Warm-up –Answer these Essential Questions

1. What was the primary theme of the Romanticism time period?

2. Name a genre from the time period.

3. What did Romantic writers value over reason and fact?

4. Name something that was going on in America during the Romanticism time period.

5. Name an author from the Romanticism time period.

Time Periods of Literature

Lesson 39Romanticism 1800-1860

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Washington Irvin

Erie Canal finished in 1825

in New York

Georgia Performance Standard

• ELAALRL3: The student deepens understanding of literary works by relating them to their contemporary context or historical background, as well as to works from other time periods.

a. The student relates a literary work to the characteristics of the literary time period or historical setting; – i. Romanticism

Introduction• Before 1800, American writers were

not widely read – not even in America – but that situation soon began to change. The writers of this period would define the American voice – personal, idiosyncratic (peculiar individual characteristics), and bold.

• The primary theme was the quest of the individual to define him- or herself.

Romanticism was an artistic movement that

dominated Europe & America during the 19th century. Romantics do not necessarily write

about love.

Genre of the Romantic Period

Character

SketchesSlaveNarratives

Short

StoriesPoetry

Effect/Aspects of Romanticism

• valued imagination over reason and intuition over fact

• journeyed away from corruption of civilization and limits of rational thought toward the integrity (honesty) of nature and freedom of the imagination

• helped instill proper gender behavior for men and women

• allowed people to re-imagine the American past

Effect/Aspects of Romanticism cont…

Historical Context of Romanticism• expansion of magazines,

newspapers, and book publishing

• slavery debates• Industrial revolution brought

ideas that the “old ways” of doing things were now irrelevant.

• The young nation seemed to be able to handle anything.

Historical Context of Romanticism• America seemed to be on the

world stage to stay• America was expanding

westward and growing.• Transportation was steadily

changing and improving with canals, railroads, and turnpikes.

• Factories sprang up in the Northeast; steel plow, reaper, and telegraph were invented.

Example… Washington Irving was the first

American to be widely read overseas and made his

mark with History of New York in 1809.

• “Rip Van Winkle” (a story of a man who falls

to sleep for many years and wakes up to a much different world)

• “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”

• Both of these sparked an interest in Irving’s beloved Hudson River Valley.

• History of New York (a rollicking narrative that

changed facts about New York’s past whenever Irving wanted to do so)

Some Works of Irving

Example… William Cullen Bryant reveled in nature. He

is best known for his lyric poems rejoicing in the

healing powers of nature. He used his position as an

influential journalist to defend human rights and

personal freedoms. He was an outspoken advocate of

women’s rights and a passionate foe of slavery.

Bryant was the first American poet to win

worldwide critical acclaim, and his works helped

establish the Romantic Movement in America.

Examples… Poems of Emily Dickinson

I’m Nobody

I'm nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody, too? Then there's a pair of us -- don't tell! They'd advertise -- you know! How dreary to be somebody! How public like a frog To tell one's name the livelong day To an admiring bog!

Examples… Oliver Wendell Holmes• Wrote “Old

Ironsides” to protest the destruction of the battleship Constitution (nicknamed “Old Ironsides”)

• The poem saved the ship and earned him national recognition as a poet.

Examples… James Fenimore Cooper’s four Leatherstocking

Tales feature the exploits of Natty Bumppo in the frontier forests of

upstate New York. A man of absolute moral integrity, Natty Bumppo preferred nature over civilization, establishing the

pattern for countless American heroes to come.

Example – Edgar Allen Poe – Click black area to start video (6:35).

Example… Edgar Allen PoeHe wrote

haunting poems and suspenseful

stories with grotesque, weird

characters. Romantic writing often accented the fantastic

aspects of human experience.

Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart – Click black area to start video (6:50).

In Conclusion…• Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1837

called for America writers to become independent from European writers and begin to interpret their own culture in new ways. A burst of literary activity took place in and around Boston between 1840 and 1855 producing an array of great writers and enduring literature.

Freneau and His House

There was an overlapping of Romanticism with

Transcendentalism (which you have already studied).

Georgia Performance Standard

• ELAALRL3: The student deepens understanding of literary works by relating them to their contemporary context or historical background, as well as to works from other time periods.

a. The student relates a literary work to the characteristics of the literary time period or historical setting; – i. Romanticism

Warm-up –Answer these Essential Questions

1. What was the primary theme of the Romanticism time period?

2. Name a genre from the time period.

3. What did Romantic writers value over reason and fact?

4. Name something that was going on in America during the Romanticism time period.

5. Name an author from the Romanticism time period.

1. What was the primary theme of the Romanticism time period?

• the quest of the individual to define him- or herself

2. Name a genre from the time period.

• character sketches• slave narratives

•poetry• short stories

3. What did Romantic writers value over reason and fact?

• imagination & intuition

4. Name something that was going on in America during the Romanticism time

period.

• Expansion of newspapers, magazines, and book publishing

• Slavery debates• Industrial Revolution, inventions,

building of factories in America• Westward expansion• Improvement of transportation and

communication

5. Name an author from the Romanticism time period.

• Irving• Bryant• Dickinson• Cooper• Poe• Emerson• etc/