American Romanticism 1800 - 1860

Historical Background Optimism Successful revolt against English rule Room to grow Frontier Vast expanse Freedom No geographic limitations

Historical Background Experimentation Science Social institutions Immigration Industrialization Differences between North and South grow (agricultural v. industrial economies)

Characteristics The Five I’s Imagination Intuition Idealism Inspiration Individuality

Subject Matter Quest for beauty Escape from daily troubles Journey to freedom, represented in nature as opposed to the oppressive city Use of far-away, imaginative settings Supernatural, myth, legend & folklore

Literary Techniques Remote settings Improbable plots Experimentation in new forms of writing

Romantic Authors Washington Irving Nathaniel Hawthorne Rip Van Winkle The Scarlet Letter

Sub-Movements of Romanticism Gothicism Edgar Allan Poe The Fall of the House of Usher The Raven Nathaniel Hawthorne The Minister’s Black Veil

Sub-Movements of Romanticism Transcendentalism Ralph Waldo Emerson Nature Self-Reliance Henry David Thoreau Walden Resistance to Civil Government

Romantic Poets William Cullen Bryant Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Thanatopsis Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls The Cross of Snow Oliver Wendell Holmes The Chambered Nautilus

Romantic Poets Emily Dickinson Walt Whitman Heart! We will forget him! Some keep the Sabbath going to Church Tell all the Truth but tell it slant Walt Whitman I Hear America Singing Song of Myself

The Arts Romanticism was a movement across all the arts: visual art, music, and literature. All of the arts embraced themes prevalent in the Middle Ages: chivalry, courtly love. Shakespeare came back into vogue.

Visual Arts: Examples Romantic Art Neoclassical Art