American Romanticism

1800-1860

Romanticism Notes

Before the Age of Romanticism

(Before 1800)

• American writers not widely read

• Puritans and Revolutionary Period writers not very interested in fiction

No fiction!?!

Put me to sleep!!!

Literary Romanticism Movement

• Population became bored with logic and reason

• Romanticism sought to elevate imagination over reason and intuition over fact

Romanticism Time Frame

• 1800-1860• Romanticism was a

literary and artistic movement of the 19th century

• It was a response to 18th century Revolutionary writing, which relied on exposition and persuasion versus narration

Traits of Romanticism

• Unlike classicism Romanticism focused on the following:– Imagination

– Emotion

– Nature

– Individuality

• A shift took place from personal and political documents to entertaining ones

Characteristics of Romanticism

• Romantics felt that civilization often corrupted man.

• God can be found in nature• Characters quest for a

higher truth, that can’t be taught in formal settings

• Individual truth is more important than institutional laws

• Settings often exotic or supernatural

Romantic Hero

• Lives in harmony in nature and prefers nature over civilization.

• Uncorrupted by civilization and has high moral character

• Hawkeye from Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper (1826)

Romantic Writers • Romantic elements can be found in the works of the following well known authors:– Edgar Allan Poe– Henry David Thoreau– Ralph Waldo Emerson– Nathaniel Hawthorne– Washington Irving– Herman Melville– James Fenimore CooperHawthorne

Poe

Origin of Transcendentalism

Core Belief

A Change in Focus

• Based on a philsophy of Emanual Kant (1724-1804) as expressed in The Critique of Practical Reason

• Knowledge came not from experience or reason, but through intuition and self-revelation

• Nature was their church where they went for inspiration

TranscendentalismTranscendentalism

Most Noteworthy Transcendentalists

– Ralph Waldo Emerson – Henry David Thoreau

Emerson Thoreau

Anti-Transcendentalists

Famous Anti-Transcendentalists

Also known as

• Works showed the evil of mankind

– Nathaniel Hawthorne– Washington Irving – Herman Melville– Edgar Allan Poe

– Gothicism– Dark Romanticism