Lesson 14.2: American Art and Literature Today we will discuss the art and literature of early national America.

Vocabulary celebration – the act of praising or giving honor civil – of citizens transcend – exceed, go beyond

What We Already Know During the Enlightenment, the human mind and its powers of reason were celebrated over superstition and religious belief.

What We Already Know During the Industrial Revolution, machines and unskilled workers replaced skilled craftsmen in the work place, making manufacturing much more dull and mindless.

What We Already Know In the decades after the War of 1812, a strong feeling of national pride swept the United States, and increased as the nation expanded westward.

Many American writers were influenced by a style of European art called romanticism. Romanticism was a reaction against the Enlightenment, the Scientific Revolution, and industrialization. It looked back fondly on the past, when life seemed simpler. In Romanticism, emotions and imagination were considered more important than intellect or reason.

Romanticism drew inspiration from nature. Nature was a place free from society's judgment and restrictions. Romanticism stressed the individual, imagination, creativity, and emotion.

An example of the Romantic attitude, expressed by German author Johann Wolfgang Goethe: “All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.”

Choose the one that is NOT true! 2a. What was romanticism? Romanticism stressed the individual, imagination, creativity, and emotion. Romanticism was a reaction against the Enlightenment, the Scientific Revolution, and industrialization. It looked back fondly on the past, when life seemed simpler. In Romanticism, emotions and imagination were considered less important than intellect or reason. Choose the one that is NOT true!

Romanticism encouraged American writers to create truly American works.

1. American writers turned their interest in nature into a celebration of the American wilderness. James Fenimore Cooper wrote five novels about the dramatic adventures of wilderness scout ….. …… Natty Bumppo. Cooper’s historical romances of frontier and Indian life in the early American days created a unique form of American literature. One that remains popular: ‘The Last of the Mohicans’.

2. American writers began using a more American style of writing. Noah Webster gave guidelines to that style in his American Dictionary of the English Language. Webster’s dictionary replaced British spellings with American, and included American slang.

3. Writers celebrated America’s past. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote many poems that retold stories from history. His most famous, “Paul Revere’s Ride,” depicted the Revolutionary War hero’s ride to warn of a British attack.

Washington Irving also wrote stories about colonial life. One story, “Rip Van Winkle,” tells of a man who falls asleep on the eve of the Revolutionary War and wakes up 20 years later. In another, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, a teacher is chased by the headless ghost of a Revolutionary War soldier and is never seen again.

Washington Irving’s work helped to win European respect for American writing for the first time.

2b. How did American writers adapt romanticism? They turned its interest in nature into a celebration of the American wilderness. They turned its focus on heroic figures into stories about legendary figures from tall tales. They replaced its religious themes with Native American myths. They transformed its love of nature into stories about turning wilderness into civilization.

1. Why are Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” important in American literature? They were the first to include American slang words. They were the first stories ever written about life in the United States. They helped win European respect for American writing. They helped inspire Americans to rebel against British rule.

European styles also influenced American artists, but some painters took these styles in new directions.

3. What were three ways in which writers helped create a truly American style of writing? Their works celebrated the American wilderness. They used American English in their writings. They wrote about the American past. They wrote very negative stories and novels about the European noble classes.

1. Some American artists, influenced by romanticism, painted lush natural landscapes. One group of painters was known as the Hudson River School. They were so named because they painted the dramatic beauty of the Hudson River Valley in the state of New York.

Asher Durand was a founder of the Hudson River School. His most famous painting, Kindred Spirits, shows two men inspired by a beautiful landscape. The men are Durand’s friends, the Romantic poet William Cullen Bryant and Romantic painter Thomas Cole.

Several members of the Hudson River School went to the West. In their paintings, they tried to convey the majesty of the American landscape.

2. Others painted American wildlife. John James Audubon came to the United States from France at age 18. Traveling across the continent, Audubon painted the birds and animals of his adopted country.

3. Enslaved African Americans also contributed to American art, crafting beautiful baskets, quilts, and pottery.

4. What subjects did the early American painters focus on? the lush landscapes of the Hudson River Valley the majestic mountain ranges of the West the birds and animals of the American wilderness the portraits of European political and military leaders. Choose the one that is NOT true!

