Part III: The Literature of Romanticism — Early Romantics

1. Part III: The Literature of Romanticism — Early Romantics

2. 1. Historical Background The rise of the new nation The rise of the West The rise of New York Egalitarianism replacing aristocracy Pursuit of material rich, simplicity, utility and perfection, The rise of humanitarianism Blooming of magazines Establishment of American literary identity with the birth and growth of first generations of Americans authors

3. 2. Literary Background Preview Question: what’s the difference between literary school/trend and movement? A. Romantic Vs. the Classic; a term first used by Friedrich Schlegel B. Neoclassicism: objectivity, harmony, rationality, dignity, proportion, and moderation C. Publication of Lyrical Ballads in England: creative imagination by which to see beyond reality and into an ideal world

4. 3. Characteristics (1)Subjectivity of inward feelings Vs. objectivity of rationalism (2) Feelings, intuitions and emotions Vs. reason and common sense head thinking Vs. heart feeling; Truth: Romantics Vs. Rationalists (3) View of God: the world as a ticking watch made by God; God Vs. Nature (4) Individualism vs. Authority: individual at the very center of life

5. (5) Inner life and self-expression (6) Strong interest in the past, the wild , the remote and the mysterious: treatment of the American Indians as noble savage (7) Variety in forms Main Subjects: A. Nature : wild, irregular, mysterious by energetic B. BeautyC. Past: primitive literature – translation of Iliad and Odyssey by William Cullen Bryant Literary forms: A: novels B: short stories C: poems

6. 4. American Romanticism Background A. striving for political, economic, and cultural independence from Britain and calling for a new literary expression B. European influences C. magazines : a new playground for Romantics

7. Distinct Features • Tend to moralize, to edify rather than to entertain • Present new experiences alien to European culture: the exotic landscape, the frontier life, the westward expansion, the myth of a New Garden of Eden • Produce a sense of “newness” which inspired the romantic imagination

8. The New England Poets Represented the elite educated society in New England society; conventional, wealthy, highly cultured, interested in the advanced European arts and forms but writing about American experiences and subjects; showing strong sense of morality *Also known as the Fireside Poets or Schoolroom Poets, outstanding figures of New England Poets include Bryant, Longfellow

9. Blank Verse Dealing with grave subjects; Unrhymed ; Iambic pentameter: usually each line containing five units of syllables, with the first unstressed and the second one stressed, but there are many variants Examples of Blank Verse “To be / or not / to be ,/ that is/ the question” ˇ ˊ/ ˇ ˊ / ˇ ˊ / ˇ ˊ/ ˇ  ˊ ˊ From “Hamlet”, by William Shakespeare Something there /is that /doesn't love/ a wall, That sends/ the frozen/-ground-swell /under it And spills /the upper /boulder /in the sun, And make/ gaps /even two /can pass/ abreast. From “Mending Wall”, by Robert Frost

10. Washington Irving(1783-1859)

11. 1. Life A. Materially rich, physically weak; B. An indulged child, an unsuccessful student, but found his own way to writing C. A frequent visitor to Europe; haunted by European culture — an Anglophile life (17 years in England);Extending question: Is it a hang-up of nationality? Or simply a temperament issue (attracted by the culture)?

12. 2. Literary reputations Father of American Short Story; America’s First Man of Letters; first American author to win international recognition; first modern American short story writer first great American juvenile literary author; first American prose stylist (pay attention to artistic value, in contrast to plot); No longer fashionable in American studies circles, but still a classic

13. 3. Major works A. History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of Dutch Dynasty— a history book in a humorous way, an immediate success and a classic of humor B. The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent (1819-1920, Published in England) The Alhambra (1832) The Life of George Washington (1855-1859)

14. 4. Styles Apparent ease and gentleness of the language; Humor and irony; Gothic romance --the first great prose stylist; --the first great belletrist, writing for mere pleasure

15. 4. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow a Story about stories and story-tellers; the story also demonstrates Irving’s high skills of story telling; Irving’s nostalgia for the past derives not only from his “European Complex”, but more from his acute discernment of the on-going changes taking place in the new nation as a historian; The classic duel also profiles the nation’s anxiety about culture change; His interest in the supernatural suggests his belief in the possibility of discovering truth through imagination;

16. Juxtaposition of “legends” the legend of the headless horseman, the legends told by the story tellers in the story, the legend of Ichabod Crane: his “wild-west-fashion” adventure into Sleepy Hollow, his encounter with the “headless horseman”

17. Who is telling the story? --Multiplicity of narrative voices Irving himself is the author; Geoffrey Crayon is the fictional author of the volume; Diedrich Knickerbocker supposedly wrote down the story; The legend was told to Knickerbocker by a “pleasant, shabby, gentlemanly old fellow”; Within the legend, the characters tell stories hat they have heard or read;

18. The unreliability of the narrative voices Irving simply hid behind the curtain, pulling the string; Knickerbocker claims that he has repeated the legend “almost in the precise words in which I heard it related” --can we trust him? (considering the length of the story and the amount of detailed description) The “gentlemanly old fellow” claimed he heard the name “Tarry Town”, but would not“ vouch for the fact, but merely advert to it”; The “gentlemanly old fellow” admits that the legend might be a bit extravagant and says, “I don’t believe one half of it myself”

19. The effects An emotional distance is created by the multiple levels of narration; As a result, nothing can be trusted in the story; Empathy can not develop; The reader’s strong feeling about Crane, either positive or negative, is diluted; The reader’s attention is forced to focus on the humor; It is the humor that has made the story a long lasting American favorite.

