Symbolism In German Literature. The german writer johann wolfgang von goethe famously defined true symbolism as that in which the particular represents the general. The eagle was part of the holy roman empire which after prussia s victory over austria in 1886 has been shared by two different states.
Symbolism was largely a reaction against naturalism and realism anti idealistic styles which were attempts to represent reality in its gritty particularity and to elevate the humble and the ordinary over the ideal. Symbolism in the sense of a use of symbols in literature is clearly omnipresent in literature of many styles periods and civilizations. Symbolism therefore gives universality to the characters and the themes of a piece of literature.
Symbolism emphasised the primary importance of suggestion and evocation in the expression of a private mood or reverie as employed by romantic poets like shelley and blake in england and novalis and friedrich hölderlin in germany.
Symbolism was a reaction in favour of spirituality the imagination and dreams. He was dressed as a girl by his mother and sent to a military academy by his father and from these confusions and resentments developed a character that became increasingly fastidious hypersensitive and retiring. The german writer johann wolfgang von goethe famously defined true symbolism as that in which the particular represents the general. Symbolism emphasised the primary importance of suggestion and evocation in the expression of a private mood or reverie as employed by romantic poets like shelley and blake in england and novalis and friedrich hölderlin in germany.
