5. The American Renaissance (1800s-1865)
American Romanticism
The American Renaissance
(1800s-1865)

7. Romanticism
Began in Germany during the second half of the 18th century
Influenced literature, music, and art

8. Tenets of Romanticism
Imagination, spontaneity, individual feelings, and nature were of greater value than reason, logic, planning, and cultivation.
Imagination was able to discover truths that reason could not reach. These truths were usually accompanied by powerful emotion and associated with beauty.

9. Romantic Literature
Sought to rise above “dull realities” to a realm of higher truth by:
Exploring exotic settings in the more “natural” past—a world far away from the industrial cities
Contemplating the natural world until dull reality falls away to reveal underlying beauty and truth
Common theme-- in NATURE and CHILDHOOD we see universal, spiritual truths

10. Other Themes in Romantic Literature
City= moral corruption and death
Countryside= independence, straightforward moral certainty, and health
Development of self/self-awareness
The individual had a moral duty to reform social inequalities and relieve human suffering

11. Transcendentalism
“ It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, always do what you are afraid to do.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

12. What is Transcendentalism?
A literary movement in the 1830’s that established a clear “American voice”.
Idealistic philosophy, spiritual position, and literary movement that advocates reliance on romantic intuition and moral human conscience
A movement that focused primarily on the individual arriving at his own beliefs about the world.
Transcendentalism had different meanings for each person involved in the movement.

13. Where did it come from?
Ralph Waldo Emerson gave German philosopher Immanuel Kant credit for popularizing the term “transcendentalism.”
It began as a reform movement in the Unitarian church.
It is not a religion—more accurately, it is a philosophy or form of spirituality.
It centered around Boston and Concord, MA. in the mid-1800’s.
Emerson first expressed his philosophy of transcendentalism in his essay Nature

14. What did Transcendentalists believe?
There is an ideal spiritual state which “transcends” the physical and empirical.
Opposed the strict ritualism and dogma of established religion and the objectivity of science.

15. Transcendentalist Beliefs, cont’d
Unlike Puritans, they saw humans and nature as possessing an innate goodness.
“In the faces of men and women, I see God”
-Walt Whitman
Believed in living close to nature/importance of nature. Nature is the source of truth and inspiration.
Taught the dignity of manual labor
Advocated self-trust/ confidence
Valued individuality/non-conformity/free thought
Advocated self-reliance/ simplicity

17. Who were the Transcendentalists?
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Henry David Thoreau
Amos Bronson Alcott
Margaret Fuller
Ellery Channing

18. Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882 Unitarian minister Poet and essayist
Founded the Transcendental Club
Popular lecturer
Banned from Harvard for 40 years following his Divinity School address
Supporter of abolitionism

19. Henry David Thoreau 1817-1862 Schoolteacher, essayist, poet
Most famous for Walden and Civil Disobedience
Influenced environmental movement
Supporter of abolitionism

20. Anti-Transcendentalism
Contrasts transcendentalism by focusing on the darkness of the human soul
Six characteristics of anti-transcendentalism
Evil: believed in the inherent of evil within humans
Guilt: common motif of inherited guilt (like the Puritans)
Limitations: limitations of the knowledge of the human spirit
Natural world was unexplainable, unpredictable, indifferent, and often paradoxical (give and take)
Human potential for both good and bad, but no in between
Truths of existence are elusive and disturbing
Authors: Nathaniel Hawthorne who wrote The Scarlet letter and Herman Melville who wrote Moby Dick.