Simbolisme: ’n poging tot deflniering

In this article an attempt is made to establish a framework within which one can define or describe Symbolism as a literary phenomenon. As is the case with most literary movements one cannot reach a final definition or conclusion on Symbolism because it has many manifestations in different countries with different literary artists - so many men, so many minds. It is, however, possible to identify some common trends in the works of many symbolist poets and prose-writers. These trends are outlined in this article. The following also serves as an introduction to a special issue of Literator on Symbolism and its occurrence in the literary works of D.J. Opperman, Totius, N.P. van Wyk Louw and other Afrikaans literary artists. This special issue forms part of a comprehensive investigation into the incidence of Symbolism in the Afrikaans literary tradition undertaken by the Departement Afrikaans-Nederlands of the PU for CHE under the supervision of prof. D.H. Steenberg and with financial assistance of the Human Sciences Research Council