The American Renaissance

(1800 – 1870)

• European Renaissance (rebirth of arts and learning): 14th, 15th,and 16th century

• American Renaissance (not a “rebirth” but a first flowering): first half of 19th century)

• Two major events: 1. capital moved to Washington, D.C.2. foundation of the Library of

Congress (first cultural institution in the capital)

Events…

• Thomas Jefferson – Louisiana Purchase of 1803 (doubled the territory of the US)

• Improved transportation: canals, turnpikes, railroads, steamboats

• California became US territory (1848)• Gold Rush of 1849• New industries, new kinds of jobs (more

productive farming)• Telegraph – improved communication across the US

Politics• 1828 – Andrew Jackson - “The People’s

President”• The “era of the common man” – no more property

requirement for voting• Only white males allowed to vote• Little attention paid to women• African-Americans still enslaved• Native Americans – tribal lands confiscated; forced

to move to the West• Texas becomes territory of the US (1845)• Conflict over slavery leads to civil war

What is the relationship between place (property) and literature?

• Vast land: open prairies in the Midwest• deserts in the SE• immense forests in the NW• great canyons and mountains in the W• Oceans on both sides• Countless natural resources

(Cont.)

• Spirit of acquisition, pride of ownership• Exploration led to exploitation • Limitless possibilities

Literature:• Explorers recorded facts of their expeditions in colorful

words and drawings• Fiction writers (Washington Irving, James Fenimore

Cooper) - created an American mythology by setting stories in forests and towns of the American landscape

• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – narrative poems : colonial Americans, Native Americans, and Revolutionary War heroes within the American wilderness

The American Masters

• Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville – dark side of wilderness

• Transcendentalists:Ralph Emerson, Henry D. Thoreau – emphasized

nature’s sublimity

How does literature shape or reflect society?

• Harriet Beecher Stowe - antislavery novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (national and international phenomenon)

• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – best-selling poet in the English language

What did the American writers want to achieve?(What is their purpose for writing?)

The social vision: • Lectures, essays, speeches, debates,

pamphlets, editorials, songs – women’s rights, slavery, treatment of the Native Americans, land use, immigration, trade, taxes

• Americans to define their own self

(cont.)• The Romantic vision:

Directly in contrast to the Age of Reason• While rationalists saw the move to the big city a move

toward success, romantics saw it as a place of moral decay, corruption, and death• Individual freedom• Individual quest for self-discovery• Nature’s beauty as a path to spiritual and moral

development• Journey led to the countryside• Youthful innocence vs. sophisticated education

I’s of Romanticism

• intuition• imagination• innocence• inspiration from supernatural and from

nature• inner experience

• A Transcendental Vision:• Thoreau and Emerson - 1830’s and 1840’s • Individual - center of the universe, more

powerful than any political or religious institution

• Thoreau’s Walden