O Symbolism in Brazil (1893-1902) is mainly represented by the authors Cruz e Sousa (1861-1898) and Alphonsus de Guimaraens (1870-1921). Cruz e Sousa, one of the few black authors of the 19th century, is identified by his philosophical depth, metaphysical anguish and obsession with the color white. Already Alphonsus de Guimaraens has a poetry marked by strong religiosity and morbidity.
Symbolism emerged in France, with the publication of the book the evil flowers (1857) by Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867). In general, it has the following characteristics: mysticism, musicality, formal rigor, use of reticence, appreciation of mystery, allegorizing capital letters and synesthesia. Its authors doubted reason and concrete reality; therefore, they sought, through the senses, to reach the essence plane.
Read too: Manuel Bandeira – author influenced by symbolist aspects
Historical Context of Symbolism in Brazil
At second half of the 19th century, O capitalism European made evident the social disparity
between the economic elite and the proletariat. If, on the one hand, the bourgeoisie enriched, on the other, the workers lived a reality of misery. Faced with this situation, the labor movement gained strength and the class conflict became more evident, while the great powers carried out the imperialist expansion, in Asia and Africa, and undertook, stimulated by scientific progress, an arms race.In Brazil, Symbolism emerged after the Abolition of Slavery (1888) and the Proclamation of the Republic (1889). In this context, there was the misery of freed slaves, a social and ethnic problem that would extend across generations, beyond the political conflicts caused by the dictatorship undertaken byFloriano Peixoto (1839-1895), which lasted from 1891 to 1894. Furthermore, in the Northeast, the social problems related to drought led to Straw War (1896-1897).
Do not stop now... There's more after the advertising ;)
Thus, the artists again resorted to escape from reality. Life as it is was no longer of interest to these artists, nor to a people tired of such a harsh reality. Therefore, works of a realistic character, according to those who are more sensitive, should be replaced by fantasy.
Read too: How was the life of ex-slaves after the Golden Law?
Characteristics of Symbolism
Symbolism has the following characteristics:
- Lack of confidence in reality, which would be illusory;
- Opposition to Parnassian and Realist objectivism;
- Valuing the non-rational, that is, the mystery;
- Appreciation for the unconscious, the spiritual and immaterial;
- Belief in the existence of a ideal world;
- Relationship between the visible world and the world of essences (or ideal);
- Mysticism, probing the self and valuing intuition;
- Musicality of words;
- Social alienation;
- Formal rigor: meterification and rhymes;
- Vision contrary to scientific optimism;
- Highlight for the abstract, the impalpable;
- Use of ellipsis to suggest inaccuracy;
- Power of suggestion, as opposed to objectivity;
- Allegorizing capital letters: word written with a capital initial;
- Stimulation of the human senses, from the synesthesia;
- Words with allegorizing capitals and sensations are symbols capable of bringing the reader into contact with the plane of essences.
Read too: Parnassianism – literary aesthetics that valued classical formal aspects
Symbolism in Brazil
The main authors of Symbolism in Brazil (1893-1902) are:
→ Cruz e Sousa (1861-1898)
- Black, son of freed slaves, born in Florianópolis.
- Your poetry features philosophical depth, in search of essence.
- His texts evidence a metaphysical anguish marked by melancholy.
- The author is obsessed with White color, recurrent in his works, associated with ideal purity.
- His poetry was only recognized in the 20th century.
- Main construction:
- Buckles (1893)
- Missal (1893)
- Evocations (1898)
- headlights (1900)
- latest sonnets (1905)
→ Alphonsus de Guimaraens (1870-1921)
- Born in Ouro Preto.
- He lived in Mariana, where he wrote his work, ignored for several years.
- His poetry is marked by the religiosity.
- It has a softer language compared to Cruz e Sousa.
- Evidences the mysticism associated with the idea of death.
- The theme of death of loved one is recurrent in your texts.
- Main construction:
- Septenary of the pains of Our Lady (1899)
- burning chamber (1899)
- Mystic Mistress (1899)
- Kyriale (1902)
- Beggars (1920)
Example of Symbolist Poetry
Cruz e Sousa éthe most significant name of Brazilian Symbolist poetry, not least because this style was inaugurated in Brazil when the author published, in 1893, his books Buckles and Missal. Also, his poetry features a philosophical depth, Amid ethereal images (sometimes bleak), with strong sensory appeal, as we can see in the sonnet “Siderations”, from the book Buckles:
Siderations
For the Stars of icy crystals
The cravings and desires go up,
Rising Blues and Sidereal Engagements
From white clouds to vastness wearing...
