1. American Romanticism: 1800-1860
Light Romanticism, Dark Romanticism, Transcendentalism

2. Romanticism as a Journey
Away from
Corruption of civilization
Limits of rational thought

3. Romanticism as a Journey
Toward
Integrity of nature
Freedom of imagination
Actually grew out of a latent idealism as expressed by Jonathan Edwards
Source The Deerslayer N. C. Wyeth

4. Which are you? Romantic Rational Intuitive Nature-loving Practical
Worldly

5. Imagination
Beauty
Truth

6. Big Ideas of Romanticism
Intuition
Experience
Individual
Nature
Ideal
Intuition is more trustworthy than reason
Personal experience > universal principles
Individual is center of life; God is center of individual
Nature is symbolic—leads to understanding of supernatural
We shouild strive for the ideal—what is ought to be
source: Skipp, Francis in American Literature

7. Characteristics of American Romanticism
Values feeling over reason
Places faith in inner experience and imagination
Shuns artificiality of civilization; seeks unspoiled nature
Prefers youthful innocence to educated sophistication
Emphasizes individual freedom and worth
Believes nature’s beauty can lead to spiritual and moral development
Elements of Literature (145)

8. Characteristics of American Romanticism
Looks backward to the wisdom of past and distrusts progress (Science)
Finds beauty and truth in
Exotic locales
Supernatural realm
Inner world of the imagination
Sees poetry as the highest expression of the imagination
Finds inspiration in myth, legend, and folk culture
Elements of Literature (145)

9. A New Hero Young or youthful Innocent and pure of purpose
Sense of honor based on principle higher than society’s rules
Understanding of the world is intuitive, not based on formal learning
Loves nature
Quests for higher truth in the natural world
Elements of Literature 149

10. Legacy Lasting Effects of American Romanticism
Humanitarian reform
Abolitionism
Feminism
Liberal religious movements
Unitariansim
Universalism
Economic experiments
Communal living (Brook Farm, New Harmony)
James D. Hart, The Oxford Companion to American Literature, 6th ed. (572).

11. Light Romanticism Emily Dickinson Walt Whitman
“Some Keep the Sabbath Going to Church”
Walt Whitman
“Learn'd Astronomer”
Focus on the inherent inner light of humans, the beauty of nature, and the perfection of the universe.

12. Dark Romanticism Nathaniel Hawthorne
“The Birthmark” (packet 131)
Focus on the inherent inner darkness of humans, the perverseness of spirit, and the punishing nature of the universe.

13. Hudson River Painters
Art as an agent of moral and spiritual transformation
Kindred Spirits, Asher B. Durand, 1849

14. Transcendentalism Immanuel Kant
“…concerned not with objects but with our mode of knowing objects."
source

15. Transcendental Beliefs
the spark of divinity lies within man;
everything in the world is a microcosm of existence
the individual soul is identical to the world soul (Emerson’s Over-Soul)
By meditation, by communing with nature, through work and art, man could transcend his senses and attain an understanding of beauty and goodness and truth.
source

16. Transcendentalists Belief in the Inner Light Authority of Self
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s doctrine of Self-Reliance
Henry David Thoreau's civil disobedience,
Utopian communities at Brook Farm
source

17. Transcendentalism Ralph Waldo Emerson “Henry David Thoreau
“Self Reliance” (packet 67)
“Henry David Thoreau
Walden
Solitude (packet 80)
Conclusion (packet 84)
Built on the idea of the inner light, but believed that this was the divine spark, that humans carry God inside us. And because we all carry the divine, we are all capable of perfection.

18. Anti-Transcendentalism
Causes
Opposed the optimism and idealism of transcendentalists
Dwelt on guilt and remorse over past sins
Discontented with circumstances in America
Women’s rights, slavery, poor educational system, lack of justice

19. Key Beliefs/Philosophies
Belief in potential destructiveness of human spirit
Belief in individual truths, not universal ones
Focus on man’s uncertainty and limitations in the universe
Nature is vast and incomprehensible

20. Style Man vs. Nature conflicts – bring out evil in humanity
Focus on protagonist’s inner struggles
Usually outsiders who are alienated from society
Lots of symbolism and allegory