American Romanticism 1800-1860
American Renaissance A Literary Coming of Age 1840-1860 Breakdown of American Romanticism
Keep in mind that during this period there are several different subgroups that fall into the American Romantics. All categories fall under the umbrella of American Romance. Renaissance (Romantics) Dark Romantics Transcendentalism Renaissance
What does this word mean? Renaissance means “rebirth” What do you think the American Renaissance means when talking about literature? American Literature Renaissance It is a time when America would finally find their place in literature. Romanticism symbolized America's break away from traditional European literature. Romanticism DOES NOT have to do with our ideology of being romantic. i.e., love, flowers chocolate, poems, etc. Why do you think they copied European literature for so long? Why do you think they started doing their own thing? American Literature Renaissance
For the first time writers journeyed to nature. They let their imaginations run free. Romanticism dared to explore the supernatural. Americans were able to explore beyond rational thought. American Literature Renaissance (cont.) Romanticism was spontaneous. Writers and readers could explore individual feelings, wild nature and AVOID rational thought, logic, planning, and cultivation. Through their poetry, short stories, novels, and other works, writers during this period established a clear American voice. In the mid-nineteenth century, writers, such as Nathaniel Hawthorne Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Herman Melville produced some of the early masterpieces of American Literature.
James Fenimore Cooper created America's first literary hero Natty Bumpo. Characteristics of American Romanticism 1. Values feeling and intuition 6. Contemplates nature’s beauty over reason as a path to spiritual and 2. Places faith in inner moral development experience and the power of 7. Looks backward to the the imagination wisdom of the past and 3. Shuns the artificiality of distrusts progress civilization and seeks 8. Finds beauty and truth in unspoiled nature exotic locals, the supernatural 4. Prefers youthful innocence to realm, and the inner world of educated sophistication the imagination 5. Champions individual 9. Sees poetry as the highest freedom and the worth of the expression of the imagination individual 10. Finds inspiration in myth, legend, and folk culture Characteristics of the American Romantic Hero
4. Has knowledge of 1. Is young or possesses people and of life based youthful qualities on deep, intuitive 2. Is innocent and pure of understanding, not on purpose formal learning 3. Has a sense of honor 5. Loves nature and avoids based not on society’s town life rules but on some higher principal 6. Quests for some higher truth in the natural world What was going on during this time? Where did they get their “crazy” ideas? 1. Frontier: vast expanse, freedom, no geographic limitations. 2. Optimism: greater than in Europe because of the presence of frontier. 3. Experimentation: in science, in institutions. 4. Mingling of races: immigrants in large numbers arrive to the US. 5. Growth of industrialization: polarization of north and south; north becomes industrialized, south remains agricultural. Intellectual and Social Life in New England
New England had long been known for its interest in self-improvement and intellectual inquiry. New England was a center of many reform movements. Social causes grew during this time including ideas such as utopian projects. Utopian Societies
What is a utopian society? A perfect, harmonious society Ralph Waldo Emerson, a famous writer from this time was a member of one of the most influential utopian groups. Brook Farm was the name of his utopian society. Brook Farm =
He helped inspire numerous reform movements that aimed to improve public education, end slavery, elevate the status of women, and smooth the edges of rough social conditions of the time. Art in the American Renaissance: Hudson River School
First group of landscape painters to emerge in the United States after independence from Great Britain. Flourished between 1820 and 1880. Many of the artists in the group lived and painted in the Catskill Mountains region of New York State, particularly along the Hudson River. Early members of the school include Thomas Cole, Asher B. Durand, Thomas Doughty, and Albert Bierstadt. Their work is characterized by meticulous and realistic attention to detail and a poetic feeling for nature characteristic of romanticism. Hudson River School Artwork More HRS Artwork Exit Slip Rationalist or Romantic? If you had to classify yourself as either a rationalist or a romantic, which would you be? Would you be a practical, ambitious, worldly rationalist or an intuitive, feeling driven, close-to- nature romantic? Which traits of either era do you truly value and think you would like to encourage in your own life? Explain you answer in a well-thought out PARAGRAPH.