ROMANTICISM (1800 – 1870)
THE AMERICAN RENAISSANCE
Definition of Romanticism
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Demonstration of a high level of moral
enthusiasm
A commitment to individualism and the
unfolding of the self
An emphasis on intuitive perception
The assumption that the natural world was
inherently good, while human society was filled
with corruption.
Definition of Romanticism
It is an international artistic and philosophical
movement that redefined the fundamental ways in
which people in Western cultures thought about
themselves and about their world.
Definition of Romanticism
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Embraced the individual and rebelled against the
confinement of neoclassicism and religious
tradition.
Novels, short stories, and poems replaced the
sermons and manifestos of yore.
Was personal, intense, and portrayed more emotion
than ever seen in neoclassical literature.
Freedom became a great source of motivation. Free
to express emotion without fear of ridicule and
controversy.
Characteristics of Romantics
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Explored what it meant to be an
American (artist)
Looked at American government
and political problems
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The problems of war and Black
slavery
Emerging materialism and
conformity
Influence of immigration, new
customs and traditions
Sexuality; relationships between
men and women
The power of nature
Individualism, emphasis on
destructive effect of society on
individual
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Idealism
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Spontaneity in thought and action
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Not an optimistic vision of America;
pictures of human frailty, weakness,
limitation
Characteristics of Romantics
Writers spoke not directly but
obliquely, ambiguously
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Christianity a valuable source
of symbols
Stories built around dreams
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Stories of emblematic
pilgrimages or journeys
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Hero seems to represent a
general type of person
Belief that evil is merely the
absence of good
Through the symbolism of
writing, portrayal of the
reality beyond what’s visible,
thus putting into practice the
central notion of
Transcendental thought.
Critique of formalized
church, faith must come from
within
TRANSCENDENTALISM
Definition of Transcendentalism
Textbook defines it as:
“A group of writers, artists, and reformers who
flourished in the 1830s and 1840s, the individual
was at the center of the universe, more powerful
than any institution, whether political or
religious.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson is considered the “founder”
of this literary movement.
Definition of Transcendentalism
A generation of well educated people who lived in the
decades before the American Civil War and the
national division that it both reflected and helped to
create. These people were attempting to create a
uniquely American body of literature. It was
already decades since the Americans had won
independence from England. Now, these people
believed, it was time for literary independence. And so
they deliberately went about creating literature,
essays, novels, philosophy, poetry, and other writing
that were clearly different from anything from
England, France, Germany, or any other European
nation.
Definition of Transcendentalism
In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson:
"We will walk on our own feet; we will work with
our own hands; we will speak our own minds...A
nation of men will for the first time exist, because
each believes himself inspired by the Divine Soul
which also inspires all men.“
Characteristics of Transcendentalism
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Basically religious, emphasized
role and importance of individual
conscience and value of intuition
in matters of moral guidance and
inspiration. Emerson, Thoreau,
Hawthorne, Fuller. Critical of
formalized religion.
All constructive practical activity,
great literature viewed as an
expression of the divine spirit.
An ambition to achieve vivid
perception of the divine as it
operates in common life which
would lead to personal cultivation
Insistence on authority of
individual conscience
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A trust in the individual,
democracy, possibility of
continued change for the better
A need to see beyond what is
before our eyes, to see a deeper
significance, a transcendent reality
Intellectual eclecticism; a vague
conception of the God-like nature
of human spirit
Nature conceived of not as a
machine but as an organism,
symbol and analogue of the mind
Spontaneous activity of the
creative artist seen as the highest
achievement
Transcendentalism
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Overall gist:
The Transcendental philosophy is one that
requires one to transcend above normal
thinking to a higher state of consciousness.
ANTI-TRANSCENDENTALISM
Anti-Transcendentalism
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a small philosophical movement predominantly
consisting of only two writers, Nathaniel
Hawthorne and Herman Melville.
Hawthorne and Melville are considered two of
the great fiction writer of their time and
together they stood up in opposition to what
they felt was impractical perspective.
Anti-Transcendentalism
Anti-Transcendentalists have important elements
that are generally agreed on:
 man is born with the stain of the original sin,
 man is the most destructive force in nature,
 one can only find God through good works and
life experience,
 There are no universal truths just individual
truths.
GOTHIC ROMANCE
Definition of Gothic Romance
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Writers looked at the individual and saw
potential evil
Deals with desolate and mysterious and
grotesque events
Individuals are prone to sin and self-destruction
and the natural world is dark and decaying.
Rebelled against the philosophy that man is
basically good.
Evil is a powerful force in the world.
Characteristics of Gothic Romance
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More interest in action
than in the development
of character
Action often fantastic,
allegorical, interest in
the supernatural, terror,
madness
Characters have
mysterious origins; tend
to be ideal, exaggerated,
more types
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Suspense and mystery
involving fantastic and
supernatural, interest in
light and shade
Interest in evil, its
origins
Descriptions of various
mental states often
verging on the abnormal
Writers of Romantic Period
Prose:
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Washington Irving (1783 – 1859)
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James Fennimore Cooper (1789 – 1851)
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William Cullen Bryant (1794 – 1878)
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Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811- 1896)
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Louisa May Alcott (1832 – 1888)
Poetry:
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“The Boston Brahmins”
Edgar Allan Poe (1809 – 1849)
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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(1807–1882)
Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809 – 1894)
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James Russell Lowell (1819 – 1891)
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Walt Whitman (1819 – 1892)
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Emily Dickinson (1830 – 1886)
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Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882)
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804 – 1864)
Margaret Fuller (1810 – 1850)
Henry David Thoreau 1817 –1862)
Herman Melville (1819 – 1891)
Historical Events
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1812 – War with England
1815-50 – Westward Expansion
1846-48 – Mexican War
1849 – California gold rush
1861-1865 – Civil War
1863 - Gettysburg Address
PUBLICATIONS
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Emerson, Nature (1836)
Poe, The Raven (1845)
Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (1850)
Melville, Moby Dick (1851)
Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
Thoreau, Walden (1854)
Whitman, Leaves of Grass (1855)