AmericanRomanticism :AmericanRomanticism 1800 - 1860


Background-Social & Political :Background-Social & Political Revolution –sense of optimism Successful revolt against English rule Frontier The Louisiana Purchase – 1803 The Gold Rush – 1849 Vast wilderness Freedom Room to grow No geographic limitations


Background (cont.) :Background (cont.) Immigration Many immigrants of different origins Industrialization Differences between North and South grow (agricultural v. industrial economies) Experimentation Science Social institutions Education and Reform Virtual classless society Absence of tradition


Previous Rationalist View :Previous Rationalist View The rationalists believed the city to be a place to find success and self-realization; a place of civilization and opportunity.


Romantic View :Romantic View Romantics saw the city as a place of moral corruption, poverty, and death The romantics associated the countryside with independence, morality, and healthful living.


Write about how this painting makes you feel and what thoughts it brings into your mind. :Write about how this painting makes you feel and what thoughts it brings into your mind.


Characteristics :Characteristics The Five I’s Imagination Intuition Idealism Inspiration Individuality


Characteristics of Romanticism :Characteristics of Romanticism values feelings over intuition (reason) values the power of the imagination seeks the beauty of unspoiled nature values youthful innocence values individual freedom values the lessons of the past finds beauty in exotic locales, the supernatural, and in the imagination values poetry as the highest expression of the imagination values myth, legend, and folk culture


Subject Matter :Subject Matter Quest for beauty Escape from daily troubles Journey to freedom, represented in nature as opposed to the oppressive city Romantics believed in contemplating, or becoming one with the natural world


Nature :Nature Nature as beauty Nature as a source of positive knowledge Nature as a refuge Nature as a revelation of God


Literary Techniques :Literary Techniques Remote settings Improbable plots Supernatural, myth, legend & folklore Experimentation in new forms of writing Writing that could be interpreted on two levels – the story on the surface for common folk and a deeper meaning for philosophical readers


The New American Hero :The New American Hero he was youthful and innocent he was intuitive he was one with nature he was a loner – uneasy around women he was handsome he was brave he was moral and honorable


Romantic Authors :Romantic Authors Washington Irving the Father of American Literature Rip Van Winkle The Devil and Tom Walker Nathaniel Hawthorne Dr Heidegger’s Experiment The Scarlet Letter James Fenimore Cooper Father of the American novel Last of the Mohicans Herman Melville Moby Dick Louisa May Alcott Little Women Harriet Beecher Stowe Uncle Tom’s Cabin Charles Darwin Frederick Douglas and many more


Sub-Movements of Romanticism :Sub-Movements of Romanticism Gothicism Explored conflicts between good and evil, psychological effects of guilt and sin, and madness The Gothic novel had wild, haunted landscapes It had supernatural events It was often mysterious Edgar Allan Poe One of America’s best known writers Master of the horror genre The Fall of the House of Usher The Raven


Sub-Movements of Romanticism :Sub-Movements of Romanticism Transcendentalism The idea that in determining the ultimate reality of God, the universe, the self, and other important matters, one must transcend, or go beyond, everyday human experience in the physical world. Ralph Waldo Emerson Nature Self-Reliance Henry David Thoreau Walden Resistance to Civil Government Walden Pond


Romantic Poets :Romantic Poets William Cullen Bryant Thanatopsis Oliver Wendell Holmes The Chambered Nautilus Emily Dickinson Heart! We will forget him! Some keep the Sabbath going to Church Tell all the Truth but tell it slant Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls The Cross of Snow Walt Whitman I Hear America Singing Song of Myself