitive mythological consciousness (even at the "dawn of myth"), the symbolism of the center passed through the era of paganism. In a new capacity, it was embodied in subsequent world religions (for Europe - in Christianity, for other regions - in Islam or Buddhism). Survived the rationalistic age of the Enlightenment. It did not perish under the pressure of the pragmatic and "anti-symbolic" positivism of the 19th century. And, as if avenging itself, it suddenly flared up violently in the 20th century: in neo-myths and neo-symbols of revolutions, civil and world wars, totalitarian regimes, but also liberation movements. Seemingly ethereal and fragile, the symbol turned out (almost according to Horace) to be stronger than copper monuments and stone pyramids, more durable than political regimes and economic formations.
Where did this powerful symbolism of the center begin?
As archaeologists and paleoanthropologists (specialists in the ancient history of man) have proved, there was a "centerless" era in this history. The time when people could neither define nor depict - in cave paintings, in "endless" chain, so-called. cumulative conspiracies, lullabies, fairy tales (such as "Turnip", "Teremka", "Kolobok") - the central event or the central character. And the symbolism of the center did not yet ripen in literature (which did not exist), not in folklore, not even in “specialized mythology and religion. All these are forms of consciousness, much later. It ripened in the symbolization of the environment itself, “living life”.
There is a hypothesis that such a "proto-symbol", the proto-symbol of the center could be an animal's hole or a bird's nest. They are located approximately in the middle of "their" natural zone, which means that they are equally spaced from the borders, from "foreign" space and therefore the safest. However, this is also the beginning of the symbolism of the middle, and the middle is not yet the center. In order to become the center, the focus of magical properties and sacred powers, the middle had to contain some unusually important, especially "marked" object.
Most likely, it was fire: the sacred one that a person first learned to maintain and then kindle. The fire "gathered" ritual actions around itself, became the giver of life, but also of death (sacrifice), and its keepers joined through it the most important quality for the ancients - magical power.
The second of the likely prototypes of the center is a tree: a symbol of the growth and universal connection of all things (heaven - earth - the underworld), the breadwinner and support of "one's own" space, from dwellings (pillar) to the entire "land of people" (the World Tree in the myths of various peoples). Ceremonies are also grouped around the tree, and sacrifices are made on or under it.
Accordingly, the center became the place of leaders and princes, kings and kings. The place of the elders - the wise men of the family, the sorcerers and prophets, shamans and priests. And in parallel, the reverse symbolic process was going on. Every thing, every animal, bird, person, every plant or luminary, revered as the oldest, most powerful, prolific, most valuable and influential, had to be in the center. There was their rightful place, for it was fit only for them.
Having comprehended this symbolic logic, it is not difficult to translate the symbolism of the center, for example, into the language of astral symbolism. The heavenly center of myths, legends, tales will be the sun, the month or the North Star. Let's translate the symbolism of the center into the earthly landscape and get (except for the "main" tree) the "main" mountain or river of a given people, but if we move into a "tamed", "humanized" space, the stove in the house (originally - the hearth) will take over the supreme functions ) and then the table that replaced it. The central altar and the altar, around which the pagan temple was first built, then the temple. And around it is the central square of the village (later - the city), with its statue of a deity, which evolved into a statue of a king, emperor, commander, and even later - a politician.
And it was enough for a red or gold color to absorb the symbolism of vitality, light, beauty, so that these colors - in accordance with the steady laws of mythological and symbolic thinking - immediately moved to the center. They became the golden horn of the "prince"-month in conspiracies, the golden rejuvenating apples in fairy tales, the golden hair of Perun, but also the golden halo of Christian saints, the royal crown and golden domes of churches (remember the "golden-domed" Moscow), the golden spire of the Admiralty needle of St. Petersburg.
