1800-1855 American Romanticism
Historical Context Louisiana Purchase of 1803 doubled the size of the U.S. and created the vast frontier War of 1812 established the U.S. as a nation who could defend herself and led to a sense of identity and patriotism as a nation, and the desire to create art and literature that was distinctly American. Indian Removal Act of 1830 pushed Native Americans further west “Manifest Destiny” – the idea that the U.S. was destined to expand to the Pacific and into Mexican territory Mexican-American war of 1845
Industrial Revolution War of 1812 led to increased industry in America in response to interruptions in trade Factories changed American culture as people left their farms for jobs in the cities. Wages and working conditions were often harsh. Increased demand for cotton fueled the necessity of slavery in the South. Romantic writers reacted to these negative changes, and turned to nature and self for beauty, simplicity, and truth.
Contrast of Romanticism and Classicism Romantic Values/ Traits Classical Values/Traits Emotional Individualistic Revolutionary Solitude and Nature Fantasy/Introspection Subjective perception Creative power Exotic Noble Savage Idealist Rational Public Responsibility Conservative Public life/urban External reality Objective science Form Mundane Bourgeois family Materialist
Cultural Influences Slavery Abolition- Romantics brought attention to the evils of slavery through their writing. Social Reform - Women’s Rights - Labor Reforms Nationalism vs. Sectionalism- writers sought to create a unique American voice/slavery created division
Romanticism in Art Fishermen at Sea, by JMW Turner, 1794 Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, by Caspar David Friedrich, 1818 Fishermen at Sea, by JMW Turner, 1794
Hudson River School Jasper Francis Cropsey Voyage of life-Thomas cole 1840 Jasper Francis Cropsey
American Romantic Writers James Fenimore Cooper Emily Dickinson Frederick Douglass Ralph Waldo Emerson Margaret Fuller Nathaniel Hawthorne Washington Irving Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Herman Melville Edgar Allen Poe Henry David Thoreau Walt Whitman
Fireside Poets Group of New England poets Henry Wadsworth Longfellow- “Evangeline,” “The Song of Hiawatha” James Russell Lowell Oliver Wendell Holmes John Greenleaf Whittier
Transcendentalists Emphasized simple life Nature Celebrated emotions and the imagination Individualism and self-reliance Intuition can lead to knowledge Belief in human goodness Emphasized spiritual over material Ralph Waldo Emerson- “Self-Reliance” Henry David Thoreau- “Civil Disobedience”
American Gothic Dark literature-focus on human capacity for evil “Anti-transcendentalists” Focus on human motives Gothic elements: grotesque characters, bizarre situations, violent events Poe, Hawthorne, Melville