Gourmont, Remy de
Gourmont, Remy de
(rəmē` də go͞ormôN`), 1858–1915, French critic and novelist, leading critical apologist for the symbolistssymbolists,in literature, a school originating in France toward the end of the 19th cent. in reaction to the naturalism and realism of the period. Designed to convey impressions by suggestion rather than by direct statement, symbolism found its first expression in poetry but
..... Click the link for more information. . Although his views were seemingly contradictory, he was consistent in opposing traditionalism and defending new literary departures. He was long a contributor to the Mercure de France. His novels, stories, and plays, always analytic in their character study, include Les Chevaux de Diomède (1897, tr. The Horses of Diomedes, 1923) and Un Cœur virginal (1907, tr. A Virgin Heart, 1921). He is known for his linguistic studies, including Le Problème du style (1902), as well as for the critical collection Promenades littéraires (7 vol., 1904–28).
Gourmont, Remy de
Born Apr. 4, 1858, at Bazoches-en-Houlme, Orne Department; died Sept. 17, 1915, in Paris. French writer. Descendant of an aristocratic family.
Gourmont published his collection of verse Eruption of the Volcano in 1882. His critical studies of contemporary writers are collected in The Book of Masks (1896–98; Russian translation, 1913). In the preface Gourmont expounded his ideas on symbolism: its basic principles were extreme subjectivism and scorn for any representation of social phenomena in literature. In such works as The Culture of Ideas (1900) and The Problem of Style (1902) he took up questions of aesthetics, style, and language from the point of view of “art for art’s sake.” His book Windstorm (published in 1916) condemned the imperialist war of 1914–18.
WORKS
In Russian translation:Tsveta. Moscow [1910].
Devich’e serdtse. St. Petersburg [1910].
[“Stikhi.”] in Ten’ derev’ev: Stikhi zarubezhnykh poetov ν per I. Erenburga Moscow, 1969.
REFERENCES
Lunacharsky, A. V. “R. de Gurmon.” Sobr. soch., vol. 5. Moscow, 1965.Clouard, H. Histoire de la littérature française, du symbolisme à nos jours (de 1885 à 1914), vol. 1. Paris [1952].
Gourmont, J. de, and R. Delle Donne. Bibliographie des oeuvres de R. de Gourmont Paris [1922].
T. G. KHATISOVA