And the togas of the Roman emperors, the boots of the Byzantine rulers, but also the attire and shoes of the "heavenly Queen", the Mother of God, will become red. Red - festive shirts, sundresses, scarlet embroidered ribbon - the "red beauty" of the bride in Russian folklore - and Red Square of the same Moscow, where "the earth is all round" (O. Mandelstam), that is, where the center and peak are located, as it were throughout "his" universe. That is why banners, banners, banners, standards, coats of arms are painted with red and gold colors.
So historically, sociologically, a huge difference lies between Pavel Vlasov with a red banner at a demonstration ("Mother" by M. Gorky), the Young Guards hoisting the same banner over the occupied Krasnodon (A. Fadeev's novel) and the youngest daughter of a merchant from a folk tale (processed by S. Aksakov): the one that seeks and protects the scarlet flower. But in the depths of the symbolic logic of behavior there is no impassable abyss between these characters. They all seek and establish their sacred center.
The change of center for any culture was an event of great importance, which determined its entire life. She, this change, meant the emergence of new peoples, a change in the state system, the birth of a new religion, the promotion of a new estate to the role of the dominant one, a cardinal shift in spiritual, moral, worldview attitudes.
Literary works, as part of culture, also build their plot and philosophical space in reference to the center (or centers). The center may be indicated explicitly or implicitly. It can be set immediately or show up gradually. But in any artistic text there is a center and it is certainly connected with the highest values and the deepest meanings of this work as a model of the world. If it is absent, the absence of the center is also always significant (see below).
Therefore, to answer the question: what is the "world" of this or that work, what forces, values, imperatives, authorities govern this world? - it is impossible until we determine how its space is built relative to the center.
There may be several options here. Monocentric space: there is one generally significant symbolic center in the text. Then before us is a world of indestructible spiritual, ethnic, political, national foundations. This world can be attacked from without - it cannot be destroyed from within. The center in it will always be "its own" center: a shrine, which is protected by "their" heroes, protagonist heroes. The "alien" world will be perceived and portrayed as centerless: chaos, be it natural, social or spiritual chaos.
Such is the world of heroic sagas or epics of Kievan Rus, where Kyiv is not just the capital, but the center of the world, and Prince Vladimir ("owner of the world) is the "red sun" of this earthly cosmos. On the other hand, such are the lives of the saints, where God and his "earthly abodes": a temple, a monastery, a skete - outposts of the spirit, enlightening and ordering the chaos of malice, temptations and passions.
However, "one's own" center is not something easily accessible. Since it is a place that is extremely "holy", you can't easily get into it. Admission to it requires - even for - a huge effort: the feat of a hero, the initiation of a ruler, the asceticism of a sage. For Christianity, however, merging with such a center on this side of life is generally achievable only "in the spirit." This is how a single super-plot is born and varies in hundreds of plots of world literature: the search for a center.
Both protagonist heroes ("good" characters) and antagonist characters ("bad" characters) can search for it, the latter in order to forcibly seize, appropriate, and destroy this center. The achievement of the center by the protagonist heroes brings them familiarity with mystery or wisdom, gaining well-deserved power, success in love and a happy marriage, in general, physical and spiritual maturation and transformation. Therefore, it means a happy and final denouement of the plot.
But if the antagonist heroes reach the center, it means something exactly the opposite. Firstly, this event is the most dramatic and blasphemous: the profane, strangers, defilers, enemies penetrate into the center. Secondly, such an event cannot fundamentally become the final denouement, otherwise the world of the work would fall into chaos. Therefore, the breakthrough of the antagonists to the center is a false denouement, followed by a true denouement: their expulsion (flight, etc.) from the sacred Center, or at least a hint of the inevitability of this in the future.
The culmination and finale of Pushkin's The Bronze Horseman are amazingly subtle and complex in this regard. The owner of the culminating space, "Peter's Square", as if alone - the Bronze Horseman. It is here, in front of him, that Eugene solves the mystery of his tragedy and the tragedy of the flooded city: it is here that he, a living person, is defeated by a copper idol. But the story doesn't end there. The last space of the poem is the "small island", where there are no idols, but only the eternal land and sea; Eugene's last refuge is the threshold of his beloved's house and the return to eternity, when the hero was "buried for God's sake" (the final words of the poem)...
