1. Notes on American Romanticism (1780-1860):
Cornerstones of American Romanticism:
Power of nature
Optimism
Belief in supernatural
Individualism
American Romanticism can best be described as a journey away from the corruption of civilization and the limits of rational thought toward the integrity of nature and the freedom of the imagination.

2. NOTES ON AMERICAN ROMANTICISM (1780-1860)
Originally a European movement
Emphasized feeling and intuition over reason
Sought wisdom in natural beauty
Valued poetry above all other works of imagination.
looked to westward expansion / development of the frontier for inspiration, creating subject matter that broke with European tradition.
American Romanticism took two roads on the journey to understanding higher truths. One road led to the exploration of the past and of exotic, even supernatural, realms (American Gothic); the other road led to the contemplation of the natural world (Transcendentalism).

3. Characteristics of American Romanticism:
Values feeling and intuition over reason.
Places faith in inner experience and power of the imagination.
Shuns artificiality of civilization and seeks unspoiled nature.
Prefers youthful innocence to educated sophistication.
Sees poetry as the highest expression of imagination.
Finds inspiration in myth, legend, and folk culture.
Champions individual freedom and worth of individual.
Contemplates nature’s beauty as a path to spiritual and moral development.
Looks backwards to the wisdom of the past and distrusts progress.
Finds beauty and truth in exotic locales, the supernatural realm, and the inner world of the imagination.

4. Characteristics of the American Romantic Hero:
The American Romantic hero possesses qualities of youthfulness, innocence, intuitiveness, and closeness to the natural world that set him solidly apart from the hero of the Age of Reason.
Is young, or possesses youthful qualities.
Is innocent and pure of purpose.
Has a sense of honor based not on society’s rules but on some higher principle.

5. Characteristics of the American Romantic Hero:
Has a knowledge of people and of life based on deep, intuitive understanding, not on formal learning.
Loves nature and avoids town life.
Quests for some higher truth in the natural world.