American Literature

American Literature Early American Literature Romantic Literature

Outcomes of the lesson • Timeline overview of American Literary Movements • Early American Literature overview and timeline • Emphasis on Romantic Era, beginning with the historic context. • Writing style, major themes, methods of interpretation and author’s intent of Romantic works • Notable writers of the Romantic era and their works

Prior Knowledge Inquiry • As a reactionary movement to the Age of Reason, infer which concepts and characteristics the Romantic era of literature might emphasize over reason and logic. Explain. • Why do you think society may have desired this genre and style of literature and art in the early 19th century? Explain.

Romantic Literature(1800 – c. 1860)

Evaluation Inquiry “America is a land of wonders, in which everything is in constant motion and every movement seems an improvement. The idea of novelty is there indissolubly connected with the idea of amelioration. No natural boundary seems to be set to the efforts of man; and what is not yet done is only what he has not yet attempted to do.” ~ Alexis de Tocqueville This quote from Tocqueville’s Democracy in America (1835-1840) captures the American spirit of wonder and discovery inspiring movement westward. Judging from this quote, infer the major themes pronounced during the Romantic literary era.

Literary Movements Modernism Romanticism Contemporary and Post-Modernism Age of Reason Realism Transcendentalism Puritan Era

Early American Literature Transcendentalism Age of Reason/ Enlightenment Romanticism Puritan Era

Romantic Literature Timeline Edgar Allen Poe, The House of Usher (1809-1849) Nathaniel Hawthorne, Scarlet Letter (1804-1864) Herman Melville, Moby Dick (1819-1891) Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hallow (1783-1859) James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans (1789-1851) Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (1819-1892) Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Song of Hiawatha (1807-1882)

American Romantic Literature Era 1800-1860 1840 1860 1800 American Renaissance Subgenres: Dark Romantics Transcendentalists

Historic Contextof the Romantic Literary Era The War of 1812 http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/president-madison-and-the-war-of-1812.html Indian Removal Act of 1830, The Trail of Tears http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/the-trail-of-tears-and-jacksons-indian-removal-act-of-1830.html

Broad themes of the Romantic Era

Romantic Era Themes • Imagination • Individuality • Nature as a source of inspiration • Invoking the past for wisdom • Seeing the common man as a hero

Romantic Era • http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/the-romantic-period-in-american-literature-and-art.html

Washington Irving Born in New York to English immigrants, Washington Irvine was one of the first American authors to gain the respect of the English and European audience with his two literary classics, Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hallow which both manifest a sense of individualism and escapism mastered within Romantic work. Irving Biography: http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/washington-irving-biography-works-and-style.html Washington Irving, 1783-1859

Washington Irving’s Work • The Legend of Sleepy Hallow: http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/irvings-the-legend-of-sleepy-hollow-summary-and-analysis.html • Rip Van Winkle: http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/washington-irvings-rip-van-winkle-summary-and-analysis.html • The Devil and Tom Walker: http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/the-devil-and-tom-walker-by-washington-irving-summary-and-analysis.html

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Born in Portland, Maine Longfellow matured to be a poet and professor of literature at Harvard University. In addition to his famous poem, Song of Hiawatha and, which demonstrated sympathy, respect love for the Native American way of life, Longfellow also wrote of historic figures, personal experiences of loss, academic texts (text books) and worked on classical translations, such as Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. H. W. Longfellow 1807-1882 Longfellow’s poem analysis: http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/henry-wadsworth-longfellow-poem-analysis.html

James Fenimore Cooper Born in Burlington, New Jersey, Cooper was a student at Yale (he was expelled), and a sailor on a merchant ship, before he settled down into his family life and writing career. He is credited with creating the first American adventure novel, in his work, The Last of the Mohicans (1826) which acknowledged the initial possession and dispossession of the American Indian’s resources and livelihood by the invading European arrivals. He also wrote sea-tales, war romances, and social works criticizing American values and morality. Last of the Mohicans analysis: http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/james-fenimore-coopers-the-last-of-the-mohicans-themes-summary-analysis.html J. F. Cooper, 1789-1851

The Dark RomanticsAmerican Gothic Negating the reach for perfection attended to by the Transcendalists, the Dark Romantics (a subgenre of the Romantics) emphasized human frailty and fallibility, by focusing on the predisposed nature of the human mind toward mental illness, disillusionment, or delusion which was often known as sin, and materialized in literature through haunting figures and symbols. The imaginary world of the Dark Romantics was realized through stories and poetry of self-examination within the fog of the sea, and often closed with self-destruction. • http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/the-dark-romantics-in-american-literature.html

