American Romanticism

1. American Romanticism 1800-1855

2. Celebrating the Individual • Patriotic and individualistic, urban and untamed, wealthy and enslaved---Americans in the first half of the 19th century embodied a host of contradictions. Struggling to make sense of their complex, inconsistent society, writers of the period turned inward for a sense of truth. Their movement, known as romanticism, explored the glories of the individual spirit, the beauty of nature, and the possibilities of the imagination.

3. Romanticism: Historical Context • The Spirit of Exploration • Westward Expansion • Louisiana doubled the country’s size • Westward exploration further and further west • Displacement of the Native Americans • Manifest Destiny • It was the destiny of the United States to expand to the Pacific Ocean and into Mexican territory • Mexico disagreed: Mexican-American War

4. Historical Context cont… • Growth of Industry • An enormous shift in the attitudes and working habits of many Americans • War of 1812 forced Americans to make items previously imported • Industrial Revolution • Changed country from agrarian economy to industrial powerhouse • Changed way of life for many Americans, but not necessarily for the better • Textile mills- long hours; poor wages

5. Cultural Influences • The Tragedy of Slavery • 1793-1860 cotton production rose greatly • Cotton gin and farming equipment • Growth in slavery • Brutal living conditions • Tension between the North and South over issue • Call for Social Reform • American joined together in mid-19th century to fight slavery • Abolitionist movement • William Cullen Bryant and James Russell Lowell prominent abolitionists

6. Ideas of the Age • Nationalism vs. Sectionalism • Nationalism: the belief that national interests should be placed ahead of regional concerns • National pride and optimism of Americans • Our own writers with a distinctly American “accent” • Issue of slavery brought about a rift in Nationalism • South relied on North for manufactured goods; made the North rich at the South’s expense

7. Ideas continued… • Sectionalism: placing the interest of one’s own region ahead of the nation as a whole • Took hold in the South • Reaction to the North’s growing wealth and influence

8. Romantic Literature • The Early Romantics • Romanticism emerged from Europe in the late 18th Century • Romantics look to nature for inspiration • Romantics celebrate emotions and the imagination • Writers in America reacting to the strict doctrines of the Puritans • Attempted to capture the energy and character of growing nation • Celebrated the glories of the individual spirit, the emotions, imagination basic to human nature

9. Early Romantics • William Cullen Bryant • “Thanatopsis” established romanticism as a force in mid-19th Century literature • Celebrated nature • Washington Irving • Pioneered the short story as a literary form • Put America on the “literary map” • Influenced Nathaniel Hawthorne • James Fenimore Cooper • Wrote the first truly original American novel • The Last of the Mohicans

10. The Fireside Poets • Group of New England Poets whose work was morally uplifting and romantically engaging • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • Stressed individualism and an appreciation of nature • Only American poet recognized with a plaque in the Poets’ corner of Westminster Abbey • James Russell Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes and John Greenleaf Whittier • Committed to social reform • Championed the common person

11. Transcendentalism • Beliefs: • People, nature and God are interconnected • Stress on individualism and self-reliance • Intuition can lead to knowledge • Faith in the inherent goodness of people • Celebration of emotions and the imagination

12. The Transcendentalists • A philosophical and literary movement that emphasized living a simple life and celebrating truth found in nature and in personal emotion and imagination. • Stressed: optimism, freedom, and self-reliance • Ralph Waldo Emerson • The individual is capable of discovering a higher truth on his or her own, through intuition • People are inherently good and should follow their own truths

13. Transcendentalists cont… • Henry David Thoreau • Major target the Puritan heritage • Stressed spiritual well-being • Achieved through intellectual activity and a close relationship with nature • He lived in the woods by Walden Pond for two years writing and studying nature.

14. American Gothic: The “Brooding” Romantics • Anti-transcendentalists • Edgar Allan Poe • Nathaniel Hawthorne • Herman Melville • Philosophy filled with dark currents and a deep awareness of human capacity for evil. • Probe the inner life of their characters • Are romantic in their emphasis on emotion, nature, the individual, and the unusual.