By the 1840s, Americans took new pride in their emerging culture. Ralph Waldo Emerson, a New England writer, encouraged this pride. He urged Americans to cast off European influence and develop their own beliefs. His advice was to learn about life from self-examination and from nature, as well as books.

Emerson’s student, Henry David Thoreau, followed that advice. In 1845, Thoreau retreated into a simple cabin he had built at Walden Pond in Massachusetts, where he wrote about the benefits of living a simple life. Thoreau wrote that people should live by their own individual standards, and march to their own inner drummer.

Emerson and Thoreau followed a new philosophy called transcendentalism. It taught that the spiritual world is more important than the physical world. It also taught that people can find the truth within themselves through feeling and intuition.

Transcendentalists believed that society and its institutions—particularly organized religion and political parties—ultimately corrupted the purity of the individual. They had faith that people are at their best when truly "self-reliant" and independent. 

5. What did transcendentalists like Emerson and Thoreau believe? People should learn about life through self-reflection as well as from books. The spiritual world is less important than the physical world. People should learn about life through studying nature as well as from books. It is important that people obey all laws, even those they consider unjust. Choose ALL that are true!

Thoreau and Civil Disobedience Because Thoreau believed in the importance of individual conscience, he urged people not to obey laws they considered unjust. Instead of protesting with violence, they should peacefully refuse to obey those laws (civil disobedience).

Thoreau and Civil Disobedience For example: Thoreau did not want to support the U.S. government, which allowed slavery and fought the War with Mexico. Instead of paying taxes that helped to finance the war, Thoreau went to jail.

6. Why did Thoreau commit an act of civil disobedience by not paying his taxes? His Transcendentalist beliefs required him to be poor. He didn't want the tax money to be used to support the war with Mexico. As a Transcendentalist, he did not recognize the authority of any government. He was living in isolation at Walden Pond and didn't know the tax was due.

Alcott was active in abolition and suffrage movements. Louisa May Alcott began her writing career as a transcendentalist poet in the 1850s. But Alcott achieved her greatest fame in 1868 with her book Little Women, which became popular with children as well as adults. Alcott was active in abolition and suffrage movements.

Little Women was a fiction novel for girls that veered from the normal writings for children, especially girls, at the time.  Little Women has three major themes:” domesticity, work, and true love. All of them are interdependent and each is necessary to the achievement of a heroine’s individual identity.”

Another New England transcendentalist, Margaret Fuller, also called for change. In her magazine, The Dial, and in her book, Woman in the Nineteenth Century, Fuller argued for women’s rights.

Like Thoreau, other writers broke with tradition. In 1855, poet Walt Whitman published Leaves of Grass, a book that changed American poetry. His bold, unrhymed poems praised ordinary people.

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done; The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won; The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring: But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.

Emily Dickinson was another transcendentalist poet. Dickinson lived in her family’s home almost her entire life. She wrote poems about God, nature, love, and death. Most of her 1,775 poems were published only after her death.

Emily Dickinson Part Four: Time and Eternity EXULTATION is the going Of an inland soul to sea,— Past the houses, past the headlands, Into deep eternity! Bred as we, among the mountains, Can the sailor understand The divine intoxication Of the first league out from land?

Both Whitman and Dickinson shaped modern poetry by experimenting with language.

Fiction writers of the 1800s also shaped American literature. Edgar Allan Poe wrote terrifying tales that influence today’s horror story writers. He also wrote the first detective story, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.”

The novel shows that harsh judgment without mercy can lead to tragedy. Nathaniel Hawthorne depicted love, guilt, and revenge during Puritan times in ‘The Scarlet Letter’. The novel shows that harsh judgment without mercy can lead to tragedy.

Hawthorne may have learned that lesson from his family history. One of his ancestors condemned people at the Salem witchcraft trials.

Herman Melville won fame by writing thrilling novels about his experiences as a sailor. In 1851, Melville published his master-piece, Moby Dick, about a man’s destructive desire to kill a white whale. Although the novel was not popular when it was published, it is widely read now.

While writers portrayed the harmful effects of cruel actions, other Americans were working to make their society better.

7. How did the writers of the mid-1800s shape modern literature? They wrote stories that portrayed the harmful effects of cruel actions. They gave up fictional characters and chose to write only about historical figures. Their characters showed that individuals could change society for the better. They introduced new forms of writing, such as unrhymed poems, horror stories, and detective stories. Choose the one that is NOT true!