Parnassia

The Parnassiens were a French group of poets in the second half of the 19th century who were based on the principle of L'art pour l'art . They got their name from the anthology Le Parnasse contemporain published by Alphonse Lemerre in 1866 (followed by a second and third volume in 1871 and 1876). The name refers to the Parnassus , the "mountain of the muses " in Greek mythology.

The poetry of this group differs from the late Romantic period and is characterized by strictness of form and "impassibility" (numbness). The most important representatives were Charles Leconte de Lisle and Théophile Gautier . Other important names are Théodore de Banville , Paul Verlaine , Sully Prudhomme , José-Maria de Heredia , François Coppée, and Albert Giraud .

The Parnassians exerted a great influence on many European poets such as E.g. on Stefan George and on the poets of Latin American Modernismo .

literature

• Henri Mondor : L'affaire du Parnasse. Stéphane Mallarmé et Anatole France . Édition Fragrance, Paris 1951.
• Adolphe Racot: Les parnassiens. Minard, Paris 1968 ( Avant-Siècle 1, ISSN  0067-2610 ).
• Maurice Souriau: Histoire du Parnasse. Spes, Paris 1929 (reprint: Slatkine, Geneva 1972).