American Romantic Period

1. American Romantic Period Also known as the American Renaissance

2. 1820-1865 Expansion (Manifest Destiny…)

3. 1800 - 1860 What’s going on in the world: • 1803 – Louisiana Purchase • 1810 – Mexico begins it’s war of independence from Spain • 1812 – British attempt to take back America in the War of 1812 • 1815 – Napoleon defeated at Waterloo • 1820-1821 – Missouri Compromise (free state/ slave state) • 1830 – Underground railroad begins • 1837 – Queen Victoria rules England • 1845 – United States annexes Texas (leads to war with Mexico, 1846) • 1849 – California gold rush • 1854 – Republican party formed (opposed extension of slavery) • 1859 – John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry

4. Louisiana Purchase • From France • 4 cents an acre (15 million dollars total) • Doubled US Territory

5. The Gold Rush • Helped to develop the West • Led to the building of railroads • California and Alaska were major rushes

6. Romanticism Reaction to Rationalism and the age of reason

7. Romanticism • NOT about love • Values feeling and intuition over reason • Romantics believed that imagination could discover truths that the rational mind could not • Nature is very important Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. -Edgar Allan Poe

8. Characteristics of the American Romantic period • Values feeling and intuition over reason • Places faith in the power of the imagination • Rejects the societal aspects of civilization and seeks unspoiled nature • Prefers youthful innocence to educated sophistication.

9. Characteristics of the American Romantic period • Celebrated individual freedoms and the worth of the individual, NOT society • Sees nature’s beauty as a path to God and moral development • Looks backward to the past and distrusts progress

10. Characteristics of the American Romantic period • Finds meaning in the imaginary realm and the inner world of the supernatural • Sees poetry as the highest expression of the imagination • Finds inspiration from myths, legends, and folklore

11. What genres of literature? • Gets its basis in imagination • Has no use for facts, logic, and things that are actually possible • Deals with emotion and feeling • Novels, short stories, poems

12. Early Romantics • William Cullen Bryant • Washington Irving • James Fenimore Cooper • Were inspired by the beauty of nature • Emphasized emotions and imagination over reason • Celebrated the individual spirit

13. Fireside Poets • People liked to read their works by the fireside at night • Emphasized moral themes in their work • Were viewed as equals of British poets of the day • Stressed individualism and an appreciation of nature • Were committed to social reform • Often considered the most popular poets ever • Very un-Romantic in their style

14. Fiction The American Hero: • Innocent and pure • Sense of honor higher than society’s honor • Has knowledge of people and life based on a deep understanding, not based on education • Loves nature • Quests for a higher truth

15. The Hero • First American Hero – created by James Fennimore Cooper: Natty Bumppo(went by other names: Hawkeye,Deerslayer,Leatherstocking)

16. The Fireside Poets • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • John Greenleaf Whittier • Oliver Wendell Holmes • James Russell Lowell

17. Subgroups: Extremists Romantics Transcendentalists Dark Romantics

18. The Dark Romantics • Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville • Believed what the Romantics did, but felt that at the core of everyone was a dark, sinister being • Has a lot of crazy or guilt-racked people in their stories

19. Transcendentalists • One must go beyond (transcend) the everyday human experience in order to determine the ultimate reality of God • What is perceived by the senses is not necessarily true • Believed in human perfectibility • Ralph Waldo Emerson is best known

20. The Over-Soul (by the Transcendentalists) God Individual Nature

21. A Comparison…