The American Renaissance

The American Renaissance, a coin termed by F.O. Matthiessen in his

book of that name in 1941.

American Literature, 1820–1865American Renaissance and Civil War

• The period from the 1830s roughly until the end of the American Civil War in which American literature, in the wake of the Romantic movement, came of age as an expression of a national spirit.

• Great Writers and an American Literature:– The great writers of this period, roughly 1830-

1865 although more particularly 1850-1855, marked the first maturing of American letters.

– It was a Renaissance in the sense of a flowering, excitement over human possibilities, and a high regard for individual ego.

– It was definitely and even defiantly American, as these writers struggled to understand what "American" could possibly mean, especially in terms of a literature which was distinctively American and not British.

– Their inability to resolve this struggle--and it was even more a personal one than a nationalistic one, for it questioned their identity and place in society--did much to fire them creatively…

• A Changed world…defined by Landscape, population, and self-determination:– One approach to American literature of

the first half of the nineteenth century is to view it as individual responses to pervasive and difficult problems, both aesthetic and imaginative, rooted in the landscape and the polyglot population pushing across it, fighting over it, settling it, and ultimately transforming it.

• A Moral Crisis, the Industrial Revolution and Technological Developments:– Along with the political and moral crisis

culminating in the Civil War, many technological and social changes—the railroad, the telegraph, photography, powered presses, and a quantum leap in the availability of inexpensive books, newspapers, and journals—had enormous impact on American literary life.

American Romanticism• The effects of these forces emerge in American hybrids of

European Romanticism.

• For an earlier generation of farmers, settlers, and statesmen the American wilderness was chaos, great in promise but inhuman in scale, and essentially without a past.

• In the early decades of the nineteenth century, American authors and artists began to view nature differently.

• The period between the "second revolution" of the Jacksonian Era and the close of the Civil War in America saw the testings of a nation and its development by ordeal.

• Romantic Period in American Literature, 1830-1865.– It was an age of great westward expansion, of the

increasing gravity of the slavery question, of an intensification of the spirit of embattled sectionalism in the South, and of a powerful impulse to reform in the North.

– Its culminating act was the trial by arms of the opposing views in a civil war, whose conclusion certified the fact of a united nation dedicated to the concepts of industry and capitalism and philosophically committed to egalitarianism.

– In a sense it may be said that the three decades following the inauguration of President Andrew Jackson in 1829 put to the test his views of democracy and saw emerge from the test a secure union committed to essentially Jacksonian principles.

• An American Rendition:– Romantic values and practices had to adapt to the unique

look, scope, and feel of the American landscape. – The outpouring of responses to this challenge are often

called the “American Renaissance,” or the “Age of Emerson.”

– The American Renaissance covers a period of approximately forty years, an age of unprecedented confidence and eloquence during which authors of the new republic, centered in New England and the Hudson Valley, produced poems, essays, and fiction addressing the promise and specialness of life in the new country.

– The Age of Emerson signifies the formidable influence after 1840 of the writings and reputation of Ralph Waldo Emerson, with which every ambitious literary artist for several decades afterward had to reckon.

– During this time, the American short story was invented by Hawthorne and Poe, and lyric poets such as Bryant, Whittier, Longfellow, Emerson, and Whitman achieved voices and forms expressive of a vast landscape and a diverse people.

– The intellectual life of the young republic began to process and reflect upon the nation's founding democratic values.

• Shared European Traditions:• Romantics frequently shared certain general

characteristics:– moral enthusiasm, faith in the value of individualism and

intuitive perception, and a presumption that the natural world is a source of goodness and human society a source of corruption.

• Romanticism became popular in American politics, philosophy and art. – The movement appealed to the revolutionary spirit of

America as well as to those longing to break free of the strict religious traditions of early settlement.

Washington Irving

• http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/washington-irving-biography-works-and-style.html

• The “Father” of American Literature– Irving was also known to have introduced the idea of the modern short story

to the United States.

• The first American author who found success both in Europe and in America

• He creates personas and uses pseudonyms• Satires• An American Culture: Irving's use of imagery - using words to create a

picture in the reader's mind to create long descriptions of the American landscape - set his work apart from those of the European writers

An American Romantic:• American Romance embraced the individual and rebelled against the

confinement of neoclassicism and religious tradition.

• The Romantic movement in America created a new literary genre that continues to influence modern writers.

• Novels, short stories, and poems began to take the place of the sermons and manifestos that were associated with the early American literary principals.

• Romantic literature was personal, intense, and portrayed more emotion than ever seen in neoclassical literature.

• America's preoccupation with freedom became a great source of motivation for Romantic writers as many were delighted in free expression and emotion without so much fear of ridicule and controversy.

• They also put more effort into the psychological development of their characters.

• Rip Van Winkle - A Posthumous Writing of Diedrich Knickerbocker By Washington Irving– The story of 'Rip Van Winkle' is one of enchantments and

escape….– Was inspired by German folklore...– A man who mysteriously sleeps for 20 years to find himself

in a changed world…– The story starts before the American Revolution, when King

George is ruling the colonies…but when he wakes up…all has changed….

– He has a loyal dog companion named Wolf…• He loves his dog, and his gun

– The legend of the Dutch, Henry Hudson, and The “Kaatskill Mountains” (Personification)• These mountains stand tall and appear alive beyond

natural realms– 'Every change of season, every change of

weather, indeed, every hour of the day, produces some change in the magical hues and shapes of these mountains…they are clothed in blue and purple, and print their bold outlines on the clear evening sky.‘

– Their 'magical hues' make the onlookers believe that there is something more to the scene than just a bunch of trees

– This is enhanced by Irving's flowering language which creates a beautiful picture of the setting in the reader's mind.

– This is called imagery. – The first two paragraphs of the story are devoted to creating

the image of the 'Kaatskill Mountains' and the village at its foot

Washington Irving

• Tell Us What You Really think About Women and Marriage– Dame Van Winkle - the antagonist in

this story– She is constantly berating Rip Van

Winkle, whom everyone else in the neighborhood adores.

– She is a completely flat character—we only ever see her worst side, except for the one comment made after she has died that she always kept the house in good order.

– Extreme form of nagging and henpecking

– A state of affairs which appears to be a lesson and warning for Irving’s male and female readers alike.

– Wives should learn to be less antagonistic and more understanding lest they drive their husbands further away

• Romantic Elements:– Like most Romantic writers, Irving glorifies the

rural setting as opposed to the city life.– This Romantic element drives the story, giving it

supernatural qualities and a place for Rip to escape this horrible marriage.

– Romantics saw the woods as mystical, full of the supernatural and magic.

– Supernatural forces fueling the theme of escapism - two major characteristics of Romantic writing.

– Surreal image of times past• Irving says, '…there were some of the houses of the

original settlers standing within a few years, built of small yellow bricks brought from Holland, having latticed windows and gable fronts, surmounted with weather-cocks.'

• Theme - the central idea or the message in the text– escape the harshness of our lives and to do so,

the countryside is always welcoming– After Dame Van Winkle is dead…Rip is free to

become the man he was never allowed to be• The Tyranny of King George is replaced with President

George Washington• The Tyranny of Dame Van Winkle and the Petticoat

Government is also replaced….

American Transcendentalism

Dualism

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