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
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.
Characteristics of American Romanticism Values feeling and emotions over reason Strong belief in the power of the imagination Love and respect of Nature Prefers youthful innocence to educated sophistication Focus on the individual Contemplates nature’s beauty as a path to spiritual and moral development
Characteristics (continued) Inspired by the past Fascination with the supernatural, the mysterious and the gothic Idealism Sees poetry as the highest expression of the imagination Finds inspiration in myth, legend, and folk culture Nationalism
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
New American Novelists Herman Melville - (ex-sailor) wrote Moby Dick Nathaniel Hawthorne - wrote The Scarlet Letter
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
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
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
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