Dualistic space: not one, but two centers of influence are found in the text. These can be centers of two magical forces, divine and demonic, centers of the human and inhuman (wonderful, natural) worlds, centers of good and, conversely, evil, centers of two different peoples, states, estates, the center is a city and the center is a village, etc. One thing is essential: that they oppose each other as center to center, and not as a centric, organized space to "wild" chaos.
If the centers complement each other (that is, they are different qualitatively, but not evaluatively), then moving the character from center to center brings good results. The hero discovers a "different" world, brings valuable knowledge, properties, gifts from there, and brings a bride. This happens with Sadko at the sea king, with Afanasy Nikitin "beyond the three seas", with the heroes of F. Cooper in the Indian world, with the prince-husband of the fabulous Vasilisa the Wise, or with the inhabitants of two earthly civilizations of the future in A. Clark's novel "The City and the Stars" .
However, if the centers are conceived as antagonistic, the heroes' journey to the anti-center will always be deadly (physically or spiritually) and most often stolen. Heroes-protagonists are kidnapped, or they are given an assignment, or they have to find, release and return a character from "their" world, who was captured by a "foreign" world. Many genres of mass literature are built on this model: detective stories, "spy" novels, horror novels, etc. However, in Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, the cell of the elder Zosima and the house of Karamazov the father will become two epicenters of spiritual confrontation (and plot fight) .
Centerless space: there is no center in any space within the work. Then one should check: is the center absent temporarily or permanently?
The temporary absence of a center creates a special "carnival" space: a territory where - again, temporarily - chaos has invaded, where the norms and forms of "correct" being have been abolished. Usually such is the space of borderline "times and dates" when the "old" existence, its hierarchy of forces and values has come to an end, and the new has not yet been established. It is in this gap of being that the centerless extra-normative world reigns. The plot of such works is the stabilization of the world order, the search for a new or the resurrection of the old center, which completes the successful struggle against chaos and evil.
It was this space that was symbolized by New Year's and Maslenitsa mummers, Kupala games (the turning point of summer), the Western European eve of All Saints' Day (the turning point of autumn). In general, the ritual origins of comedy lie here: every comedy is an imitation of chaos and a comic victory over it.
However, the absence of a center, the centerlessness of the universe can be taken as the usual state of affairs. Then we get into a "mad, mad, mad world". He can take on the appearance of a mad world in the literal sense: the space of illness, delirium, nightmare, madness. It can become a world of "silent madness": meaningless service, daily routine, self-absorbed consumerism.
Since, in millennial cultural traditions, a person has learned to combine the concept of higher values and goals (and not even an abstract concept, but a passionate experience of them) with the symbolism of the center, then such a steadily centerless world becomes an artistic embodiment of life in which to live - in a genuine, higher sense is not possible.
In this imaginary life, the protagonists and antagonists lose their specific Functions. Good and evil are mixed up or "cancelled". Proportionately weakens, "crumbles" the conflict. The plot boils down to the characters trying to escape from this amorphous space, which is impossible. The composition is built on the model of "bad infinity": as senseless, aimless throwing and wandering or apathetic stay in one place. The culmination weakens or completely disappears, and the events turn into viscous circumstances that hinder any path of the characters, internal or external.
Examples of centerless space are the dramas and prose of modernism and postmodernism ("theatre of the absurd", "novels of the absurd"): S. Beckett, E. Ionesco and others. But this space arose long before modernism. "Centerless" is one of Pushkin's most formidable poems - "Demons". The space of the landowners and officials of Gogol's "Dead Souls" is "centerless": it is not for nothing that Chichikov's britzka "will not reach Moscow" access to the sacred center neither to him nor to other "dead" people; the provincial city is a fictitious, ghostly center, no one's fate is decided in it. Many of Chekhov's plays are "centerless". The "Turgenev" noble estate, this indisputable symbol, the spiritual center for Russian literature of the first third of the 19th century, here no longer unites and saves ("The Cherry Orchard").
