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American Romanticism 1800 - 1860 We will walk with our own feet we will work with our own hands we will speak our own minds -Ralph Waldo Emerson.

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Presentation on theme: "American Romanticism 1800 - 1860 We will walk with our own feet we will work with our own hands we will speak our own minds -Ralph Waldo Emerson."— Presentation transcript:

1 American Romanticism 1800 - 1860 We will walk with our own feet we will work with our own hands we will speak our own minds -Ralph Waldo Emerson

2 Romanticism is the name given to those schools of thought that value feeling and intuition over reason. §Romantics believed that the imagination was able to discover truths that the rational mind could not reach. §Usually accompanied by powerful emotion and associated with natural, unspoiled beauty. §Imagination, individual feelings, and wild nature were of greater value than reason, logic, and cultivation.

3 §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.

4 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. §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.

5 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.

6 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.

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

8 Political and Social Milestones §The Louisiana Purchase - 1803 §The Gold Rush - 1849 §Education and Reform

9 Rationalism vs Romanticism §The rationalists believed the city to be a place to find success and self-realization §The romantics associated the countryside with independence, moral clarity, and healthful living.

10 Characteristics of American Romanticism §Values feeling and intuition over reason §Places faith in inner experience and the power of the 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  Contemplates nature ’ s beauty as a path to spiritual and moral development

11 Characteristics (continued) §Looks backward to the wisdom of the past and distrusts progress §Finds beauty and truth in exotic locals, the supernatural realm, and the inner world of the imagination §Sees poetry as the highest expression of the imagination §Finds inspiration in myth, legend, and fold culture

12 Rising to higher truths §through the exploration of the past and of exotic, even supernatural, realms--the Gothic novel--old legends and folklore §through the contemplation of the natural world--lyric poetry--its underlying beauty and truth

13 The New American Novel §James Fenimore Cooper §Natty Bumpo - new kind of hero §Triumph of American innocence §Popular twenty and twenty-first century Romantic heroes

14 The Fireside Poets §Opposite of novelists - worked within European literary traditions §Used English themes, meter, imagery with American settings and subjects §Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier, Oliver Wendel Holmes, James Russell Lowell

15 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 influenced by ancient Greek - Plato §Also based on Puritan belief and Romantics §Based on intuition; optimistic  Henry David Thoreau Emerson ’ s close friend

16 The Realm of Darkness §Edgar Allen Poe with Hawthorne and Melville known and anti-Transcendentalists §Had much in common with Trascendentalists §Explored conflicts between good and evil, psychological effects of guilt and sin, and madness

17 Whitman and Dickinson 19th century ’ s greatest poets §Spoke to the masses §Universal brotherhood, democracy §Aimed for overall impression, free verse based on cadence §Obscure homebody §In nature, found metaphors for the spirit §Meticulous word choice, precise language, evoking feelings

18 Manifest Destiny

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23 Asher Durand, “Kindred Spirits” (1848)

24 Thomas Cole, “The Falls of Kaaterskill ” (1826) §“§“

25 Thomas Cole, The Oxbow (View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm, 1836)

26 Frederic Edwin Church, “The Natural Bridge” (1852)

27 Alfred Bierstadt, “Emigrants Crossing the Plains” (1867)

28 Alfred Bierstadt, “Looking Up the Yosemite Valley” (ca. 1865-67)


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