The beginning of American Romanticism

1. The beginning of American Romanticism • Puritan decline • New ideas & foreign influences • American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) • Industrial Revolution 18th – 19th Century • The French Revolution (1789 – 1799) • The beginning of a modern era, growth of republics, secularism, democracy.

2. Washington Irving 3 April 1783 – 28 November 1859

3. Washington Irving.Robert Leslie, oil on canvas, 1820. Born in Manhattan. Father: William Irving, a petty officer in the Royal Navy Mother: Sarah Sanders. Marital status: Never married.

4. The Chieftain and the Child.George B. Butler, watercolor, 1854. President George Washington pats the head of his young namesake, Washington Irving.Washington Irving was named after his parents' hero, General George Washington.  As a child in 1789, Irving was privileged to meet Washington, who patted the boy's head.  As an adult, Irving romanticized a story about this incident. He joked that his bald spot was created because of that pat on the head.

5. Mentored authors – Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Edgar Allan Poe. A lawyer, member of the American diplomatic staff in Britain and in Spain. Languages: Fluent Spanish, working knowledge of German and Dutch.

6. Noted for speaking against the mishandling of relations with the Native American tribes by Europeans and Americans. Pen name: Diedrich Knickerbocker His first book was A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, by Diedrich Knickerbocker (1809). Shared Sunnyside with his brother Ebenezer and Ebenezer's five daughters.

7. Diedrich Knickerbocker.Felix O. C. Darley, wash drawing, 1849. Now knickerbocker means descendant of the early Dutch settlers of New York; a native or resident of the city or state of New York.

8. Irving’s famous home Sunnyside in Tarrytown, New York

9. On November 28, 1859, on the eve of the Civil War, Washington Irving died at Sunnyside surrounded by his family. He was buried in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery at the Old Dutch Church in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y. Irving’s grave, marked by a flag, in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Sleepy Hollow, New York

10. ROMANTICISM is concerned with the expression of the individual's feelings and emotions. is an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated around the middle of the 18th century in Western Europe, during the Industrial Revolution. is partly a revolt against aristocratic, social, and political norms of the Enlightenment period. reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature in art and literature. argues for knowledge based on nature. emphasizes intuition, imagination, and feeling, to a point that has led to some Romantic thinkers being accused of irrationalism. is private, spiritual and universal. Important work: Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge.

11. Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog,38.58 × 29.13 inches, 1818, Oil on canvas, Kunsthalle Hamburg Egide Charles Gustave Wappers, Episode of the Belgian Revolution of 1830, 1834, Musée d'Art Ancien, Brussels a romantic vision by a Belgian painter.

12. Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette (Bal du moulin de la Galette), 1876

13. LYRICAL BALLADS (1798) is a collection of poems by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. marks the beginning of the Romantic movement in literature. brings poetry within the reach of the average man by writing the verses using normal, everyday language. One of the main themes of "Lyrical Ballads" is the return to the original state of nature Revolutionary view of the object of representation: his goal is to represent “incidents and situations from common life”, especially “[h]umble and rustic life” (i.e. not just the rich and powerful, but the poor, the marginalised, the disenfranchised, etc.)

14. American Romanticism Also termed American Renaissance. Reaction against Industrial Revolution. Shaped by American history, culture, and geography. Vast land and frontier, democratic culture.

15. United States – a new country. No established set of literary forms, traditions, and masters. Need to experiment with new forms, genres, and styles. Focus – American landscape and individual freedom, the creation of a perfect nation.

16. Representative Authors: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, and Walt Whitman. • Washington Irving – one of the pioneers of American Romanticism. • Rejected Puritan beliefs – Damnation , Original Sin, Jesus died for human sins. • Man is inherently good. • God and nature are one.

17. WILLING SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF • Temporarily and willingly setting aside our beliefs about reality in order to enjoy the make-believe of a play, a poem, film, or a story. Readers can enjoy tall-tales about vampires invading a small town in Maine, or frightening alternative histories in which Hitler wins World War II, without being "gullible" or "childish." To do so, however, the audience members must set aside their sense of "what's real" for the duration of the play, or the movie, or the book. • Samuel Coleridge coined the English phrase in Chapter 14 of Biographia Literaria to describe the way a reader is implicitly "asked" to set aside his notions of reality and accept the dramatic conventions of the theater and stage or other fictional work. Coleridge writes: . . . My endeavours should be directed to persons and characters supernatural, or at least romantic; yet so as to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith.

18. RIP VAN WINKLE Rip Van Winkle Dame Van Winkle Judith Gardenier Derrick Van Bummel – village schoolmaster who later became congressman Peter Vanderdonk – oldest inhabitant Nicholas Vedder – inn-keeper Henrick Hudson Brom Dutcher

19. The setting of this story, a Dutch village close to the Catskill Mountains and the Hudson River "Rip Van Winkle"by Joseph Holodook

20. The locals prefer to call the Catskills Blue Mountain

22. Kaaterskill Falls on Spruce Creek near Palenville, New York. Highest falls in New York. Two separate falls total 260 feet

23. Indian Head Rock on Kaaterskill Mountain overlooking canyon, Catskill Mountains, NY Platte Clove, a break in the Escarpment created by glacial action.

24. Personification of Kaatskill Mountains …swelling up to noble height, and lording it over the surrounding country… …they are clothed in blue and purple…on the clear evening sky ...when the landscape is cloudless, they will gather a hood of gray …the mountains began to throw their long blue shadows over the valleys…

25. Hudson River running through New York State , named for Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Netherlands, who explored it in 1609.

26. RIP VAN WINKLE

27. Dame van Winkle nagging Rip van Winkle Little, bearded men bowling ninepins – believed to be Associated with Hendrick Hudson

28. Dame van Winkle Shrew- A woman with a violent, scolding, or nagging temperament. “Morning, noon and night, her tongue was incessantly going, and everything he said or did was sure to produce a torrent of household eloquence.” Rip – a hen-pecked husband. Can you think of other women who are portrayed in similar nature to Dame van Winkle in other stories?

29. Rip returning to his home Rip awaking after 20 years of sleep

30. Tompkins H. Matteson (1813 - 1884)Rip Van Winkle’s ReturnOil on canvas, 1860

31. American Revolution Last half of the 18th century Ended British control of the Thirteen Colonies United States of America established on 4th July 1776. Sparked by Boston Tea Party – 1773 Causes: Taxation without representation Americans wanted a democratic republic Land dispute

32. How has Rip’s world changed? • On a personal level – what happened to himself physically? • What happened to his neighbours, family members and Wolf? • Politically, how has Rip’s world changed? When Rip returned between 1789 and 1794, what political changes have taken place then?

33. Two of Rip’s friends have answered the call of war – Brom Dutcher (killed) and Van Bummel (congressman). • Did Rip like the changes that happened to him? • Rip’s world has not changed thoroughly – “he resumed his old walks and habits…the changes of states and empires made but little impression on him.” • “Instead of being a subject of his Majesty George the Third, he was now a free citizen of United States.”

34. Satire – on whom? On what? Clue: Take Dame van Winkle as a metaphorical example. Are you happy being nagged at? Will any work get done if no one is there to supervise? Keeping things in order – but does it necessarily ensure happiness? How do these reflect on the bigger picture? • Moral lessons: • Laziness • Freedom and creativity • Follow thy heart