In a procession of winged songs
The archangels, the sitars hurting,
They pass, from the garments to the silver trophies,
The golden wings opening finely...
Of the ethereal snow thuribles
Clear aroma incense, clear and light,
Foggy Waves of Visions Rises...
And the endless cravings and desires
Go with the archangels formulating rites
Of the Eternity that sings in the Astros...
At firststanza, the lyrical self says that the cravings and desires rise to the stars. we have a allegorizing capital, which means that the word “Stars” is a symbol, a key to reaching the essences. As a result, cravings and desires rise to blue and sidereal engagements between white clouds, that is, these clouds would be uniting and, at the same time, dressing, covering the vastness. Note that the cloud is a impalpable element, less concrete. In this stanza, it is also possible to perceive elements kinesthetics: “ice cream”, “blue” and “white” (color, by the way, recurring in the author's works).
At Mondaystanza, the lyrical self says that archangels play sitars and sing, as they spread their golden wings, these pass through their silver robes. The figure of the archangel is a elementmystic wrapped in sensory elements: “songs”, “sitars”, “silver” and “gold”. Here, it is necessary to remember that, in the first stanza, the cravings and desires were rising towards the vastness, where these archangels are.
In the third stanza, the lyrical self says that a clear incense comes out of ethereal thuribles, and that incense raises misty waves of Visions. In this part of the sonnet, the impalpable character of things is evident: “ethereal”, “incense”, “foggy”, “Visions”. Once again, a allegorizing capital, indicating the symbolic power of the word "Visions", in addition to the presence of more kinesthetic elements: “snow”, “fragrant”, “clear” and “light”.
And finally, in the fourth stanza, the lyrical self says that the cravings and desires are infinite and that they are on the side of the archangels, while the archangels go on exposing the rituals of Eternity, personified, that sings in the Astros. In this part, we have two allegorizing capitals, in the words “Eternity” and “Astros”.
In broader perspective, it is possible to interpret the poem in two ways. One is to understand that when the cravings and desires are gone, the individual finds peace. Another possibility is to read this poem as a metaphor for death, since what characterizes existence is precisely the anxieties and desires that are in it; after all, to live is to desire, and without desire there is no life.
And finally, we must point out the formal rigor of poetry, metric and with rhymes, and to emphasize that, from the Symbolist perspective, we should not analyze this poem, as this is a rational attitude, but just surrender to the sensations that it provokes, so that we reach the essence plane, which, according to the Symbolists, is the true reality, since, in the concrete plan, we live an illusion only.
See too: Five poems by Alphonsus de Guimaraens
Symbolism in Europe
O Symbolism was born in France, with the publication of the book the evil flowers (1857), of Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867). In this work, the sonnet “Correspondences”|1| shows one of the main characteristics of Symbolism, synesthesia, that is, the association of two or more of the five human senses:
Correspondence
Nature is a living temple in which the pillars
They often allow unusual plots to filter out;
The man crosses it in the middle of a grove of secrets
That there stalk you with their eyes relatives.
Like echoes long that at a distance tint
In a dizzying and dismal unity,
As vast as the night and as the clarity,
You sounds, at Colors and the Perfumes harmonize.
There is aromas fresh as the beef of infants,
Candy like the oboe, green like the meadow,
And others, already dissolute, rich and triumphant,
With the fluidity of what never ends,
as the musk, O incense and the resins of the East,
May the glory exalt of the senses and the mind.
As a reaction to Baudelaire's book, Paul Bourget (1852-1935) wrote an article in which he pointed out the explicit decadence in the work, marked by pessimism and morbidity. Hence the term Decadentism, which preceded the term Symbolism, created by Jean Moréas (1856-1910), in his Manifesto of Symbolism (1886). In addition, two other important authors of French Symbolism are Paul Verlaine (1844-1896) and Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891).
already in the SymbolismPortuguese (1890-1915), the main authors are:
- Eugenio de Castro (1869-1944): Interlude (1894).
- Camilo Pessanha (1867-1926): Clepsydra (1920).
- António Nobre (1867-1900): Only (1892).
in the sonnet twilight, Camilo Pessanha uses the image of Twilight (end of day and early evening) to speak, possibly, from the death of the loved one. The poem presents formal rigor (decasyllables and rhymes). Plus, it's all built from sensations and elements abstract.
twilight
There is a murmur complaining,
In wishes of love, later pills...
