SANDEEP ARAKALIMATTHEW CUI

VINCENZO JULIANLAUREN GUEST

American Romanticism

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Table of Contents

1. Historical Highlights2. Movements3. Notable Authors4. Terms

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1. WESTWARD EXPANSION2. INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION3. SLAVERY4. SOCIAL REFORM5. TIMELINE

Historical Highlights

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Westward Expansion

“Manifest Destiny” was idea that America was preordained to stretch from coast to coast

Expansion was rapid and often forced out Indians from their homes

Desire for land led to war with Mexico that was thought to be immoral by Thoreau

Mexican-American War and subsequent land cessions along with Indian Removal Act of 1830 caused Manifest Destiny to prevail as a philosophy

Pre-war

Post-war

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Industrial Revolution

Embargo during War of 1812 forced America to start manufacturing goods, changing the country from agrarian to industrial

Factory system involved many people working long hours in filthy conditions for low wages

Writers reacted negatively by portraying the commercialism, hectic pace, and lack of conscience involved with industry

Artists and authors turned to nature for solace and beauty forming the basis for romanticism

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Slavery

Cotton production increased in the South requiring more slaves

Life was brutal for slaves as they were often whipped, separated from family, and worked from dawn to dusk

Slavery was one of the issues that separated North and South

Greatest achievement of romantic poets such as James Lowell and John Whittier was to raise awareness about slavery through abolitionist poetry and journalism James Russell Lowell (left) and John

Greenleaf Whittier (right)

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Social Reform

Two main areas were abolition of slavery and women’s rights

Authors like William Bryant and James Lowell worked for both of the above causes

Women gathered in Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 to fight for their rights

Abolitionists united to work for emancipation of slaves up until Civil War in 1864

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Timeline

1800 1810 1820Louisiana Purchase is made (1803)Noah Webster publishes first American dictionary (1806)Irving publishes A History of New York satirizing American (1809)

War of 1812 breaks out and industry booms (1812)Jane Austen writes Pride and Prejudice (1813)“Thanatopsis is published by William Cullen Bryant (1817)

Missouri Compromise creates tension over slavery (1820)Irving’s The Devil and Tom Walker is published (1824)Cooper writes The Last of the Mohicans (1826)First African-American newspaper, Freedom’s Journal is founded (1827)

1830 1840 1850Indian Removal Act relocates many Indian tribes west (1830)The Transcendental Club is founded by Thoreau, Emerson, and others (1835)Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” is published (1839)

Melville’s first novel, Typee is published (1846)Gold is discovered in California sparking gold rush (1848)Emily Bronte publishes Wuthering Heights (1847)Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto (1848)

Hawthorne publishes The Scarlet Letter (1850)Congress passes harsh Fugitive Slave Act further increasing sectional tensions (1850)Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)

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1. NATIONALISM VS. SECTIONALISM2. ROMANTICISM3. TRANSCENDENTALISM4. GOTHIC5. FIRESIDE POET MOVEMENT

Movements

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Nationalism Sectionalism

Belief that national interests should be placed ahead of regional ones

Writers created a unique American style different from European literature of writing reflecting national pride

Noah Webster wrote first truly “American” dictionary in 1806, including 5000 uniquely American words not found in European writing

Placing the interests of one’s own region ahead of the nation’s as a whole

Ignited by slavery issue which Northerners saw as immoral and Southerners saw as essential

Balance of free and slave states was also a concern

South was mainly agrarian while North was industrial increasing sectional tension

Nationalism vs. Sectionalism

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Romanticism

Romanticism emerged as a response to neoclassicism in Europe

Neoclassicism emphasized classical forms, while romantics looked at emotions and imagination

Romanticism revolted against Enlightenment rationalization and reason by celebrating the supernatural aspects of nature

William Cullen Bryant established romanticism with his 1817 poem “Thanatopsis” which celebrates nature

Washington Irving pioneered the romantic short story while James Fenimore Cooper wrote novels

Kindred Spirits – a classic romantic painting by artist Asher B. Durand showing the beauty of

nature and Durand’s fellow romanticist William Cullen Bryant

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Transcendentalism

Emerged from romanticism as a celebration of the simple life, the individual, and the traditional American values of optimism, freedom, and self-reliance

Encouraged spiritual well-being over wealth and believed people were good at heart

Name “transcendentalist” came from German philosopher Immanuel Kant

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were notable transcendentalist authors

The essays “Civil Disobedience” and “Self-Reliance” by Thoreau and Emerson respectively, emphasized individual integrity

Henry David Thoreau’s cabin in Walden Pond, MA displaying his ideas about living simply and connecting with nature

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American Gothic

Subset of romanticism that emphasizes a dark side of humans and their natural capacity for evil

Made use of “gothic” elements such as grotesque characters and bizarre or violent events

Still connect to romantics by continuing to stress emotion, nature, and the individual as themes

Poe, Melville, and Hawthorne were the biggest gothic writers of the time

Mary Shelley also popularized the macabre with her novel Frankenstein

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Fireside Poets

Morally uplifting poetry movement that brought American poetry on par with British poetry

Longfellow was the most notable Fireside Poet with poems celebrating America’s heritage and culture such as “Evangeline” and the “Song of Hiawatha”

Lowell, Holmes, and Whittier were also Fireside Poets but they concentrated on social issues like slavery and advancing the common man in society

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1. RALPH WALDO EMERSON2. HENRY DAVID THOREAU3. HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW4. EDGAR ALLAN POE5. NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE6. HERMAN MELVILLE7. WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT8. WASHINGTON IRVING

Notable Authors

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Ralph Waldo Emerson(1803-1882)Transcendentalist

Emerson was a New England author who led a practicing group of Transcendentalists. He was actually a Unitarian minister until his wife died. In 1836 he published Nature, which became his group’s (The Transcendental Club) unofficial creed, and his essay “Self-Reliance” addressed individualism. He is considered one of the most important authors in American literary history. Fun Fact: He was known as the Sage of Concord because of his formal demeanor.

