Parnassianism (or Parnassism) was a group of
French poets
List of poets who have written in the French language:
A
Céline Arnauld (1885-1952)
* Louise-Victorine Ackermann (1813–1890)
* Adam de la Halle (v.1250 – v.1285)
* Dominique Aguessy (1937– )
* Pierre Albert-Birot (1876–1967)
* Ann ...
that began during the
positivist period of the 19th century (1860s–1890s), occurring after
romanticism
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...
and prior to
symbolism. The style was influenced by the author
Théophile Gautier
Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier ( , ; 30 August 1811 – 23 October 1872) was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, and art and literary critic.
While an ardent defender of Romanticism, Gautier's work is difficult to classify and rema ...
as well as by the philosophical ideas of
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer ( ; ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is known for his 1818 work ''The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the Phenomenon, phenomenal world as ...
.
Origins and name
The name is derived from the original Parnassian poets' journal, ''
Le Parnasse contemporain'', itself named after
Mount Parnassus
Mount Parnassus (; , ''Parnassós'') is a mountain range of central Greece that is, and historically has been, especially valuable to the Greek nation and the earlier Greek city-states for many reasons. In peace, it offers scenic views of the c ...
, home of the
Muse
In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, the Muses (, ) were the Artistic inspiration, inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, lyric p ...
s of
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...
. The anthology was first issued in 1866 and again in 1871 and 1876, including poems by
Charles Leconte de Lisle,
Théodore de Banville
Théodore Faullain de Banville (; 14 March 1823 – 13 March 1891) was a French poet and writer. His work was influential on the Symbolist movement in French literature in the late 19th century.
Biography
Banville was born in Moulins in Allier ...
,
Sully Prudhomme,
Stéphane Mallarmé
Stéphane Mallarmé ( , ; ; 18 March 1842 – 9 September 1898), pen name of Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French Symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools o ...
,
Paul Verlaine
Paul-Marie Verlaine ( ; ; 30 March 1844 – 8 January 1896) was a French poet associated with the Symbolism (movement), Symbolist movement and the Decadent movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the ''fin de siècle'' ...
,
François Coppée,
Nina de Callias, and
José María de Heredia.
The Parnassians were influenced by Théophile Gautier and his doctrine of "
art for art's sake
Art for art's sake—the usual English rendering of (), a French slogan from the latter half of the 19th century—is a phrase that expresses the philosophy that 'true' art is utterly independent of all social values and utilitarian functions, b ...
". As a reaction to the less-disciplined types of romantic poetry and what they considered the excessive sentimentality and undue social and political activism of Romantic works, the Parnassians strove for exact and faultless workmanship, selecting exotic and (neo-)classical subjects that they treated with the rigidity of form and emotional detachment. Elements of this detachment were derived from the philosophical work of Schopenhauer.
The two most characteristic and most long-lasting members of the movement were
Heredia and
Leconte de Lisle.
Transnational influences
Despite its French origins, Parnassianism was not restricted to French authors. Perhaps the most idiosyncratic of Parnassians,
Olavo Bilac
Olavo Brás Martins dos Guimarães Bilac (16 December 1865 – 28 December 1918), known simply as Olavo Bilac (), was a Brazilian Parnassian poet, journalist and translator. Alongside Alberto de Oliveira and Raimundo Correia, he was a member ...
,
Alberto de Oliveira's disciple, was an author from
Brazil
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
who managed carefully to craft verses and metre while maintaining a strong emotionalism in them.
Polish Parnassians included
Antoni Lange,
Felicjan Faleński,
Cyprian Kamil Norwid and
Leopold Staff. A Romanian poet with Parnassian influences was
Alexandru Macedonski.
Florbela Espanca
Florbela Espanca (; born , ) was a Portuguese poet. She is known for her passionate and feminist poetry. Fernando Pessoa later said she was his "twin soul".
Early life
Born Flor Bela d'Alma da Conceição on 8 December 1894 in Vila Viçosa, P ...
was a Parnassian Portuguese poet (Larousse), as was
Cesário Verde.
British poets such as
Andrew Lang
Andrew Lang (31 March 1844 – 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a folkloristics, collector of folklore, folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectur ...
,
Austin Dobson and
Edmund Gosse
Sir Edmund William Gosse (; 21 September 184916 May 1928) was an English poet, author and critic. He was strictly brought up in a small Protestant sect, the Plymouth Brethren, but broke away sharply from that faith. His account of his childhood ...
were sometimes known as "English Parnassians" for their experiments in old (often originally French) forms such as the
ballade, the
villanelle and the
rondeau, taking inspiration from French authors like Banville.
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Gerard Manley Hopkins (28 July 1844 – 8 June 1889) was an English poet and Society of Jesus, Jesuit priest, whose posthumous fame places him among the leading English poets. His Prosody (linguistics), prosody – notably his concept of sprung ...
used the term ''Parnassian'' pejoratively to describe competent but uninspired poetry, “spoken ''on and from the level'' of a poet’s mind”. He identified this trend particularly with the work of
Alfred Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (; 6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of ...
, citing the poem "
Enoch Arden
''Enoch Arden'' is a narrative poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, published in 1864 during his tenure as British poet laureate. The story on which it was based was allegedly provided to Tennyson by Thomas Woolner. The poem lends its name to a ...
" as an example.
Many prominent Turkish poets of Servet-i Fünun were inspired by Parnassianism such as
Tevfik Fikret,
Yahya Kemal Beyatlı and Cenap Şahabettin.
See also
*
Zutiste
References
Citations
Sources
;General
*
;In France
* Maurice Souriau, ''Histoire du Parnasse'', ed. Spes, 1929
* Louis-Xavier de Ricard, ''Petits mémoires d'un Parnassien''
* Adolphe Racot, ''Les Parnassiens'', introduction and commentaries by M. Pakenham, presented by Louis Forestier, Aux Lettres modernes: collection ''avant-siècle'', 1967.
* Yann Mortelette,
Histoire du Parnasse', Paris : Fayard, 2005, 400 p.
*
Le Parnasse. Mémoire de la critique', ed. Yann Mortelette, Paris : PUPS, 2006, 444 p.
* André Thérive, ''Le Parnasse'', ed. PAUL-DUVAL, 1929.
* Luc Decaunes, La Poésie parnassienne Anthologie, Seghers, 1977.
;In Brazil
Bilac, Olavo. Complete WorksOLIVEIRA, Alberto. 20 sonets
;Essays and criticisms
* AZEVEDO, Sanzio de. Parnasianismo na poesia brasileira. Fortaleza: Ceará University, 2000.
* BOSI, Alfredo. An intuição da passagem em um soneto de Raimundo Correia, in --- (org). Leitura de Poesia. São Paulo: Ática, 2003.
* CANDIDO, Antonio. No coração do silêncio. in: ---. Na sala de aula. São Paulo: Ática, 1985.
* CAVALCANTI, Camillo
Fundamentos modernos das Poesias de Alberto de Oliveira doctoral thesis at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, 2008.
* FISCHER, Luis Augusto
Parnasianismo brasileiro Porto Alegre: Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, 2003.
* MAGALHÃES Jr., Raymundo. Olavo Bilac. Rio de Janeiro: Americana, 1974.
* MARTINO, Pierre. Parnasse et symbolisme. Armand Colin, 1967. (Parnaso y symbolismo, Ed. Ateneo)
{{Authority control
French poetry
Genres of poetry
Literary movements
Symbolism (arts)