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Religion and its contrasting uses within Pre-Romantic and Romantic literature By Dawn Graham

Religion and its contrasting uses within Pre-Romantic and Romantic literature By Dawn Graham. Introduction. Religion used extensively in early American literature It was used differently at different times Pre-Romantic writers used it for comfort and to endorse conformity

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Religion and its contrasting uses within Pre-Romantic and Romantic literature By Dawn Graham

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  1. Religion and its contrasting uses within Pre-Romantic and Romantic literatureBy Dawn Graham

  2. Introduction • Religion used extensively in early American literature • It was used differently at different times • Pre-Romantic writers used it for comfort and to endorse conformity • Romantic writers used it to express personal ideas and opinions or to mock popular public opinion

  3. Pre-Romantic Period Authors • Anne Bradstreet • Mary Rowlandson • Jonathan Edwards • J. Hector St. John De Crevecoeur • Phillis Wheatley

  4. Anne Bradstreet • Bible used to comfort and reassure herself • Her poetry gives readers insight into her emotions • All possessions belong to God • Links religion to her personal life (Salska) • Life within acceptable limits of her society

  5. Mary Rowlandson • Used the Psalms to comfort and reassure herself of Divine retaliation (Henwood) • Grief and anger not valued for personal expression • Bible provided legitimacy to her frustration and rage • Allows her to speak her mind in a common language that readers will understand

  6. Jonathan Edwards • Considered one of America’s most spiritually defining Puritan voices (Ward) • Bible used to persuade listeners to follow his example if they wanted to go to Heaven • Religious discovery was the ultimate significance of experience

  7. J. Hector St. John De Crevecoeur • Thinks religion is very important on an individual level • God wants people to work together and help each other (Rucker) • Religion and politics share similar goals for life, liberty, property, and happiness

  8. Phillis Wheatley • Personally delighted with Christianity (Scheick) • God responsible for bringing her to America to learn religion • Even slaves deserved to have the Christian version of salvation that the white people had

  9. Romantic Period Authors • Washington Irving • Henry David Thoreau • Nathaniel Hawthorne • Frederick Douglass • Walt Whitman

  10. Washington Irving • Celebrated individuality • Individual often in opposition to society • America not limited by social class structure • History is the possibility of a beginning for the individual that will seize it (Shear)

  11. Henry David Thoreau • Faith just sight and knowledge • More virtue in seeing than believing (Furtak) • Religion not the only truth to live by • Blatantly rejected religion in writings • Openly encouraged individual learning

  12. Nathaniel Hawthorne • Vast difference between people of different religious beliefs • Religious obligation to take care of the poor (Elbert) • Used life experiences in his writing • Points out negative aspects of religion instead of only benefits

  13. Frederick Douglass • Differentiates between religious slave holders and true Christians • While a slave, began to believe God was a cruel, sadistic entity if real (Gibson) • Expresses both belief and disbelief of religion

  14. Walt Whitman • Had a church in England that followed his works • Thought his works would supplant that of churches and priests (Smith) • Religion organic, ongoing process of exploration, not journey towards a defined goal

  15. Conclusion • Pre-Romantic use of religion tended to be for crowd control or acceptable way to relate emotions • Romantic encouraged self-exploration and reflections before deciding on a religion • Shifting views reflected changing society itself • Religion to inspire thought, not comfort