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Henry David Thoreau(1817-1862)Transcendentalist

Thoreau was a man that rejected materialism and the conformity of American culture, but valued simple life and nature. He wrote “Civil Disobedience” which emphasized the principles of Transcendenta-lism. Fun Fact: He was one of the first environmentalists.

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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow1807-1882Fireside Poet

Longfellow grew up in Portland, Maine and was a prodigy. He became a published author at age 13 and went to Bowdoin College in Maine at 15 years old. He is the best-known member of the Fireside Poets, which were a group of New England poets that wrote “morally uplifting and romantically engaging" pieces. He emphasized nature and individualism in his work and also helped with the abolitionist movement by writing antislavery poems. His literary works include “Evangeline” and “The Song of Hiawatha”. Fun Fact: He is the only American poet to receive a plaque in Poets’ Corner of Westminster Abbey in London.

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Edgar Allen Poe(1809-1849)Gothic

Poe is called one of literature’s “most brilliant, but erratic” authors. At age 3, he lost his mother and went to live with a wealthy Virginia businessman John Allan. At age 18, he was thrown out of college for gambling debts. His wife Virginia Clemm, died 11 years into their marriage. Poe’s life has not been a cake walk, which aided in his distinctive literature. He used many gothic elements (i.e. grotesque characters, violence, and abnormal events) and touched on human psychology in his work. “The Raven” is considered the best-known American poem. Fun Fact: His wife, Virginia, was around 13 years old at the time of their wedding.

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Nathaniel Hawthorne(1804-1864)Gothic

Hawthorne was a very private person, born in Salem. He believed in the Puritan ideology, but was very pessimistic and was skeptical of the salvation of society. He was very skilled in his use of symbols in his literature. One of his most famous works is The Scarlet Letter, in which he explored the effects of sin and guilt on the human soul. Fun Fact: His great-great grandfather was a judge at the Salem witch trials and the only one who refused to apologize for his wrongdoings.

The Scarlet Letter – one of Hawthorne’s greatest works published in 1850

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Herman Melville(1819-1891)Gothic

Melville lived a secluded life with the cannibalistic Typee people in the Marquesas Islands for a while. His experiences here provided material for his later works. One of his most famous works, Moby Dick, was different from his adventure stories in the South Pacific. In this novel, Melville explores the subjects of madness and the conflict of good vs. evil. Fun Fact: After the publication of Moby Dick, his popularity plummeted and he never fully regained it back.

Artist’s rendering of Moby Dick the great white whale

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William Cullen Bryant(1794-1878)Romantic

Bryant was born in 1794 in Cunningham, Massachusetts. At a young age, he was inspired to write poetry about nature, but he attended law school due to his father’s request. He left the law practice, however, to focus on literature. He became a prominent abolitionist. His poem “Thanatopsis” was written in 1817 and helped establish romanticism as a major literary movement in mid-19th century America. He also is acknowledged for his skills in portraying American landscape. Fun Fact: He walked up to 40 miles a day, in which he gained knowledge of America’s landscapes.

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Washington Irving(1783-1859)Romantic

Irving is well-known for his story on the Headless Horseman in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”. He also studied law at a young age, but felt no passion for it. His short stories helped establish the short story as a literary form and helped put America on the “literary map”. He was also the fist American writer that was praised for his work in Europe. Fun Fact: He is buried near New York’s Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, which is the setting of his short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”.

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1. “SYMBOL”2. “ALLEGORY”3. “SATIRE”4. “BLANK VERSE”

Terms

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Symbol

Words, places, objects, or characters in a literary work that mean something beyond what they are on a literal level

Can be cultural, contextual, or personalUsed in romanticism to hint at the usual

themes of the power of nature and the integrity of the individual

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Allegory

Loosely describes writing in prose that has a double meaning

Contains the use of multiple symbolic events and characters to illustrate a broader concept or an extended metaphor where characters and settings have a meaning beyond the literal level

Interpreting and analyzing an allegory is called “allogoresis”

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Satire

An attack on any stupidity or vice using scathing humor

Also could critique political, religious, or social edicts that the author sees as dangerous

Satirists believed that if they magnified people’s faults humorously, the people would be more likely to correct themselves

The most popular category of satire in the romantic era was indirect satire where the humor and message is buried in a fictional narrative

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Blank Verse

Refers to unrhymed iambic pentameter or unrhymed lines of ten syllables with the even-numbered syllables bearing the accents

Commonly used both in Shakespearean and classic literature as well as romantic and post-romantic era

Lauded as the meter that most closely resembles natural human speech

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THE END