We will walk on our own feet; We will work with our own hands; We will speak our own minds.
THINK ABOUT
At the start of the 1800s, Americans had not created their own cultural identity. These writers helped shape how we view ourselves today. They were the hippies of the 1800s. Reaction to Rationalism (reason/logic)
COMMON THEMES
The idea or image of the journey is very important. Its usually a quest for selfknowledge or self-fulfillment. For Romantics, this journey is away from the corruption and pollution of the city. Writings moved away from the rhetoric of salvation, guilt, and providential visions of Puritanism. The American brand of romanticism developed its own character, especially as these writers tried selfconsciously to be new and original.
The characteristic Romantic journey is to the countryside, which Romantics associated with independence, moral clarity, and healthful living. It is a flight both TO something and FROM something.
CELEBRATING IMAGINATION
Romanticism a school of thought that values feeling and intuition over reason.
The Romantics believed that the imagination was able to discover truths that the rational mind could not reach.
Streets: filled with horse droppings and collapsed horses left to die on the curbside.
ROMANTIC ESCAPISM
The Romantics wanted to rise above dull realities to a realm of higher truth.
They achieved this in TWO WAYS: 1st: search for the exotic in a world from the past, or in a world far from the grimy city. Look to the supernatural or at old legends and folklore.
2ND WAY:
Reflect on the natural world until dull reality falls away and reveals underlying beauty and truth. This can be seen in lyric poems where a flower brings a deeper insight.
CHARACTERISTICS OF ROMANTICISM
Values feelings over reason Places faith in the power of the imagination Shuns civilization and seeks nature Prefers youthful innocence to sophistic. Champions individual freedom
Thomas
THOMAS COLE, THE OXBOW (VIEW FROM MOUNT HOLYOKE, NORTHAMPTON, MASSACHUSETTS, AFTER A THUNDERSTORM, 1836)
Asher
Frederic
Alfred
From Kindred Spirits notice: In the foreground stands one of the school's famous symbols--a broken tree stump-what Cole called a memento mori I.E. a reminder that life is fragile and impermanent; only Nature and the Divine within the Human Soul are eternal. Tiny as the human beings are in this composition, they are nevertheless elevated by the grandeur of the landscape in which they are in As Thomas Cole maintained, if nature were untouched by the hand of man--as was much of the primeval American landscape in the early 19th century--then man could become more easily acquainted with the hand of God
CHARACTERISTICS (CONT.)
Reflects on natures beauty as path to morality Looks back to wisdom of the past Finds truth in the exotic, supernatural, or natural realm Poetry is the highest form of imagination Finds inspiration in myth, legend, and folklore.
James Fenimore Cooper explored frontier communities and Native Americans. His best-known character Natty Bumppo represented the American Romantic Hero
In American Romantic Fiction, the hero is youthful, innocent, and close to nature. Also, hes hopelessly uneasy with women since they represent civilization and the need to domesticate
The Fireside Poets: Longfellow, Whittier, Holmes, and Lowell were read aloud at the fireside as entertainment. Followed English themes and form. Used the literary model established by European Romantics
THE TRANSCENDENTALISTS
Refers to the idea that to truly understand God, life, the universe, one must GO BEYOND (transcend) the everyday human experience/world. Led by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Everything is a reflection of the divine soul Physical facts are a doorway to the spiritual world People can use intuition to behold Gods spirit Self-reliance must outweigh compliance to authority Spontaneous feelings are superior to intellectualism
Dark Romantics
Anti-transcendentalists were inspired by the Romantics and by the imagination, but took their writing to the dark side, focusing on the demonic, the fantastic and the insane.
Explore the conflict between good and evil, the effects of guilt and sin, and the destructive underside of appearances. Also called Gothic literature.
Emily Dickinson
Henry Thoreau
Walt Whitman
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Emily Dickinson