From The New Land toAmerican Romanticism

The Earliest Americans◦ Oral TraditionsViewed by many as folklore

The Walam Olum

• A small group of Europeans sailed form England on the Mayflower in 1620

• Religious reformers who were critical of the Church of England

• Preoccupation with sin and salvationTheir writings were primarily theological

studies, hymns, histories, biographies, and autobiographies with the purpose of each writing to provide spiritual insight and instruction.

• Puritans wrote for themselves in journals or diaries with the aim of serious self-examination that they practiced in other aspects of the lives.

• They produced neither fiction nor drama, since they regarded both as sinful.

• They did write poetry as a vehicle of spiritual enlightenment—more concerned with the poem’s literary form than with its message.

Anne Bradstreet◦ Upon the Burning of Our House◦ To My Dear and Loving Husband

William Bradford◦ from Of Plymouth Plantation

Jonathan Edwards◦ from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

Mary Rowlandson◦ Captivity Narrative

The Southern colonies differed from New England in climate, crops, social organization, and religion.

Literature effected by their busy social lives

Much of the literature of this time period was not produced in the colonies

It came from England By 1750, however, the clear beginnings of a

native literature began to appear; one that would one day be honored through out the English-speaking world.

• During this period, the mind of the nation was on politics. Journalists and printers provided a forum for the expression of ideas.

• After 1763, those ideas were increasingly focused on relations with Great Britain and, more broadly, on the nature of government.

• The writing of permanent importance from the Revolutionary era is mostly political writing.

By the early 1800s, Americans had generated a small body of work◦ Native Americans—haunting poetry and legends

told orally◦ Puritans-a number of powerful, inward-looking

works◦ Revolutionary statesmen—a number of polictical

documents for the ages

However, no novels or plays existed, nor had the short story been invented.

American colonists began to reach the point where they could no longer tolerate British rule.

The Age of Reason—the ideas of reason and discipline prevailed in the writing of the time◦ Logical reasoning offering sound clear arguments

in support of causes The attention of the nation was on politics,

so the same held true for the literature

Nature was a self-contained machine, like a watch. Its laws of operation could be rationally understood

Reason was emphasized over the imagination, the social over the persona, the common over the individual

The imagination had to be restrained by reason and common sense

Literature’s function was to illustrate the common values of humanity and the rational laws of human existence.

Upheld tradition, sometimes resisting change.

Human values and literary standards that had endured over long periods of time were regarded as universally valid

Benjamin Franklin Patrick Henry

◦ Speech in the Virginia Convention Thomas Paine

◦ from The Crisis Phillis Wheatley

◦ To his Excellency, General Washington• Edward Taylor• Phillip Freneau

Thomas Jefferson◦ The Declaration of Independence

Michel-Guillaume Jean de Crevecoeur◦ From Letters from an American Farmer

Sarah Kemble Knight◦ A Journey from Boston to New York

Romanticism developed Few American writers could boast of making

a living from their craft

The Puritans were religious fundamentalists who sought salvation. The founders of the repbulic were political realists who pursued reason.

But the early 19th century writer were considered Romantics.

Humanitarian reform is a mark of Romanticism—from abolition of slavery to improvements in education

Realists believed that reason is the dominating characteristic both of nature and of human nature.

Believed both nature and human nature are governed and fixed with unchanging laws.

A number of changing attitudes related o a sense of nationalism

The romantics’ emphasis on the individual reflects the political ideal set forth in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal”

Leads to an emphasis on the dignity and worth of the common individual and to social reforms that were meant to fulfill this ideal of equality

Romanticism does not necessarily mean “love”

Romanticism can be viewed as an artistic movement, or state of mind, or both.

Romantic writers favor the imagination over reason, intuition over facts.

Intense interest in and reverence for nature. An accent on mystery—on the strange and

fantastic aspects of human experience Often sought inspiration and understanding

through the observation and contemplation of nature.

Turned to legends and folklore as sources of inspiration.

Valued feeling and intuition over reason Placed central importance upon the

emotions and upon the individual Reason was thought of as important, but it

was not the surest guide to truth Romantic writers emphasized intuition, that

inner perception of truth which is independent of reason

All art is the imaginative expression of the inner essence of the individual

Romantics defended the potential of the individual and its claim for individual freedom

Romantics stressed the human potential for social progress and spiritual growth

The German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel observed, “The inner world is the content of Romantic art”◦ The key to this inner world is imagination, which

gives expression to those intuitions that mark each person’s unique being

Emerson asked, “Who can set bounds to the possibilities of man?”

Romanticis was an artistic movement that grew out of a reaction against the dominant attitudes and approaches of the 18th century.

Romantics stressed the examination of inner feelings and emotions and the use of the imagination, rather than the use of reason and logic.

Mostly interested in the expression of their own intuitive experiences

Subjects◦ Nature—emphasized the beauty, strangeness,

and the mystery of nature, as opposed to the rational laws of realists Saw nature not as a machine, but as an organic

process, constantly developing and changing

SubjectsThe Past—the rise of nationalism brought with it a new

interest in America’s past

Subjects The Inner Human World of Nature—emphasized the

emotions, intuition, and the individual and thus encouraged the exploration and the expression of the writer’s most private inner being.

Romantic writers became interested in the irrational depths of human nature.

American Romantic writers had found in Romanticism a new way of expressing their experience as Americans. In this process, they expressed the nationalistic spirit of the age and created a truly significant national literature.

William Cullen Bryant◦ Thanatopsis

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow◦ The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls

Oliver Wendel Holmes◦ The Last Leaf◦ Contentment

James Russell Lowell◦ The First Snow Fall

John Greenleaf Whittier◦ Telling the Bees

Edgar Allan Poe Nathaniel Hawthorne Herman Melville

Ralph Waldo Emerson Henry David Thoreau Emily Dickinson Walt Whitman