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American Romanticism

Learn about the characteristics of American Romanticism, its values, key authors like Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgar Allan Poe, plus the darker aspects within this literary movement.

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American Romanticism

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  1. American Romanticism 1800-1860

  2. Essential Question • What are the characteristics of American Romanticism?

  3. Characteristics of American Romanticism • Values feeling and intuition over reason • Places faith in inner experience and the power of the imagination • Shuns the artificiality of civilization and seeks unspoiled nature • Prefers youthful innocence to educated sophistication

  4. Characteristics of American Romanticism • Champions individual freedom and the worth of the individual • Reflects on nature’s beauty as a path to spiritual and moral development • Looks backward to the wisdom of the past and distrusts progress

  5. Characteristics of American Romanticism • Finds beauty and truth in exotic locales, the supernatural realm, and the inner world of the imagination • Sees poetry as the highest expression of the imagination • Finds inspiration in myth, legend, and folklore

  6. Romantics with a Darker Vision • Not all writers shared the strong optimism. • Examined the darker facets of humanity, such as greed, vanity, guilt. • Narrators who were criminals or insane. • Psychological effects of evil, terror, and grief on the human soul.

  7. The American Romantics Authors: Washington Irving Nathaniel Hawthorne Edgar Allan Poe

  8. Washington Irving1783-1859 • Short story writer, essayist, poet, travel book writer, biographer, and columnist • Has been called the father of the American short story • The first American to make a living solely from writing • Best known stories include “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” & “The Headless Horseman.”

  9. Nathaniel Hawthorne1804 - 1864 • Descendant of the “hanging judge” at Salem witch trials. • Unhappy childhood. • Worked in isolation for twelve years. • Major work: The Scarlet Letter 1850

  10. Edgar Allan Poe1809 - 1849 • Tormented through-out his life with loss, bitterness, and depression. • Lived in poverty most of his life. • Married his 13-year-old cousin. • Dead in a gutter at 40, drunk or rabies?

  11. Edgar Allan Poe • Brilliant talent for investigating the dark side of humanity. • Revenge, terror, lost love, insanity were common themes.

  12. Edgar Allan Poe • Credited with defining the short story. • Father of modern detective fiction story and of the horror tale, as well.

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