Parnassianism (or Parnassism) was a French

literary Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

style that began during the positivist period of the 19th century, occurring after

romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

and prior to

symbolism Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: Arts * Symbolism (arts), a 19th-century movement rejecting Realism ** Symbolist movement in Romania, symbolist literature and visual arts in Romania during the late 19th and early 20th centuries ** Russian sym ...

. 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.

Origins and name

The name is derived from the original Parnassian poets' journal, ''

Le Parnasse contemporain Le Parnasse contemporain ("The Contemporary Parnassus", e.g., the contemporary poetry scene) is composed of three volumes of poetry collections, published in 1866, 1871 and 1876 by the editor Alphonse Lemerre, which included a hundred French poets ...

'', itself named after

Mount Parnassus Mount Parnassus (; el, Παρνασσός, ''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 ...

, home of the

Muse In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...

s of

Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities ...

. The anthology was first issued in 1866 and again in 1869 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, A ...

Sully Prudhomme René François Armand "Sully" Prudhomme (; 16 March 1839 – 6 September 1907) was a French poet and essayist. He was the first winner of the 1901 Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901. Born in Paris, Prudhomme originall ...

, Stéphane Mallarmé,

Paul Verlaine Paul-Marie Verlaine (; ; 30 March 1844 – 8 January 1896) was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement and the Decadent movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the '' fin de siècle'' in international and ...

François Coppée François Edouard Joachim Coppée (26 January 1842 – 23 May 1908) was a French poet and novelist. Biography Coppée was born in Paris to a civil servant. After attending the Lycée Saint-Louis he became a clerk in the ministry of war and won ...

Nina de Callias Anne-Marie Gaillard (12 July 1843 – 22 July 1884, in a clinic at Vanves), known as Nina de Villard de Callias, Nina de Callias or Nina de Villard, was a French composer, pianist, writer, and salon hostess. The daughter of a rich Lyon lawyer, aft ...

, and

José María de Heredia José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacu ...

. 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 ''l'art pour l'art'' (), a French slogan from the latter part of the 19th century—is a phrase that expresses the philosophy that the intrinsic value of art, and the only 'true' art, is divorce ...

". 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 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 o ...

, Alberto de Oliveira's disciple, was an author from

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

who managed carefully to craft verses and metre while maintaining a strong emotionalism in them.

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

Parnassians included

Antoni Lange Antoni Lange (1863 – 17 March 1929) was a Polish poet, philosopher, polyglot (15 languages), writer, novelist, science-writer, reporter and translator. A representative of Polish Parnassianism and symbolism, he is also regarded as belonging ...

, Felicjan Faleński,

Cyprian Kamil Norwid Cyprian Kamil Norwid, a.k.a. Cyprian Konstanty Norwid (; 24 September 1821 – 23 May 1883), was a nationally esteemed Polish poet, dramatist, painter, and sculptor. He was born in the Masovian village of Laskowo-Głuchy near Warsaw. One of hi ...

and

Leopold Staff Leopold Henryk Staff (November 14, 1878 – May 31, 1957) was a Polish poet; an artist of European modernism twice granted the Degree of Doctor honoris causa by universities in Warsaw and in Kraków. He was also nominated for the Nobel Prize i ...

. A Romanian poet with Parnassian influences was

Alexandru Macedonski Alexandru Macedonski (; also rendered as Al. A. Macedonski, Macedonschi or Macedonsky; 14 March 1854 – 24 November 1920) was a Romanian poet, novelist, dramatist and literary critic, known especially for having promoted French Symbolism in h ...

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, ...

was a Parnassian Portuguese poet (Larousse), as was

Cesário Verde Cesário Verde (25 February 1855 – 19 July 1886) was a 19th-century Portugal, Portuguese poet. His work, while mostly ignored during his lifetime and not well known outside of the country's borders even today, is generally considered to be amon ...

. 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 collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University o ...

, 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 childhoo ...

were sometimes known as "English Parnassians" for their experiments in old (often originally French) forms such as the

ballade Ballad is a form of narrative poetry, often put to music, or a type of sentimental love song in modern popular music. Ballad or Ballade may also refer to: Music Genres and forms * Ballade (classical music), a musical setting of a literary ballad ...

, the

villanelle A villanelle, also known as villanesque,Kastner 1903 p. 279 is a nineteen-line poetic form consisting of five tercets followed by a quatrain. There are two refrains and two repeating rhymes, with the first and third line of the first tercet rep ...

and the rondeau, taking inspiration from French authors like Banville. Gerard Manley Hopkins 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 his ...

, citing the poem "

Enoch Arden ''Enoch Arden'' is a narrative poem published in 1864 by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, during his tenure as England's poet laureate. The story on which it was based was provided to Tennyson by Thomas Woolner. The poem lent its name to a principle i ...

" as an example. Many prominent Turkish poets of Servet-i Fünun were inspired by Parnassianism such as Tevfik Fikret,

Yahya Kemal Beyatlı Yahya Kemal Beyatlı, born ''Ahmet Âgâh'' (2 December 1884 – 1 November 1958), generally known by the pen name ''Yahya Kemal'', was a leading Turkish poet and author, as well as a politician and diplomat. Early life and education Yahya Kema ...

and Cenap Şahabettin.

References

Citations

Sources

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 Works

OLIVEIRA, 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) {{Schools of poetry French poetry Genres of poetry Literary movements Symbolism (arts)

Origins and name

Transnational influences

See also

References

Citations

Sources