"Vesy" magazine as an indicator of the maturity of Russian Symbolism

Abstract

“Vesy” magazine has become an extremely important milestone on the path of self–knowledge of Russian symbolism - its pages have captured the final design of the main principles and methods of this literary and cultural movement. However, the cultural discourse on the pages of the magazine, despite popular belief, was not homogeneous and static. Having marked the strengthening of symbolism as an important phenomenon in art and public life, “Vesy” magazine at the same time became a platform for discussions about the crisis of symbolism that was brewing at the beginning of the XX century, reflecting completely different stages of the development of this trend. The subject of this research is the journalistic materials published on the pages of “Vesy”, the object of the work was the evolution of the ideas of symbolism reflected in selected materials. With the help of discourse analysis, it became possible to study the most important stages of the development of symbolist discourse, which is the purpose of this work. The analysis of the journalistic materials of the magazine showed that “Vesy” failed to remain within its original ideological and aesthetic positions: contrary to traditional ideas, symbolism sought to live its own time, and during the period of social upheaval, its ideas were certainly developed. The results obtained can contribute to the theoretical knowledge about the symbolist journalism, “Vesy” magazine, as well as the evolution of the ideas of symbolism.