Romanticism, Transcendentalism, and Gothic Literature

Literary Movements The Enlightenment Romanticism Transcendentalism Gothic Dark Romanticism

The Enlightenment A cultural movement beginning in the mid-1600s and ending with the French Revolution (1789). Emphasized reason and individualism over superstition and tradition. Goals: reform society through reason, challenge ideas based in tradition and faith, and advance knowledge using the scientific method. Man could arrive at truths, improve the world, and improve himself by using logic to make conclusions, testing the conclusions against evidence, and then revising his conclusions based on the evidence.

Romanticism A movement in art, literature, and music dating from the French Revolution (1789) to the Civil War (1865). Romanticism was a reaction to Enlightenment thought. This was the first major literary movement to catch hold in America (prior to this, Americans had typically stuck to religious writing and non-fiction about exploration and life in the new world).

No More Reason, No More Logic After the Scientific Revolution, people believed all truth and knowledge could be discovered through using reason and logic, science and math. These were the ideas of The Enlightenment. Romantics disagreed entirely. They emphasized the heart over the head.

Heart over Head! Romantics placed a high value on “intuition,” or listening to one’s feelings, emotions, and instincts, rather than using logic and reason to find out what is true or good. They felt that artists should create from feeling, impulse, emotion, and spontaneous inspiration. Thus, logical thinking had no place in artistic expression: one should not try to make everything super realistic. Often, the supernatural and dreams were important elements in these stories.

Nature (a Romantic motif) Because Romantics believed emotions lead to truth, they sought out intense emotional experiences. “The sublime” is a feeling of awe and terror; they felt nature was powerful, immense, and majestic, so it could easily make people feel awe and fear at the same time. They went out into nature alone to feel those intense emotions.

Optimism! The Romantics were idealists. They believed man was good, and he could make the world a better place. They said thought (our mind and spirit) makes the world the way that it is; thus, positive thinking actually makes the world a good place (if you think it’s good, then it is). They were very optimistic about life

Individualism! Romantics believed people should listen to their own feelings and their own individual moral compass to guide their actions and to find what is good and right, rather than just following what society says. They felt society was bad and led us to false truths; we should be true individuals and search for our own individual truths.

Nature (continued) Because they distrusted society, believing societal institutions were bad and led to false beliefs, they turned to nature as being capable of showing and teaching man what was true and good. If man could connect with nature, he could better understand it, and thus better understand himself and the deep truths of life.

Transcendentalism An American philosophy (1820-1830) that stressed the inherent goodness in people and in nature. They shared Romanticism’s beliefs, such as, the importance of nature the idea that society and its institutions ultimately corrupted the purity of the individual. the idea that people could only be good and true when totally independent and self-reliant.

Transcendentalism and the Oversoul They also believed God was within all people and all of nature. Their divine spirit was called the “Oversoul. They believed in an ideal spiritual state which went beyond logic or doctrine and could only be found through one’s intuition. This is where the idea of “transcending” comes from: going beyond the physical and into the spiritual. They felt that if people had the freedom to be independent thinkers, then the essential unity of creation and the goodness of man would come out.

Gothic Literature Like Romanticism, Gothic literature arose around the same time (mid-1700s) and was wildly popular up until the Civil War. Both Gothic and Romantic writers were reacting to the Enlightenment, and both wanted to free man’s imagination from the constraints of logic and reason. However, Gothics saw POTENTIAL EVIL in the individual, while Romantics saw HOPE in the individual.

Gothic Conventions Characters: Setting: ancient castles, decaying estates, weird or haunted places Plot: strange and terrifying events; supernatural events extreme situations (murder, torture, revenge) These situations bring out man’s true nature, and it is NOT good Characters: Supernatural characters like ghosts, demons, and monsters (such as werewolves or vampires) insane male characters beautiful women who are dead/dying

Gothic Conventions Style: “macabre” ma·ca·bre (adj) including gruesome and horrific details of death and decay imaginative distortion of reality dark atmosphere Subjects: the unknown, the fantastic, the demonic, insanity, the human heart and mind

Dark Romanticism Dark Romanticism was a 19th century (1840-60) literary movement that focused on the dark side of humanity and the evil and guilt associated with man’s sinful nature This focus is similar to the Gothic focus, but these writers didn’t always use the Gothic conventions, which are very specific.

Why did this movement begin? (1) It began as reaction to a perceived naiveté in the unbridled optimism and idealism of the Romantics and Transcendentalists. It also challenges Enlightenment notions about reason and logic, as the Romantics did. Many scholars also argue that Dark Romanticism was born out of a human tendency to dwell on feelings of guilt and remorse over past sins.

Why did this movement begin? (2) Additionally, writers were discontented with the ills of American society in the 1800s (poverty, mistreatment of workers, slavery, lack of women’s rights). Romantics/Transcendentalists were optimistic, and they thought these problems could be solved with a little positivity and good work. Dark Romantics did NOT feel this way. They were very negative.

Characteristics: Negativity Mankind is generally destructive and evil; man is inherently sinful, and evil is an overwhelming force working through the universe. Man is bound for failure because he is always uncertain, always running into his own limitations, and always ineffective.

Characteristics: Individualism + Negativity Like the Romantics/Transcendentalists, Dark Romantics believed there were no universal truths -- we should all find individual truths. However, they believed these truths would not be good; instead the truth was usually disturbing and awful.

Characteristics: Extreme Situations Romantics &Transcendentalists felt man should examine his emotions to find truths about the world and himself. They sought out the “sublime” as an extreme situation, and they felt the truths they would find would be good and positive. Gothics and Dark Romantics also felt that examining emotions would lead to understanding man’s true nature, but they felt man was inherently weak and sinful. They used extreme situations in their plots to show this side of humanity.

Characteristics: Nature They agreed with the Romantics that nature was vast, awe-inspiring, and incredibly powerful. However, they felt that nature’s power and immensity just showed how small, weak, and ineffective man was. It showed man could never understand God at all. Often, they portrayed nature as the evil entity, and man was trying to work for good, but nature was too powerful, and man was too weak; thus, he had to fail. Sometimes, they used man vs. nature conflicts to bring out man’s evil side (“evil” man vs. “good” nature).

Writing Style Their writing was very much like Gothic writing, but it lacked the gothic settings, characters, and sense of the supernatural. Their diction was straight-forward and raw. The mood of their stories was usually gloomy. They focused on the inner mind and internal conflicts and struggles of the protagonist. Their protagonists were often haunted by some mental problem or past sin, and they were usually alienated from society. They used a lot of symbolism.