Parnassianism (or Parnassism) was a group of French poetry that began during the Positivism period of the 19th century (1860s–1890s), occurring after romanticism and prior to symbolism. The style was influenced by the author Théophile Gautier 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, itself named after
Mount Parnassus, home of the
of
Greek mythology. The anthology was first issued in 1866 and again in 1871 and 1876, including poems by Charles Leconte de Lisle, Théodore de Banville,
Sully Prudhomme, Stéphane Mallarmé,
Paul Verlaine, 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".[G Brereton, A Short History of French Literature (Penguin 1954) p. 288] 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,[G Robb, Rimbaud (London 2001) p. 35] 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.[G Brereton, A Short History of French Literature (Penguin 1954) p. 289-90]
Transnational influences
Despite its French origins, Parnassianism was not restricted to French authors. Perhaps the most idiosyncratic of Parnassians,
Olavo Bilac, Alberto de Oliveira's disciple, was an author from
Brazil who managed carefully to craft verses and metre while maintaining a strong emotionalism in them.
[M Rector, Brazilian Writers (2005) p. 91] Poland Parnassians included
Antoni Lange, Felicjan Faleński, Cyprian Kamil Norwid and
Leopold Staff. A Romanian poet with Parnassian influences was Alexandru Macedonski.
[S Serafin, 20th C Eastern European Writers (2000) p. 220] Florbela Espanca was a Parnassian Portuguese poet (Larousse), as was Cesário Verde.
British poets such as Andrew Lang, Austin Dobson and Edmund Gosse 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 used the term Parnassian pejoratively to describe competent but uninspired poetry, “spoken on and from the level of a poet’s mind”.[W H Gardner ed., Gerard Manley Hopkins (Penguin 1975) p. 154] He identified this trend particularly with the work of Alfred Tennyson, citing the poem "Enoch Arden" as an example.
See also
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.
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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
- Essays and criticisms
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AZEVEDO, Sanzio de. Parnasianismo na poesia brasileira. Fortaleza: Ceará University, 2000.
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BOSI, Alfredo. An intuição da passagem em um soneto de Raimundo Correia, in --- (org). Leitura de Poesia. São Paulo: Ática, 2003.
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CANDIDO, Antonio. No coração do silêncio. in: ---. Na sala de aula. São Paulo: Ática, 1985.
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CAVALCANTI, Camillo. Fundamentos modernos das Poesias de Alberto de Oliveira, doctoral thesis at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, 2008.
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FISCHER, Luis Augusto. Parnasianismo brasileiro. Porto Alegre: Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, 2003.
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MAGALHÃES Jr., Raymundo. Olavo Bilac. Rio de Janeiro: Americana, 1974.
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MARTINO, Pierre. Parnasse et symbolisme. Armand Colin, 1967. (Parnaso y symbolismo, Ed. Ateneo)
