The American Romantic Movement (aka The American Renaissance)

1. The American Romantic Movement(aka The American Renaissance) ~ 1800-1860

2. Romanticism • The name given to those schools of thought that value feeling and intuition over reason. • Reaction against the Rationalism of Ben Franklin • Reaction against the corruption and decay found in the cities – inspiration and value found in nature

3. The 5 “I’s” of Romanticism • Intuition • Imagination • Innocence • Inspiration • Nature • Supernatural • Inner Experience

4. Aims of the American Romantic Novelists & Short Story Authors Create a new art form Capture the American landscape and American sentiment through a “new hero” in a “new story” Authors: James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving

5. The new American Hero • James Fenimore Cooper & Natty Bumppo • Take notes on the “characteristics of the new American hero” on page 146-149

6. Nathaniel Hawthorne

7. Aims of the American Romantic Poets • Wanted to be respected by European authors • Used classical themes and imagery in addition to images of nature • Did not want to be seen as “American country bumpkins” – almost too traditional in their formats and themes • The Fireside Poets (poems often read aloud at campfires and in front of the hearth) – Oliver Wendell Holmes, John Greenleaf Whittier, James Russell Lowell,Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

8. Oliver Wendell Holmes

9. The Dark Romantics • The darker side of the 5 “I’s” • Supernatural elements • Gothic images • Authors: Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe

10. Herman Melville

11. The Transcendentalists • Romantic Philosophers • Authors: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau • More notes later…

12. Ralph Waldo Emerson