The difference is that in the work of Pushkin and Gogol, the loss of the center is a sign of the demonic or "dead" world, that in all three writers it causes melancholy and pain, "breaks the heart." In the world of the absurd, centerlessness is no longer an anomaly, but the norm.
But with any variants of the symbolic organization of space, one thing remains unchanged. The philosophy of a work of art is always accurately and honestly revealed in whether its space has a symbolic center and what it is.
Marina NOVIKOVA
Symbol
Symbol
In art (Greek symbolon - a sign, an identifying sign), the ability of artistic image connect subject meaning with many figurative meanings. The concept of a symbol was developed in the philosophy of Neoplatonism (3rd-6th centuries AD) and in medieval Christian theology, which was influenced by Neoplatonism.
The symbol is different from allegory despite their outward resemblance. Allegory is an unambiguous allegory, this rationalistic image is quite easy to decipher. It is no coincidence that allegory is widespread in such an edifying and rationalistic genre as fable. Allegories are a distinctive feature classicism. The connection between the subject plan and the allegorical plan in allegory is not deep. So, in a fable, power can be represented in allegorical images of the royal bird, the eagle, and the royal beast, the lion. Unlike an allegory, a symbol is polysemantic; its objective plan is inextricably linked with figurative meanings. If the eagle in the fable is an allegory of royal power, then the Bronze Horseman, a statue of Peter I by the sculptor E.M. Falcone, in the poem by A.S. Pushkin The Bronze Horseman (1833) is a symbol. This is the embodiment of power, the state in their opposition to an ordinary, ordinary person, and the likeness of a pagan deity (“idol”, “proud idol”), and the spirit-genius of St. Petersburg, and, finally, Peter I himself, as if revived in his bronze image. Beautiful Lady in the collection of A. A. Blok“Poems about the Beautiful Lady” (1904) and the heroine in the poem “The Stranger” (1906) are not just characters (although the prototype of the Beautiful Lady was the bride, and then the wife of the poet L. D. Mendeleev-Blok), but also the embodiment of religious and mystical and philosophical ideas. The Beautiful Lady is a symbol of mystical religious and philosophical ideas about Sophia, the soul of the world and eternal femininity. The image-symbol of the Stranger indicates the same meanings, but this time in their dual evaluation; unlike the bright Beautiful Lady, the Stranger is dual, she is involved in both the divine world and the dark, demonic one. This is the embodiment of eternal femininity, capable of deceiving, perhaps fallen. The meanings of a symbol are difficult to translate into a logical, conceptual language. It gives a hierarchy, a "ladder" of meanings. Thus, eternal femininity, which constitutes the content of female images-symbols in the poetry of V. S. Solovyov and A. A. Blok, is itself a symbol of a certain mystical beginning of the world.
Symbols often go back to mythological images. Often, authors create their own myths based on existing mythologies or religious and philosophical teachings. This mythmaking is characteristic of symbolism, the symbolists proclaimed that in their work the symbol for the first time becomes the dominant poetic means of depicting and transforming the world. However, the symbol is an integral feature of the literature of different eras.
There are cases in the history of literature when artistic images, apparently not conceived as symbolic by their creators, became symbols in the perception of later readers. So, Tatyana Larina from the novel in verse by A. S. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin" began to be perceived as a symbol of the Russian soul and the ideal feminine. And the image of Don Quixote from the novel "The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha" by M. Cervantes became a symbol of reckless, but sublime daydreaming, not taking into account everyday, prosaic life.
Literature and language. Modern illustrated encyclopedia. - M.: Rosman. Under the editorship of prof. Gorkina A.P. 2006 .