  16. Works Cited • Elbert, Monika M. "Hawthorne's Reconceptualization of Transcendentalist Charity.“ American Transcendental Quarterly 11.3 (Sep. 1997): 213-232. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Century College Library, White Bear Lake, MN. 6 Nov. 2008 <http://search.ebscohost.com.cenproxy.mnpals.net/login.aspx?direct=true&db=m zh&AN=1997021041&site=ehost-live>. • Furtak, Rick Anthony. "Skepticism and Perceptual Faith: Henry David Thoreau and Stanley Cavell on Seeing and Believing." Transactions of the Charles S. PeirceSociety: A Quarterly Journal in American Philosophy 43.3 (Summer 2007): 542-561. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Century College Library, White Bear Lake, MN. 6 Nov. 2008 <http://search.ebscohost.com.cenproxy.mnpals.net/login.aspx?direct=true&db=m zh&AN=2007380566&site=ehost-live>. • Gibson, Donald B. "Christianity and Individualism: (Re)-Creation and Reality in Frederick Doulgass's Representation of Self." African American Review 26.4 (Winter 1992): 591-603. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Century College Library, White Bear Lake, MN. 11 Nov. 2008 <http://search.ebscohost.com.cenproxy.mnpals.net/login.aspx?direct=true&db=m zh&AN=0000300088&site=ehost-live>. • Henwood, Dawn. "Mary Rowlandson and the Psalms: The Textuality of Survival." Early American Literature 32.2 (1997): 169-186. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Century College Library, White Bear Lake, MN. 6 Nov. 2008 <http://search.ebscohost.com.cenproxy.mnpals.net/login.aspx?direct=true&db=m zh&AN=1997024616&site=ehost-live>.

  17. Works Cited Continued • Rucker, Mary E. "Crevecoeur's Letters and Enlightenment Doctrine." Early AmericanLiterature 13 (1978): 193-212. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Century College Library, White Bear Lake, MN. 6 Nov. 2008 <http://search.ebscohost.com.cenproxy.mnpals.net/login.aspx?direct=true&db=m zh&AN=1978108752&site=ehost-live>. • Salska, Agnieszka. "Puritan Poetry: Its Public and Private Strain." Early American Literature 19.2 (Fall 1984): 107-121. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Century College Library, White Bear Lake, MN. 6 Nov. 2008 <http://search.ebscohost.com.cenproxy.mnpals.net/login.aspx?direct=true&db=m zh&AN=1984083379&site=ehost-live>. • Scheick, William J. "Subjection and Prophecy in Phillis Wheatley's Verse Paraphrases of Scripture." College Literature 22.3 (Oct. 1995): 122-130. MLA InternationalBibliography. EBSCO. Century College Library, White Bear Lake, MN. 6 Nov. 2008 <http://search.ebscohost.com.cenproxy.mnpals.net/login.aspx?direct=true&db=m zh&AN=1998063009&site=ehost-live>. • Shear, Walter. "Cultural Fate and Social Freedom in Three American Short Stories." Studies in Short Fiction 29.4 (Fall 1992): 543-549. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Century College Library, White Bear Lake, MN. 6 Nov. 2008 <http://search.ebscohost.com.cenproxy.mnpals.net/login.aspx?direct=true&db=m zh&AN=1992061282&site=ehost-live>.

  18. Works Cited Continued • Smith, Ernest. "'Restless Explorations': Whitman's Evolving Spiritual Vision in Leaves of Grass." Papers on Language and Literature: A Journal for Scholars and Critics of Language and Literature 43.3 (Summer 2007): 227-263. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Century College Library, White Bear Lake, MN. 11 Nov. 2008 <http://search.ebscohost.com.cenproxy.mnpals.net/login.aspx?direct=true&db=m zh&AN=2007581408&site=ehost-live>. • Ward, Roger. "Experience as Religious Discovery in Edwards and Peirce." Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society: A Quarterly Journal in American Philosophy 36.2 (Spring 2000): 297-309. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Century College Library, White Bear Lake, MN. 6 Nov. 2008 <http://search.ebscohost.com.cenproxy.mnpals.net/login.aspx?direct=true&db=m zh&AN=2000053447&site=ehost-live>.

  19. Picture Sources • Anne Bradstreet www.todayinliterature.com • Mary Rowlandson Novel Cover www.hawthorneinsalem.org • Jonathan Edwards www.calvin.edu • J. Hector St. John De Crevecoeur www.shsu.edu • Phillis Wheatley www.earlyamerica.com • Washington Irving www.kancoll.org • Henry David Thoreau www.seasonedbooks.com • Nathaniel Hawthorne www.bedfordstmartins.com • Frederick Douglass www.africawithin.com • Walt Whitman www.todayinliterature.com

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