American Literature1800 – 1860

Romanticism & Transcendentalism: Shifting the Focus to the Individual

American Romanticism 1800-1860

• The Industrial Revolution brought economic growth to the United Sates, and it transformed American society.

– Hundreds of new factories were built

– Expansion of roads and canals were built

– The railroad and the steamboat were invented

Industrial Revolution

• This Revolution created a division between the North and South,

– The North was run by factories – The South was run by farms

This division later caused the Civil War.

Roots of Romanticism

• A movement in art and thought that dominated Europe and the U.S. throughout the 1800s

• Romantic writers valued imagination and feeling over intellect and reason. – Some went bright and cheery, life full of

goodness and possibility (Transcendentalism)– While others went dark and gloomy, life full of

evil and insanity (gothic, brooding literature)

You could see it in the art too

Thomas Cole: The Connecticut River

Thomas Cole—Ruined Tower

Thomas Cole--The Titans’ Goblet

But remember, the Europeans started this movement before we did…

John Henry Fuseli (German)—The Nightmare

Caspar David Friedrich (German)—The Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog

My favorite!

JMW Turner—Rain Steam and Speed The Great Western Railway

Transcendentalism

• Believed that intuition is a valuable guide

• Truth is in nature• Rejected organized

religion• Viewed individual

conscience as superior to law

Transcendentalism

Kantian Philosophy—the transcending, or going beyond empiricism (scientific knowledge) and ascertaining a priori, the fundamental principles of human knowledge.

They were:

• Well-educated, trying to create a uniquely American body of literature (wanted to achieve literary independence)

• Mostly New Englanders (Boston, mostly)

• A generation struggling to define spirituality and religion

Transcendentalists

• Became involved in social reform– Anti-slavery– Women’s rights

• Believed that at the level of the human soul, all people had access to divine inspiration and sought and loved freedom and knowledge and truth

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s 1836 essay, “Nature” is considered the moment transcendentalism became a major cultural movement.

Transcendentalism

Civil Disobedience

Oversoul: The spiritual connection among all living things

Optimism

Nature

Simplicity

Individuality

Intuition

Self-Reliance

Transcendentalists

• Ralph Waldo Emerson is considered the father of Transcendentalism; however, Henry David Thoreau also made a huge contribution to it.

• Others: Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Walt Whitman.

Transcendentalists

• Believed that a new era of American life was at hand

• Criticized society for unthinking conformity

• Urged that each individual find, in Emerson's words, “an original relation to the universe” (O, 3)

From The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Modern Transcendentalist: Chris McCandless

• College graduate • Eschewed all of his

savings and personal belongings

• Wanted to survive off of as little as possible

• Cherished the beauty and fragility of nature

Impact of Transcendentalism TodayTranscendentalists’ Impact: 1960s Civil Rights: MLK continually promoted peaceful resistance to unjust authority: civil disobedience. This is a value that finds its roots in Thoreau’s essay “Civil Disobedience” National Parks: John Muir (as WI man!) was influenced by the Transcendental philosophers of his time, deciding to explore the natural wildlife of our country. His writings later influenced President Teddy Roosevelt in his decision to establish the National Park system. So, if you’ve been to a Nation Park, you should thank the Transcendentalists

Other writers/artists/thinkers influenced by the TranscendentalistsWalt Whitman (poet, Leaves of Grass)Louisa May Alcott (Little Women)John Muir (famous naturalist and nature writer)John Burroughs (famous naturalist and nature writer)Robert Frost (poet, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood…”)Wallace Stevens (modernist poet)The Indigo GirlsEddie Vedder, Pearl JamMovie, Into the WildPresident Theodore RooseveltRev. Martin Luther King Jr.Mahatma Gandhi