20. The effects An emotional distance is created by the multiple levels of narration; As a result, nothing can be trusted in the story; Empathy can not develop; The reader’s strong feeling about Crane, either positive or negative, is diluted; The reader’s attention is forced to focus on the humor; It is the that has made the story a long lasting American favorite.

21. Themes An emotional distance is created by the multiple levels of narration; As a result, nothing can be trusted in the story; Empathy can not develop; The reader’s strong feeling about Crane, either positive or negative, is diluted; The reader’s attention is forced to focus on the humor; It is the that has made the story a long lasting American favorite.

22. “Rip Van Winkle”- Irving’s greatest claim to fame A story of a man who falls asleep for twenty years seems indeed to escape the law of time, haunting us still with its mystery; Sleeping precisely the American Revolution, Rip Van Winkle escaped the responsibility as An American citizen as well as a husband; Rip’s sleep also prophesies the problematic mentality of refusing to grow up as was later recorded in Mark Twain’s works)

23. “Rip Van Winkle”- Irving’s greatest claim to fame • America is altered in powerful political ways; even nature is altered, but Rip remains unchanged; • The new nation was founded, but had to deal with the growing pains

24. James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) — the earliest novelist in U.S.

25. 1. Life A life in comfort son of a successful estate agent; privately tutored; student of Yale but got expelled; a sailor; husband of rich wife. A gentleman farmer a conservative, criticizing the society for being too democratic: defending slavery and limitation on the privilege of voting

26. 2. Literary Achievement the earliest novelist in U.S; the first author to give image about American frontiersmen; his novels changed Indian's image in people’s mind ”the American Walter Scott” (a title he never likes)

27. The Theme Figure: Natty Bumppo ”the essential American Soul” — D. H. Laurence Three Types of Novels: A. Revolutionary past- about the war — The Spy . Harvid, working as a peddlar on the street, but actually a spy of G. Washington. B. Sea Novels —about the life of the sailors — The Pilot C. Frontiersmen Novels: — The Leather Stocking Talesa. The Pioneers b. The Last of Mohicans c. The Prairie d. The Path Finder e. The Deer Slayer Weakness: difficult to read; too many coincidences; conventional

28. William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878)-the American Wordsworth

29. 1. Life and Career Born after the revolutionary war, into a family tradition of loving classics and poetry, against a fine natural setting for the boyhood of a poet of nature, with the companionship of his father –an enthusiastic naturalist and a persistent walker in the woods; Great appetite for reading; had access to his father’s ample library and his uncle tutored him in classical languages and literature; Wrote verses at the age of nine, published his satire The Embargo (1808); wrote the first draft of “Thanatopsis” at sixteen; Influenced by European poets, he absorbed the neo-classical forms of Addison, Pope and Johnson, the attitudes of “graveyard school” represented by Blair, Thomson and other poets; also influenced by Scott, Cowper, Burns, Coleridge and Wordsworth; In 1826 he joined the staff of the New York Evening Post as an editor who later fought against slavery and for political and social reforms

30. 1. Life and Career He also befriended Cooper and Irving, becoming the advisors of many later arrivals; Actively as a public speaker; became a great leader of the northern Democrats; remained as familiar poet of the people; Regarded as revered national monument; -- “as quiet, as cool and as dignified as a smooth, silent iceberg” whose only “flame” reflects the “chill Northern Lights” --Lowell --”As a poet his range was not large and his thoughts not profound, but he was able to express the common idealism of his countrymen at a level of property and dignity so high as to make him, for the time, their most revered spokesman. As a magnanimous editor and public leader, he must rank with the great men of his age.”--The American Tradition in Literature

31. 2. Literary Achievements “one of the earliest America's earliest naturalist poets, who provided what the nation needed at a time of national self-consciousness and made American subjects worthy of celebration” --Wu Dingbo Major works include: Fountain The White-Footed Deer, A Forest Hymn The Flood of the Year Translation of Homeric epics---Iliad and Odyssey. “Thanatopsis” “To the Waterfowl” The Prairies (blank verse)

32. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1801-1882)-the most popular poet in 19th America

33. 1. Life Born into very fortunate circumstances, named after his heroic uncle; religious and bookish mother, prominent-lawyer father Raised to follow in his father’s foot steps, but chose a career of language study and teaching, later a professional poet; Frequent visitor to Europe; Chaired the department of French and Spanish, Harvard College;

34. 1. Life his first wife died of miscarrying( in 1835), the second by fire; he himself severely burn on the face ( in 1861, growing out his beard); lived most of his adult life in Cambridge, devotion to writing in most of his later years His prolific career earned him a private audience with Queen Victoria, his place becoming a shrine for visitors

35. 2. Literary Achievement Reputation: The first American professional poet; The most important poet in the world of the 19th century;

36. Major works Voices of the Night, Ballads and Other Poems, Tales of Wayside Inn, The Song of Hiawatha; Translation of The Devine Comedy (by Dante)

37. Style Simple and traditional skills, easily read; Musical; paying great attention to rhyme and rhythm; Powerful and effective expressions; Didactic but still enjoyable;

38. 3. Criticism Writing about American subjects, but always in European Style; Often criticized for his simple, straight-forward, sometimes didactic style and rather outdated mind-set; In recent and modern days, he has also been accused of abusing symbols; Poe bitterly called him a “Plagiarist”; others claimed him a “liar”, because of the fact that he had a melancholy vision of life, but his poems have a manly, affirmative

39. Extending Question Longfellow had a melancholy vision of life, but he remained optimistic in his writing. There is a disparity between how he felt and what he wrote. Is it intellectual dishonesty, or rather, a necessary compromise made to teach and moralize?