American Romanticism
The Awakening of a Nation
Important Dates
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1803-Louisiana Purchase
1804-1806-Lewis and Clark Expedition
1808-Importation of slaves prohibited
1812-1814-War of 1812
1819-Spain cedes FL to US
1820-Missouri Compromise
1823-Monroe Doctrine
1825-Erie Canal opened
1828-B & O Railroad
1830-Indian Removal Act
1836-Texas wins independence from Mexico
Important Dates
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1840s-first mass migration to the American West
1844-Telegraph
1846-1848-Mexican-American War
1848-1st Women’s Rights Convention
1848-Gold discovered in CA
1849-California Gold Rush
1857-Dred Scot decision
The Romantic Movement
• What was the Romantic movement?
• A literary and artistic change in thought and style
• A reaction against the order and tradition of Neo-Classicism
• An opportunity for new American writers and artists to develop the new American style
The Seeds of Romantic Thought
• Began in Europe and then spread to America
• Took ideas from Rationalist beliefs in freedom and the rights
of the individual
• Important people in Romantic movement: Kant, Goethe,
Schlagel, Rosseau, Wordsworth, Coleridge
The Influence of Romantic Thought
• How long did this movement last?
• Roughly 100 years
• Began in the late eighteenth century
• Lasted throughout most of the nineteenth century
Influences on Romantic Thought
• Nature
• The untamed wildernesses of the world
• The beauty of the natural world
• The Past
• The Classical past-ancient Greece and Rome
• The Medieval past
• The Imagination
• Emotions
• Intuition
• Creativity
Imagination: Romantic Escapism
• Rejected the rigors of reality
• Fascinated with the supernatural world
• Disliked realistic portrayals
• Loved folklore and fantasy
• Rejected the manmade
• Embraced the natural world
Romanticism in America:
INSPIRED BY…
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Discovery of the unspoiled beauty of the Western Frontier
“Noble savages”—the Indians
American beliefs in individual rights and democracy
Reform needs in America—women’s rights, slavery, and education
Causes of the Romantic Movement in America
• Nationalism
• Lewis and Clark Expedition
• War of 1812
• Discovery and Exploration
• Napoleon Bonaparte
• The New World
• Natural Rights
• “God-given rights”
• Slavery
• The French Revolution
Nationalism
• Romantic theory spawned in America by intense feelings of
nationalism among some of the populace
• NATIONALISM IS AN INTENSE INTEREST IN ONE’S
COUNTRY AND/OR HERITAGE
• American nationalism resulted largely from
• The Louisiana Purchase
• Lewis and Clark Expedition
• War of 1812
Elements of Romanticism
• intuition, imagination, and emotion better than logic and reason
• Creativity (poetry, art, etc.) superior to science
• Study of the natural world yields Truth and Wisdom
• Distrust of civilization and industry
• Valued the past and the supernatural
• Nobility of the savage
• Freedom and individual rights
The Journey
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“Quest” form taken from Medieval Romances of Europe
Movement away from civilization
Physical and emotional journey
“Escape” and encounters with the supernatural
JOURNEY STRUCTURE WAS A FRAMEWORK FOR THE ROMANTIC
EXPERIENCE.
Romantic “Journeys”
• Into the past, the supernatural, and to exotic places
• Into the contemplation of nature’s beauty and mystery
ALL ROADS LED TO THE DISCOVERY OF HIGHER TRUTH AND
ULTIMATE BEAUTY
The Dark Side of Romanticism: Gothic Romance
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Roots in French and German lit
Took place in exotic and isolated locales
Involved the supernatural
Dark and disturbing toneS and moodS
Source of the early psychological stories
Best Gothic Romance writer:
• Edgar Allan Poe
The American Novel
• Began …
• during the Romantic period
• As imitations of European novels andauthors
• Using American settings, but European plots, characters, and style
• Broke away to use uniquely American settings, characters, and plots
James Fennimore Cooper
• Created the first, truly “American” novel
• Invented the “American Hero” type
• Chronicled life in a “geography of the imagination”—the American Western
Frontier
• Was the first novelist to define the American writing style
The American Hero
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Is young, or possesses youthful qualities
Innocent and pure of purpose
Inner sense of honor based on higher principles
Has knowledge of people and life based on deep intuition and understanding
Loves nature—hates towns and cities
Resists domestication
Quests for a higher truth in the natural world
American Romantic Poetry
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Used established, traditional poetic forms
Mimicked European forms
Used American settings and stories
“Family” poetry very popular
“Fireside Poets” wrote family poetry for fireside reading
First uniquely American poetry yet to be created
Transcendentalism
• Outgrowth of Romanticism
• Proposed by Ralph Waldo Emerson AND Henry David
Thoreau
• Based on Christian and Hindu religions and Romantic theory
• Philosophy that
• ONE MUST GO BEYOND (OR TRANSCEND) THE FIVE
SENSES TO FIND
REALITY
Transcendentalists Believed
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In God, the Oversoul, the “Universal Being”
Everywhere, everything, all knowledge
No evil—just perspective
That God could be seen most easily and purely in nature
EMERSON AND THOREAU
Anti-transcendentalists
• Believed in the existence of evil
• Believed in original sin
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
AND
HERMAN MELVILLE
American Romantic Authors
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Washington Irving
William Cullen Bryant
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Henry David Thoreau
Edgar Allan Poe
Herman Melville