1. American Romanticism

2. Important Historical Background
Period of rapid growth: Louisiana Purchase, nationalism, and self-awareness.
War of America is “for real.”
Mexican-American War ( ) – Texas comes in as a slave state
Rapid Growth in transportation—canals, roads, railroad
Industrial growth—spinning mills, Eli Whitney's cotton gin, telegraph, steel plow, reaper
Conflicts arise from growth: women’s rights, abolitionism, child labor laws, the laborer, overcrowding, education.

3. Historical Background, cont…
Policies adopted in this period placed emphasis on energy, enterprise and personal achievement.
Laissez-faire (“leave it alone”) capitalism reigned. (recall reference to speculation in Tom Walker – unregulated trade). America as a giant workshop.
Emphasis on business, growing personal wealth and getting ahead became the underpinning for what most American believed was the ideal democratic society.

4. Historical Background, cont…
Cities grew in size
Populations scattered and the number of states increased
Growth and expansion gave the nation a firm belief in it’s own progress
Frontier instilled a sense of optimism
Political climate that elevated self-made men like Andrew Jackson instilled the populace with faith in the power of the individual to rise above his or her own circumstances and fashion his or her own place in the world.
Gave a collective sense of rising above, both on a cultural and individual level, created fertile ground for an optimistic, if not idealistic, American philosophy to take hold

5. Historical Background, cont…
Such growth and advancement imbued Americans with a collective sense of optimism and belief in progress.
Americans knew they had a special place in history
That feeling pervaded everything they thought, did, or believed.
Nothing seemed to deter America’s growth in the nineteenth century.
Geographically – America was pushing frontiers to the Pacific
Politically – it was finding its identity as a democratic government divided into three branches
Socially – it was in a fervent state of development and reform, constantly creating and developing new communities with its ever-expanding boundaries.

6. Would embrace all the exuberance and drama of the period.
Romanticism:
Romanticism, with its emphasis on the FIVE I’s
Imagination
Intuition
Idealism
Inspiration
Individuality
Would embrace all the exuberance and drama of the period.

7. Romanticism: Genres and Subgenres
Literary Nationalism
Transcendentalism
Anti-Transcendentalism
(Dark Romantics – Gothic Literature)
Realism
The Fireside Poets

8. Romanticism: Basic Concepts
Indeed, Romanticism is a reaction to Rationalism
Romanticism is the name given to those schools of thought
that value feeling and intuition over reason.
Age of Reason
Realism
Patrician Classicism
Dominion over the Native American
Logic, always facts to counter fear and doubt
The city as a place of industry, success, self realization, and civilization.
Romanticism
Idealism/Utopia
Glorification of the common man
Recognition of the nobility of the primitive
Imagination to engender faith and hope
The city as a place of poor work conditions, moral ambiguity, corruption, and death.

9. Romanticism: Transition From Old to New
Prior to the American Romantic period, nearly all American literature is based on European models.
American authors had not yet found a unique and “American” perspective to write from.
The American frontier was a unique experience – all of Europe had been settled for hundreds of years.
Novels related to westward expansion and the development of the frontier provided the first break from European literature
In addition, Europeans tended to view Americans as unsophisticated and uncivilized.
Some people (Like Benjamin Franklin) were offended by the European image of Americans and fought to prove it was untrue.
The American Romantics turned the insult on its head
They emphasized that there was more virtue in American innocence than in European sophistication, and more truths to be discovered in the American wilderness than in libraries or cities.

10. Romanticism
Romantic writers placed a new emphasis on intuitive, “felt” experience and often contrasted poetry with science, which they saw as destroying the very truth it claimed to seek.
The romantics wanted to rise above “dull realities” to a realm of higher truth and searched for exotic settings in the more “natural” past or in a world far removed from the grimy and noisy industrial age.
Romantic writers tried to reflect on the natural world until dull reality fell away to reveal underlying beauty and truth.

11. Characteristics of American Romanticism
Values feeling and intuition over reason.
Place faith in inner experience and the power of imagination.
Shuns the artificiality of civilization and seeks unspoiled nature.
Prefers youthful innocence to educated sophistication.
Champions individual freedom and the worth of the individual.
Reflects on nature’s beauty as a path to spiritual and moral development.
Looks backward to the wisdom of the past and distrusts progress – the Old World, noble or high-born families, baronial dwellings.
Finds beauty and truth in exotic locales, the supernatural realm and the inner world of the imagination.
Sees poetry as the highest expression of imagination.
Finds inspiration in myth, legend, and folklore.
Truth in Absolutes
Heroes = Idealized; impossibly perfect; extraordinary people in extraordinary situations
Anti-Heroes/Enemies = pure evil
Morality, thus, is absolute
All good or all evil; no gray area
Emphasis
Extraordinary people in extraordinary situations

12. The Romantic Hero
The romantic hero was one of the most important products of the early American novel.
The rational hero, like Ben Franklin, was worldly, educated, sophisticated, and bent on making a place for himself in civilization.
The typical hero in American Romantic fiction was youthful, innocent, intuitive, and close to nature.

13. Characteristics of the American Romantic Hero
Young or possesses youthful qualities.
Innocent and pure of purpose.
Has a sense of honor based not on society’s rules but on some higher principle.
Has a knowledge of people and life based on deep, intuitive understanding, not on formal learning.
Loves nature and avoids town life.
Quests for some higher truth in the natural world.

14. Romantic Techniques Remoteness of setting in time and place.
Improbable plots.
Unlikely characterization.
Informal writing style.
Experiments in new forms.
Individualized form of writing, subjective form of writing

15. American Romantic Writers
Literary Nationalism Authors
Washington Irving (American anti-hero)
“Legend of Sleepy Hollow”
“Rip Van Winkle”
“The Devil and Tom Walker”
James Fenimore Cooper (The Frontiersmen)
The Last of the Mohicans
Leatherstocking Tales
Literary Nationalism Characteristics
Excessive pride in country
Growing sense of self (national identity)
Self examination and criticism
Beginning of real American literature
Influential and respected in Europe
Written by professional writers

16. Fireside Poets
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,
John Greenleaf Whittier
Oliver Wendell Holmes
James Russell Lowell
Fireside Poets Characteristics
First group of American poets to rival British poets in popularity in either country.
Notable for their scholarship and the resilience of their lines and themes.
Preferred conventional forms over experimentation.
Often used American legends and scenes of American life as their subject matter.

17. Washington Irving (1793-1859) Father of American Literature
First American writer to gain European respect.
Best-known for his short stories and caricatures that celebrate America’s past.
His characters are humorously drawn stereotypes that represent American traits.
Stories set in quant American villages (generally in New York’s Hudson River area).
His plots convey conventional morals.
Works include “The Devil and Tom Walker,” “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” and “Rip Van Winkle.”

18. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
Father of American poetry and a member of the Fireside Poets.
Traditionally formatted, sentimental, optimistic lyrics give a romanticized version of America’s early history.
Works include “Hiawatha,” “The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls,” and “Paul Revere’s ride.”

19. Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) Father of the American detective story.
As famous for his trouble life as his literature.
Defined the short story as we know it today, as well as the psychological thriller.
Poetry reflects his belief in the power of sound and the impact of the death of a beautiful woman.
Stories are not typically American, in that they don’t highlight American characters or settings.
Works include “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Telltale Heart,” and “The Raven.”