1. Romanticism

2. Romanticism • 1800’s (1830ish-1860ish) • Art, literature and music • Not “romantic” • The natural world was • inherently good, but society • was corrupt • Romantic literature was personal, • intense, and emotional • Major theme – the quest of the individual to define himself

3. Characteristics • Individualism • Idealization of rural life • Enthusiasm for the wild, irregular, or grotesque in nature • Enthusiasm for the uncivilized or “natural” • The predominance of imagination over reason and formal rules • Human experience • Love of nature • An interest in the past • Mysticism

4. Imagination: • Imagination is more important than reason or logic

5. Intuition: • Romantics valued feelings and instincts over reason/logic

6. Idealism: • Theory • The spirit, the mind and language make the world the way it is • Think of the movie “Inception”

7. Inspiration: • Emphasized being spontaneous instead of planning • Spur of the moment/ inspired

8. Individuality: • Celebrated the individual • Start of women’s rights and abolitionism • People’s destinies are not preordained – more personal and individual relationship with God • “Song of Myself” • “I Celebrate Myself”

9. More about romanticism • America’s first great creative period – people outside of America began to take interest • Became the “American voice” • In response to the rules of the neoclassical period • Authors: Hawthorne, Melville, Stowe, Irving, Poe, Dickinson, Longfellow • Works: The Scarlett Letter, Moby Dick, Tell-Tale Heart, The Last of the Mohicans

10. Segue to transcendentalism • The Romantic Era segued into Transcendentalism

11. Gothic Romanticism • Used ideas of Romanticism • Had a “dark side” • Mysterious • Macabre (Ghosts, death, morbid)