Symbol
SYMBOL. It comes from the Greek word sýmbolon - connection, essence in a few signs. Usually, by a symbol, we mean a picture image with a figurative allegorical meaning. This pictorial image serves only as a way of expression, establishing a connection with known experiences, moods, ideas. Lermontov's pine, which on a wild northern bare cliff dreams of a sad lonely palm tree growing "in the region where the sun rises", is not the typical image whose task to embody a living concrete phenomenon, revealing the features common to a number of similar specific phenomena. For us, the image of the pine is only a means to express an idea, to express by hint, suggestion, the mood of a lonely person, carried away by a dream to something distant, completely different from our usual experiences. Where an object cannot be given, a symbol is born there to express the inexpressible, the inexpressible through correspondences between the external world and the world of our dreams, while the visible object, through which the artist allegorically expresses his ideas and vague moods, not only there is something, but means something, alluding to something else, standing outside its essence, but connected with it more than a mere association. Using symbols, the artist does not show things, but only hints at them, makes us guess the meaning of the obscure, reveal "hieroglyphic words". Symbols are only milestones set by the artist for our thought. And if the realist is a mere observer, then the symbolist is a thinker.
Nature is a temple where a number of columns
Whispering about something slurred words
Forest dark characters with familiar eyes
Looks at the passer-by from all sides.
So says C. Baudelaire in his famous poem Correspondence, trans. P. Ya. Our poet-philosopher F. Tyutchev once wrote similar lines:
Not what you think of nature -
Not a cast, not a soulless face,
It has a soul, it has freedom,
It has love, it has language.
The poet-thinker, through symbols, tries to acquaint us with indistinct words, with the language of nature inspired by him, in which he finds correspondence with his experiences.
V. Lvov-Rogachevsky. Literary encyclopedia: Dictionary of literary terms: In 2 volumes / Edited by N. Brodsky, A. Lavretsky, E. Lunin, V. Lvov-Rogachevsky, M. Rozanov, V. Cheshikhin-Vetrinsky. - M.; L.: Publishing house L. D. Frenkel, 1925
Synonyms:
See what a "character" is in other dictionaries:
- (from the Greek symbolon sign, identification sign) an idea, image or object that has its own content and at the same time represents some other content in a generalized, non-expanded form. S. stands between a (pure) sign, which has ... ... Philosophical Encyclopedia
- (Greek symbolon sign). 1) a figure or image for the material designation of some purely moral object, for example. the triangle is a symbol of the Holy Trinity, the lion is a symbol of courage. 2) a formula that contains the main foundations of faith: a creed: 3) at ... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
- (from the Greek sign, sign) 1) in artificial formalized languages, a concept that is identical to a sign; 2) in the aesthetics and philosophy of art, a universal category that reflects the specifics of the figurative development of life by art contains, ... ... Encyclopedia of cultural studies
Symbol- Symbol ♦ Symbol Sometimes a synonym for a sign, even (as a result of Anglo-American influence, in particular after Pierce's work) a conventional sign. For example, it is conventional signs that we call mathematical symbols. But the language resists this ... ... Philosophical Dictionary of Sponville
Husband, Greek abbreviation, list, complete picture, essence in a few words or signs. A symbol of faith, a confession of the whole essence or its foundations, in the list. | The image is pictorial, and in general with features, cuts, signs, with a figurative, symbolic, ... ... Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary
symbol- and obsolete symbol. In the literary language of the 19th century, the accent symbol prevailed. It was recorded by A. Pushkin, M. Lermontov, E. Baratynsky, V. Benediktov, N. Dobrolyubov, A. Maykov, A. Polezhaev, A. K. Tolstoy, A. Fet, V. Zhukovsky, A. ... ... Dictionary of pronunciation and stress difficulties in modern Russian
SYMBOL, (obsolete symbol), symbol, male. (Greek symbolon sign, originally a conventional identification mark for members of some kind of organization, secret society). An object or action that serves as a conventional sign of something, expressing, meaning what ... ... Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov
In translation shorthand, a symbol or sign used to designate a group of objects, phenomena. According to the method of designation, the symbols of the recording system are divided into alphabetic, associative, arbitrary. See also: System Symbols ... ... Financial vocabulary