Dark Romantic Literature http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/the-dark-romantics-in-american-literature.html • Writers and their works: • Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter • Edgar Allen Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Black Cat, Tell Tale Heart • Herman Melville, Moby Dick Hester Prynne and Pearl before the stocks (1878), by A.V.S. Anthony

Nathaniel Hawthorne Born in Salem, Massachusetts to a family with deep New England Puritan roots, Hawthorne’s personal history was bound to seek perfection and feel shame all at once. His great grandfather officiated the Salem Witch Trials, providing Hawthorne with a unique ethos into which to many of his works were inspired, particularly The Scarlet Letter and The House of Seven Gables. After attending college at Bowdoin in Maine, Hawthorne pursued his career as a writer in a Transcendental community of artists and there he married painter Sophia Peabody, with whom he had three children. His works twisted upon the Christian virtues driven to error through arrogance, egoism and elitism. This unquestioned righteousness led to a blindness, lost of virtue and humility. Nathaniel Hawthorne 1804-1864

Hawthorne’s Work • Hawthorne’s pristine marks among the Dark Romantics include the subgenre’s classic investigation of the mind – the personal psycho-analysis – in its most pure frailty, flaw and fallenness. In his creative examination of man’s relationship to the natural world he falls into unknown and disturbed waters. In the depths of every heart there is a tomb and a dungeon, though the lights, the music, and revelry above may cause us to forget their existence, and the buried ones, or prisoners whom they hide. But sometimes, and oftenest at midnight, these dark receptacles are flung wide open. In an hour like his....pray that your griefs may slumber. “ ~Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Haunted Mind

Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Biography: http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/nathaniel-hawthorne-biography-works-and-style.html The Scarlet Letter Analysis: http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/the-scarlet-letter-summary-and-analysis-of-an-allegory.html

Edgar Allen Poe Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Poe is the most renowned writer of the American Dark Romantics, both beloved and mourned for his contributions to psychological drama, horror, science fiction and poetry. Poe’s imagination was nocturnal and delicately wrought with tension. His perfected poetry holds the frailty of love and imagination as a gentle, cold and passing wind before a deathly storm. It is tense from the loss of balance, yet permanent and stone solid in the certainty of its end. Edgar Allen Poe 1809-1849

Edgar Allen Poe • Both parents died before he was three years old. • Struggled with relationships during adult life (his first wife died very young) • He died alone and unhappy • His grave was unmarked for 26 years (Baltimore, MD) • Poe’s writing placed emphasis on “the priority of music and sound” over sense. With me, poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion. ~Edgar Allen Poe

Poe’s Work: • The Tell Tale Heart • The Black Cat • The Fall of the House of Usher • The Raven • Annabel Lee • The Black Cat and Tell Tale Heart • Both stories involve men talking about why they have committed murder • “A Poe Character is never more insane than at the moment he begins to reason with us.” ~ Larzer Ziff, American Literary Critic.

Edgar Allen Poe • Edgar Allen Poe’s Biography: http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/edgar-allan-poe-biography-works-and-style.html • Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado Analysis: http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/poes-the-cask-of-amontillado-summary-and-analysis.html • Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher Analysis: http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/poes-the-fall-of-the-house-of-usher-summary-and-analysis.html • Poe’s The Raven Analysis: http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/edgar-allen-poes-the-raven-summary-and-analysis.html

Herman Melville Melville was born into an wealthy family of merchants in New York City. After receiving his college education, Melville worked on his uncle’s farm, and then as a cabin boy on a ships to Liverpool, England. This led to a job as a whaler. These experiences provided him with the content of his future novels, many of which were sea-faring adventures and life in foreign lands. He married Elizabeth Shaw in 1847, settled into family life, and began his career as a writer. Herman Melville (1819-1891)

Melville’s Moby Dick Melville reached his peak as a writer with Moby Dick which demonstrated his keen perception of human nature. His writing was steeped in metaphor, allegory and satire.

Herman Melville • Herman Melville’s Biography: http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/herman-melville-biography-works-style.html • Melville’s Moby Dick Analysis: http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/herman-melville-moby-dick-summary-and-analysis.html

American Literature