Goals of the 18th Century

America

Independence, Prosperity, Commerce, and Urban Civilizations

Characteristics of the Romantic Era

- Distrust of “Civilization”

- Nostalgia for the past - Concern with the

Individual Freedom - Interest in the

Supernatural - Profound love for

beauties of natural landscape.

More Characteristics of Romanticism - Innocence

- Anti-Industrialism - Spontaneous

overflow of emotion recollected in tranquility

- Imagination

History of Romanticism

First felt in Germany - Romanticism has a

strong influence on literature, music, and painting well into the 19th century

- Movement goes beyond national, chronological, and artistic boundaries

Rationalism vs. Romanticism

- Reaction to rationalism and the Age of Reason

- Imagination able to discover truths that Reason could not reach

- Truths accompanied by powerful emotion and associated with beauty

Rationalism vs. Romanticism

To contrast: Franklin considered a journey to the city as an opportunity; Romantics saw such a journey as filled with unexpected dangers

Ideas about City vs. Countryside

- City: place of moral ambiguity, corruption, and death

- Countryside: Independence, moral certainty, and health

-Western Frontier: Of great importance, played a big role in American Literature.

- The journey is to get away from the town to get to the beauty of nature

Romanticism: As a School of Thought

- Rational thought is inferior to the imagination

- Imagination, spontaneity, individual feelings, and nature have greater value that Reason, logic, planning, and cultivation.

Literature During the Romantic Era

Renaissance: ‘rebirth’ – arrival of cultural maturity

-Intellectual and social life gives rise to new importance of American Literature

- American landscape and culture finds its place in original American Literature

- Development of American novel coincides with Westward expansion, growth of national spirit and rapid growth of the frontier life

Lyceum New England was experiencing a period/movement of self-improvement and intellectual inquiry called Lyceum.

Lyceum movement in 1826 founded to improve American Education

Goals of this movement: training teachers, establishing museums, and instituting social reforms with education, insane asylums, blind and deaf, abolition, and women’s rights

Utopia Emerson provided a series of lectures on self-improvement. Emerson’s utopian group became known as “The Transcendental Club”.

- Utopian societies (search for the perfect society) attempted

Transcendentalism is a growing philosophy explored in literature and the other Arts.

Definition and History

Transcendentalism in the 19th Century was more than a trend in American literature. It was a philosophical movement, but it owed its development as much to democracy as to European philosophers.

Transcendentalism centered on the divinity of each individual; but this divinity could be self-discovered only if the person had the independence of mind to do so.

Definition In order to understand the ultimate reality of God, the universe, the self, and other important matters, one must transcend, or go beyond everyday human experience in the physical world using intuition and imagination.

Intuition Transcendentalism gives credence to the unlimited potential of human ability to connect with both the natural and spiritual world.

The chief aim is to become fully aware not only of what our senses record, but also to recognize the ability of our inner voice—our intuition—to wisely and correctly interpret the sensory input.

Individualism that individualism stems from listening to one's "inner voice;" and that one's life is guided by one's intuition; societal leadership is not necessary nor desirable.

Individualism One aspect of individualism is the value of the individual over society. To "transcend" society one must first be able to look past and beyond it. One must follow his instincts and not conform to what society dictates. Although society will influence an individual towards conformity, it is important to remain true to one's self and to one's identity. Secondly, individualism includes being self-reliant.

Nature According to the transcendentalists, everyone had the power to "transcend" the seeming confusion and chaos of the world and understand nature's signs. Everything on earth has the divine "spark" within and thus is all part of a whole. This philosophy led to an optimistic emphasis on individualism.

Emerson In his essay, "Nature," Emerson explained how every idea has its source in natural phenomena, and that the attentive person can "see" those ideas in nature. Intuition allowed the transcendentalist to disregard external authority and to rely, instead, on direct experience.

The universe is one great entity, "composed of Nature and the Soul . . . . Nature is the symbol of the spirit" (Nature).

Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allen Poe, and Herman Melville

Unlike Emerson and transcendentalism, their view of the world lacked optimism. They saw a dark side to human existence and recorded this aspect of human nature in their works.

Similarities to transcendentalism: valued intuition over reason, saw signs and symbols in events, spiritual facts lie behind physical appearances.

Anti-Transcendentalists

Differences: spiritual facts are not necessarily good or harmless.

Their view developed from the mystical and melancholy aspects of Puritan thought.

Their works explored the conflict between good and evil, psychological effects of guilt and sin, and madness and derangement in human psyche.

They saw the blankness and the horror of evil within humanity.

- Poe’s lit. about the workings of the human mind; master or suspense/horror

- He most desired to cut free from reality or actually enter into the world of the imagination

- Poe used his stories to show readers the truth that lies in the dark and irrational depths of the human mind

- Poe is the father of Dark Romanticism

- Poe is a Gothic writer - Gothic novels feature

mysterious settings and elements of the bizarre and supernatural

- Poe wrote the first detective story – Inspired Doyle to create Sherlock Holmes

Include highly charged emotional states like:  terror, a feeling that one is on the brink of insanity, anger, agitation, an exaggerated feeling of some impending doom, and obsessive love.

Supernatural events:  ghosts, doors that open themselves, unexplained sounds, etc.

Damsels in distress are frequent.  Women who are frightened and confused, wandering around lost, or dying due to a slow and unexplainable ailment.

Settings- include large, drafty old houses that have "been in the family for years." 

Atmosphere of mystery and suspense

A ghostly legend, an unexplainable occurrence, or a story about a horrible death or murder .

Omens, foreshadowing, and dreams usually play a large role in the mysterious air that is created within the story.

Gothic Lit Words designed to evoke images of gloom and doom: dark, foreboding, forbidding, ghostly, etc.

Romantic themes often involve the death of a man or woman in the throes of some great passion, the obsessive nature of a man or woman in love, or excessive grief one feels upon the loss of a loved one.

Arpin, Gary. “American Romanticism.” Elements of Literature, 5th Course. Austin: Holt, Rhinehart, and Winston, 2000. 138-150.

Brulatour, Meg. “Transcendental Ideas: Definitions.” Virginia Commonwealth University. Web. 12 October

2011.

“Transcendentalism, Anti-Transcendentalism and the Dark Romantics.” Arcadia School System. Powerpoint. 12 Ocotober 2011. teachers.ausd.net/classlink/getfile.ausd?fileid=65679