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

Political and Social Milestones §The Louisiana Purchase §The Gold Rush §Education and Reform

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 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

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

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

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 §More a “coming of age” not a renaissance

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