American
ROMANTICISM
(1800-1860)
What is “Romantic”?
• Valentine’s day?
• Roses?
• Cupids?
• Candle-light dinner?
• Love letters?
• Sunsets?
• Long walks on the beach?
That is NOT “Romantic”!
Romantic Love is NOT the same as
Romanticism in Literature
• When it comes to literature and the arts, the
word ROMANTIC has a broader definition
than how we commonly use the word today.
Romantic Love is NOT the same as
Romanticism in Literature
• This is a movement about the idealization of
emotion, desire, and freedom from constraint.
• "She's a real Romantic." = dreamer, idealist,
nonconformist, on a quest for undefined or
unfamiliar goals
American Romanticism was…
…a journey away from the CORRUPTION
OF CIVILIZATION and the LIMITS OF
RATIONAL THOUGHT to the integrity of
NATURE and the freedom of the
IMAGINATION.
The Original Romantics of the initial
movement in Europe
1785 Early Romantics were BRITISH:
Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, Byron - poets who
emphasized emotion and drew inspiration from the
lives of ordinary people.
The American Romantics
Irving, Bryant, Longfellow, Holmes,
Poe, Melville, Hawthorne, Dickinson,
Whitman – lived in NEW ENGLAND
Causes/Historical Context for the
Movement
• 1803 - The Louisiana Purchase doubled
the country’s size
Causes/Historical Context for the
Movement
• The War of 1812 interfered with trade, so
Americans had to start producing items they were
used to importing, thus, leading to the Industrial
Revolution.
Changes in American cities
• Poverty
• In New York, people
lived in tenements
or slums—small, rundown, overcrowded
housing
In New York City…
• 1832 - streets filled with squalor and crime
• 20,000 children were homeless and many
worked in sweatshops
In New York City…
• Cholera killed 100 people a day
So…American writers began to
react to the negative effects of
industrialization by turning to…
1. The beauty and spiritual power of
unspoiled nature
These paintings are from the Hudson River School (1825-1870)-a group of American painters known for depicting landscapes.
2. The power of the
imagination
rather than reason
and logic.
Rain, Steam, and Speed – William Turner
Notice how this painting of
a train emphasizes a feeling
rather than a realistic
depiction of a moving train
Joseph Mallord William Turner
3. A celebration of
the INDIVIDUAL
rather than
society
American Romantic Fiction
• For the first time, American writers
stopped imitating Europeans, and an
American style of writing emerged.
• Washington Irving
becomes the first
American famous
short story writer.
• His stories rely on
the features of folk
tales and myths.
Caspar David Friedrich
Washington Irving
• His stories--like the
art of this period-often feature exotic
locales and
supernatural events.
“Rip Van Winkle”
(1819)
Chalk Cliffs on Rugen
American Romantic Fiction
• James Fenimore Cooper creates the first
American series of novels that feature a
common man leading adventures in the
western frontier.
American Romantic Fiction
• Writers created stories that allowed readers to
experience grand adventures!
The Indiana
Jones character
is a modernday example of
a Romantic
hero
Natty Bumppo, hero of The
Last of the Mohicans (1757)
Romanticism: The 1st of its kind!
For the first time American writers are creating
opportunities for readers to experience
PLEASURE and ESCAPE instead of merely
LEARNING and POLITICAL ARGUMENT.
Remember what we have read thus far:
Patrick Henry’s Speech, Ben Franklin’s
Autobiography . . . .
However, above all, the most
celebrated art form of American
Romanticism was…
The Fireside Poets
• Got their name because people--instead of
watching TV, playing videogames, or
texting, would read poems out loud by their
fireplaces for entertainment!
I’m so glad I’m listening to
Longfellow instead of
playing Assassin’s Creed
The Fireside Poets
•
They often emphasized moral themes and
were committed to social reforms, such as
abolishing slavery
From “Stanzas on Freedom” by James Russell Lowell
Men! Whose boast it is that ye
Come of fathers brave and free,
If there breathe on earth a slave,
Are ye truly free and brave?
If ye do not feel the chain,
When it works a brother’s pain,
Are ye not base slaves indeed,
Slaves unworthy to be freed?
American Romantic Poets
•
•
•
•
often wrote about the spiritual truths found in
nature.
James Fenimore Cooper called poet William
Cullen Bryant, “the author of America”.
Turn to p.338 and let’s read the first stanza of
his poem “Thanatopsis”--a poem he wrote at
age 18!
This poem was so famous that people
memorized it.
Kindred Spirits (1849)
by Asher B. Durand
A depiction of poet,
William Cullen
Bryant and
American Romantic
painter, Thomas Cole
Rationalism vs. Romanticism
• Stressed the spirit
of society as a
whole
• Emotion and
imagination is
relied upon to
discover truths
• Valued the
unique spirit of
the individual
• Led by writers with
sophisticated,
privileged
backgrounds
• Fiction focused on
unsophisticated,
common people as
heroes
• Reason is the most
reliable means to
discover truths