Romanticism
Transcendentalism
Anti-Transcendentalism

• Time Period: early to mid 1800s
• Brought about as a reaction of the Age of
Reason and the strict doctrines of
Puritanism (  )
• A time when the natural world was glorified.
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• Importance of the individual
• Values the imagination and emotional side of human nature rather than rational
(logical) side of human nature
• Some had a fascination with the supernatural.
• Writers had an optimistic outlook.
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• Washington Irving
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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Transcendentalism
Romanticism mid 1800s to late 1800s Anti-Transcendentalism
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• Time period: mid to late 1800s
• Transcendent: not realizable in human experience
• A belief that ‘transcendent forms’ of truth exist beyond reason and experience
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• Values intuition as a means of gaining this higher truth
• Communing with nature made possible an intuitive connection with the entire universe
• This connection with all: God, mankind, and natural world was known as the
Universal Oversoul .
• Valued non-conformity.
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• Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Henry David Thoreau
• Walt Whitman
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• Time period: mid to late 1800s
• Known as the Dark Side of Individualism
• The focus on the imagination in
Romanticism led to a focus on the demonic, the fantastic, and the insane for the Gothic
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• Gothic writers took a pessimistic view of humans and saw the potential for evil in all people.
• ‘Essential truths’ about life were found in extreme situations or the darker side of human nature (greed, betrayal, fear, etc.)
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• Edgar Allen Poe
• Nathaniel Hawthorne (a descendent of the judge from The Crucible!!!!!)
• Also, famous Southern Gothic writers include William Faulkner and Flannery
O’Connor
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• Settings- include large, drafty old houses that have "been in the family for years."
• Atmosphere of mystery and suspense
• A ghostly legend, an unexplainable occurrence, or a story about a horrible death or murder .
• Omens, foreshadowing, and dreams usually play a large role in the mysterious air that is created within the story.
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• Include highly charged emotional states like: terror, a feeling that one is on the brink of insanity, anger, agitation, an exaggerated feeling of some impending doom, and obsessive love.
• Supernatural events: ghosts, doors that open themselves, unexplained sounds, etc.
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• Damsels in distress are frequent. Women who are frightened and confused, wandering around lost, or dying due to a slow and unexplainable ailment.
• Words designed to evoke images of gloom and doom: dark, foreboding, forbidding, ghostly, etc.
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• Romantic themes often involve the death of a man or woman in the throes of some great passion, the obsessive nature of a man or woman in love, or excessive grief one feels upon the loss of a loved one.
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