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Objectives
• Identify the common themes in American
literature and art in the mid-1800s.
• Describe the flowering of American literature in
the mid-1800s.
• Discuss the development of unique American
styles in art and music.
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Terms and People
• transcendentalism – a movement that sought
to explore the relationship between humans and
nature through emotions rather than through
reason
• Ralph Waldo Emerson – the leading
transcendentalist who wrote popular speeches
and essays
• individualism – the unique importance of each
individual
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Terms and People (continued)
• Henry David Thoreau – a transcendentalist
who wrote Walden
• civil disobedience – the idea that people
should peacefully disobey unjust laws if their
conscience demands it
• Herman Melville – author of Moby-Dick
• Nathaniel Hawthorne – author of The Scarlet
Letter
• Louisa May Alcott – author of Little Women
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Warm Up Questions:
1. What was the goal of the transcendentalism
movement? 432
2. Give me one example showing how writers
focused on American history. 434
3. What was a major topic of American paintings
during this time period? 435
4. Before this time period, artists and authors were
influenced by where, rather then American history
and nature?
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How did American literature and art
have an impact on American life?
Americans were divided by sectionalism
and slavery, but they were united by
nationalism and an optimistic belief in the
possibility of improving themselves and
society.
These ideas were expressed in and
reinforced by American art and literature.
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Before 1800, American
writers and artists
modeled their work on
European styles.
They used formal
language and
referred to Greek
and Roman
myths.
However, by the mid1800s, American writers
and artists had begun to
develop styles that
reflected American
optimism and energy.
Their work
explored subjects
that were uniquely
American.
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Washington Irving
Stories
• “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”
• “Rip Van Winkle”
Famous
character
• Rip Van Winkle was a lazy farmer who
slept through the American
Revolution.
Inspiration
• Dutch history of New York
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James Fenimore Cooper
Novels
• The Deerslayer
• The Last of the Mohicans
Famous
character
• Natty Bumppo was a frontiersman who
kept moving westward and criticized
the destruction of nature.
Impact
• Cooper’s novels helped American
literature gain popularity in Europe.
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By the early 1800s, a new artistic movement
called Romanticism took shape in Europe.
Romantics emphasized the importance of nature,
emotions, and imagination.
A small but influential group of writers and
thinkers in New England developed an American
form of Romanticism.
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This movement was called
transcendentalism, and its goal was to
transcend human reason.
Transcendentalists argued that humans should
pursue a close link with nature and live simply.
Humans
Humans
seeking beauty,
goodness, and
truth within
their own souls.
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Nature
Chapter
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Ralph Waldo Emerson, the leading
transcendentalist, wrote speeches and
essays in which he urged Americans to:
• question the value of
material wealth, and
pursue higher values
instead.
• rely on principles of
individualism to
guide their lives and
improve society.
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The transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau:
• spent two years living
in the woods at
Walden Pond,
meditating on nature.
• published Walden,
a book in which he
urged Americans to
live simply.
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Like Emerson, Thoreau believed people must
judge right and wrong for themselves.
He encouraged civil disobedience and once
spent a night in jail for refusing to pay taxes that
he felt supported slavery.
Thoreau’s ideas about civil disobedience and
nonviolent protest influenced later leaders
like Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Two later novelists, who were both fascinated by
psychology and extreme emotions, began to
change the tone of American literature.
Today,
Moby-Dick is
considered one of
the greatest
American
novels.
American Literature and the Arts
Herman Melville’s
1851 novel, MobyDick, told the story
of a sea captain who
destroys himself
during an obsessive
search for a white
whale.
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Nathaniel Hawthorne often used historical
themes to explore the dark side of the mind.
• In his 1850 novel, The Scarlet Letter, a
young Puritan minister is destroyed by
secret guilt.
• Hawthorne—who was descended from the
Massachusetts Puritans—paints a grim
picture of Puritan life.
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Louisa May Alcott presented a gentler view of
New England life in her 1868 novel Little Women,
a story about four sisters growing up together.
• The novel’s main character, Jo March, was
one of the first young American heroines
portrayed as a real person rather than as
a shining ideal.
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Poets of Democracy
Henry
Wadsworth
Longfellow
• Longfellow based poems, such as “Paul
Revere’s Ride,” on American history.
Walt Whitman
• In books of poetry such as his 1855
Leaves of Grass, Whitman is seen as
the poet who best expresses the
democratic American spirit.
• “The Song of Hiawatha” was one of the
first works to honor Native Americans.
Frances
• Harper and Whittier wrote poems that
Watkins
described and condemned the evils of
Harper and
slavery.
John Greenleaf
Whittier
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After 1820,
American artists
turned away from
European themes
and focused on
American
landscapes.
Kindred Spirits, Asher B. Durand
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The Hudson River
School was a
group of artists
who painted
scenes of the
Hudson River
valley.
Thomas Cole and
other painters of
this school sought
to stir emotions
with the beauty
of nature.
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Other American painters were inspired by the
daily lives of common Americans.
• George Caleb Bingham painted scenes of
life on the great rivers.
• George Catlin captured the ways and
dignity of Native Americans.
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Just as art and literature shifted away from
European themes, American songs also drifted
away from English, Irish, or Scottish tunes.
Over time, there emerged a wide
variety of new American songs such
as work songs and spirituals.
The most popular American songwriter of the
1800s was Stephen Foster, composer of
“Camptown Races.”
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Close Questions:
1. What is Civil Disobedience?
2. How did the idea of Civil Disobedience influence Martin
Luther King Jr.?
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Section Review
QuickTake Quiz
Know It, Show It Quiz
American Literature and the Arts