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American Romanticism

Explore the major themes of American Romanticism, including the impact of the Industrial Revolution, the decline of farming, and the desire for escape. Learn about influential writers such as the Fireside Poets and the Transcendentalists who sought truth and beauty in imagination and nature.

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American Romanticism

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  1. American Romanticism • 1820ish - 1865

  2. Major Themes of Literature

  3. Crash Course: Industrial Revolution

  4. Leaving Farming • Before industrialization, over 80% of the world population was farming to provide food for themselves. • Today less than 1% of Americans would classify themselves as farmers.

  5. Where Have All the Cowboys Gone? • What would a farmer write about? • What would a poetic farmer, who has time to write, write about? • What would a rich guy, who doesn’t need to farm to live, but lives out in the countryside anyway, write about?

  6. TIME LINE: Important Dates • Eli Whitney creates an improved cotton gin • US Population reaches 5.3 million • President Thomas Jefferson completes Louisiana Purchase • Underground Railroad is organized • US Army forces Cherokees out of their native land (Trail of Tears) • US Populate reaches 17.1 million • California Gold Rush causes many to move west

  7. History Shaping Literature • Our population is BOOMING at the same time as INDUSTRIALIZATION! • OVERCROWDED CITIES! • Pollution! • Less individual free time. • Society center becomes unnatural

  8. WE NEED AN ESCAPE! • Truth and beauty is found in imagination, emotion, and that gut feeling. • That gut feeling is opposite of doing everything your boss tells you to do. • We can figure out God by observing nature and becoming more natural. • Man is ugly and bad; Nature is the ideal. • Lots of focus on the INDIVIDUAL! • Types of literature: poetry, short story, novels, FICTION!!!

  9. LAST POINT • Romanticism is not about where people ARE, it’s about where they WANT to be. • What type of person is able to break out of the industrial society and go live the Romantic life?

  10. Types of Romantics

  11. Small Groups Break Out • Romanticism is the first time we see division among different groups of artist. • All groups had the major ideas in common (Man Bad, Nature Good) • They just went about it in different ways.

  12. The Fireside Poets • Called the Fireside Poets because they were very popular. • Often read by the fireside during evenings when people wanted an “escape” from every day life.

  13. The Hudson River School of Art

  14. Thomas Cole Series: • “The Course of Empire” - 1833-1836

  15. “The Savage State”

  16. “The Pastoral State”

  17. “The Consummation of Empire”

  18. “The Destruction”

  19. “Desolation”

  20. Overgrowth of Nature Beginning Little Trace of Society Compare Dark, but peaceful End

  21. More of the Hudson River School

  22. Thomas Cole “The Oxbow”

  23. William Hart “Meadow Groves”

  24. Asher Brow Durand “The Catskills”

  25. Albert Bierstadt “Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains” - 1868

  26. Back To Literature • The Transcendentalists

  27. The Transcendentalists Romanticism Spectrum Transcendentalist Man Bad ---------------------------------------Nature Good X X Fireside

  28. The Transcendentalists • Romanticism to the extreme. • What does it mean to TRANSCEND? a. to rise above or go beyond the limits of b. to triumph over the negative or restrictive aspects of something What do you think they were transcending?

  29. Transcendentalists • Started by • Ralph Waldo Emerson • Henry David Thoreau • Upset with the state of organized education and organized religion and the way it was being taught.

  30. Emerson’s “The American Scholar” • “So shall we come to look at the world with new eyes. It shall answer the endless inquiry of the intellect . . .” • “Build, therefore, your own world.”

  31. Basic Ideas • NEVER CONFORM! • Teacher Note: Thoreau and his green jacket • Break away from society and live the most natural life possible.

  32. Transcendental Quiz • 1. How much time do you spend without other people? • 2. How much time do you spend completely alone? • 3. How much time do you spend out in nature? • 4. How many tee shirts do you have? • 5. What is your reaction when it starts to snow on a school day?

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