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Flamm begins his article by discussing Symbolism in literature. The term as a stylistic concept, he states, has established itself particularly with regard to French and Russian literature (from 1886 to 1896 and from around 1894 to 1914 respectively). Constituting a reaction against naturalist and materialist tendencies, French Symbolism was manifested chiefly in poetry, and it blossomed in the Parisian gatherings convened by Mallarmé. Flamm does not fail to mention the importance of Wagner as a catalyst in literary Symbolism. Short-lived though it was, the Revue wagnérienne that Edouard Dujardin founded with Téodor de Wyzewa provided a focus for the movement.

The Symbolist concept in art history, Flamm goes on to argue, is both broader in territorial scope and less easy to define. It embraces the most diverse treatments of imaginary, psychological and metaphysical subjects. This point is generally acknowledged by art historians, who have described Symbolism as a mind-set rather than a school, style or technique. Furthermore, the popular use of the term emphasised the irrational features of turnof-the century art at the expense of formal categorising, thus ignoring that element of structural innovation which made Symbolist art, like Symbolist literature, prophetic of future developments.