A sparse tenderness of bleating,
Sit down like a perfume.
Honeysuckles wither in the brambles
It's the aroma what exhale through space,
It has delusions of enjoyment and tiredness,
Nervous, feminine, delicate.
sit down spasms, agonies d'ave,
Inapprehensible, minimal, serene...
— I have your little hands in my hands,
My to look in your eyes soft.
your hands so white danaemia...
Your eyes so sweet with sadness...
— It's this languishing of nature,
This one vague suffer from the end of the day.
See too: Romanticism in Portugal – characteristics, moments and authors
solved exercises
Question 01 (Enem)
prison of souls
Ah! Every soul in a prison is imprisoned,
sobbing in the darkness between the bars
From the dungeon looking at immensity,
Seas, stars, afternoons, nature.
Everything wears an equal grandeur
When the soul in shackles the freedoms
Dreams and, dreaming, immortalities
It tears the Space of Purity into the ethereal.
O trapped, mute and closed souls
In colossal and abandoned prisons,
Of the Pain in the dungeon, atrocious, funereal!
In these lonely, serious silences,
which keychain of heaven holds the keys
to open the doors of the Mystery for you?!
CRUZ E SOUSA, J. complete poetry. Florianópolis: Fundação Catarinense de Cultura/ Fundação Banco do Brasil, 1993.
The formal and thematic elements related to the cultural context of Symbolism found in the poem “Cárcere das almas”, by Cruz e Sousa, are:
a) the option to approach, in simple and direct language, philosophical themes.
b) the prevalence of loving and intimate lyricism in relation to the nationalist theme.
c) the aesthetic refinement of poetic form and the metaphysical treatment of universal themes.
d) the evident concern of the lyrical self with social reality expressed in innovative poetic images.
e) the formal freedom of the poetic structure that dispenses with the traditional rhyme and meter in favor of everyday themes.
Resolution
Alternative C.
In Cruz e Sousa's poetry, it is possible to observe the aesthetic refinement of the poetic form, as it is a metric poem with rhymes. Furthermore, there is a metaphysical treatment, a tendency to the abstract, as can be seen in these verses: “Dreams and, dreaming, immortalities / Tears the Space of Purity into the ethereal”. The universal theme is freedom, or lack of it.
Question 02 (Enem)
dark life
Nobody felt your dark spasm
o be humble among humble beings,
drunk, dizzy with pleasure,
the world for you was black and hard.
you crossed in the dark silence
life trapped in tragic duties
and you came to know of high knowledge
making you simpler and purer.
Nobody saw you the restless suffering,
hurt, hidden and terrifying, secret,
that the heart stabbed you in the world.
But I've always followed in your steps
I know the infernal cross caught your arms
and your sigh how deep it was!
SOUSA, C. complete work. Rio de Janeiro: Nova Aguilar, 1961.
With a dense and expressive work in Brazilian Symbolism, Cruz e Sousa transposed to his lyricism a sensitivity in conflict with the lived reality. In the sonnet, this perception translates into
a) tacit suffering in face of the limits imposed by discrimination.
b) latent tendency to addiction as a response to social isolation.
c) exhaustion conditioned to a routine of degrading tasks.
d) love frustration channeled into intellectual activities.
e) religious vocation manifested in the approach to the Christian faith.
Resolution
Alternative A.
The poem demonstrates a tacit suffering, that is, silent, hidden, as can be seen in the first triplet: "No one has seen you the uneasy suffering, / bruised, hidden and terrifying, secret, / that your heart stabbed you in the world". As for discrimination, this reading is possible if we associate the poem with the private life of the author, who was black and suffered from discrimination.
Question 03 (PUC-RS)
"We'll cry for her,
Withering the flowers as the day falls.
The spruces will fall from the orange groves,
Remembering the one who picked them.”
One of the thematic lines of Alphonsus de Guimaraens' poetry, as shown in the example, is:
a) dead beloved.
b) deep religiosity.
c) transfiguration of love.
d) liturgical atmosphere.
e) Marian landscape.
Resolution
Alternative A.
The text suggests the death of a woman: “They will cry for her”, “flowers”, “harvest”. Furthermore, it is known that the death of the bride of poet Alphonsus de Guimaraens thematically influenced his poetry.
note:
|1|Translated by Ivan Junqueira.
by Warley Souza
Literature teacher