Symbolists pay attention to describing personal phantoms and inner feelings, and rarely involve a wide range of social themes; In terms of artistic methods, it denies vague rhetoric and blunt preaching, and emphasizes the creation with textured images and the methods of suggestion, comparison and association. In addition, symbolism literary works pay more attention to musicality and rhythm.
Symbolism literature originated in France in the middle of19th century and spread to a literary school in Europe and America in the early 20th century. It is the embodiment of symbolism in literature and a core branch of modernist literature, which mainly covers poetry and drama, and its influence continues to this day. Western mainstream academic circles believe that the birth of symbolism literature is a watershed between classical literature and modern literature. As a creative aesthetics, symbolism, romanticism and realism are three basic creative aesthetics with prototype significance in the history of literature.
As an international literary trend of thought, symbolism has different development characteristics in different countries and regions, which involves complex factors such as national temperament, cultural tradition and writer's personal temperament. French symbolism is purer, while Anglo-American symbolism is more complicated. Symbolic literature has achieved the highest achievement in the field of poetry, and many of the greatest poets in the 20th century can be classified as symbolic poets. In addition, symbolism has also made some achievements in the field of drama.