By: Sara Lachner Alison Tomchik Heather Dopke Amber Gibbard

1. Transcendentalism AND Romanticism By: Sara Lachner Alison Tomchik Heather Dopke Amber Gibbard

2. Definition Romanticism Transcendentalism ~A movement started in Germany and England in the early half of the 1770’s that places an emphasis on freedom of individual expression, including sincerity, spontaneity, and originality. Romantics turn to the emotional directness of personal experience, seeing people as free spirits expressing their own imaginative truths. They are characterized by emotional intensity - often taken to the extreme - including rapture, nostalgia, horror, melancholy, and sentimentality. There is a focus on dreams, superstition, and legend. ~ The belief that the individual has control over his/her own fate. The goal is to follow one’s inner voice or intuition when in search of answers. Due to a strong sense of individualism, the movement called for independence from organized religion. It takes an optimistic point of view, believing that evil doesn’t exist, it is only an absence of good. Good can be found in the meaning of all things if one recognizes it.

3. Origins Transcendentalism Romanticism ~Folklore and popular art, especially 18th century German fairy tales ~Shakespeare: His disregard for classical dramatic rules was an inspiration for Romantics ~The Gothic Romance, which contained elements such as mystical, passionate adventures, heroes and heroines, and horror ~Medievalism: Creativity seen in stained glass, stories such as Robin Hood and King Arthur, and fairies, witches and angels inspired the Romantic imagination ~Exoticism: Europeans traveled more than ever in the Romantic period, and were drawn to exotic ideas of foreign places. These settings were used to evoke emotion and the imagination ~Religion: After the Enlightenment, the Romantics took on a new view of religion, especially in artwork. Religious imagery was more personal and up to interpretation. ~ Reaction to Unitarianism (rational thought) ~ Influenced by European (specifically English and German) Romanticism ~ Desire for more intense spirituality than the mild views of Unitarianism (psst… that’s Heaven)

4. People Transcendentalism Romanticism ~William Blake- the most singular of the English Romantics; a poet and painter whose works are radiant, imaginative, and heavily symbolic, indicating the spiritual reality underlying the physical reality ~Jean-Jacques Rousseau- a moody, over-sensitive and even paranoid person. He wrote of his personal frustrations in love. His novel The New Heloise discussed sensitivity, and “tearful sentimental longing.” ~Friedrich Schlegel- A German; the first to use the term “Romantic” to describe a school of literature opposed to classicism ~Victor Hugo- French dramatist who proclaimed the freedom of the artist in both choice and treatment of the subject in his plays Cromwell and Hernani ~ Fredric Henry Hedge- source of the knowledge of German philosophy related to transcendentalism. Organized the transcendentalist club ~Madame de Stael- wrote De l’Allernagne about German philosophy ~ James Marsh- edition of Aids to Reflection helped transcendentalism philosophy ~ Thomas Canyle- championed German philosophy and literature ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson- transcendentalism centered around his philosophy and views. He expressed it through his literature and public addresses. ~ Other Authors- Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Amos Bronson Alcott, Fredric Henry Hedge, Theodore Parker

5. Events Transcendentalism Romanticism ~ 1836 informal discussion group called the Transcendental Club began to meet in Boston and Concord -people: clergymen (Theodore Parker, George Ripley), philosophical writers (Henry David Thoreau, Bronson Alcott, Orestes Brownson), and learned women (Margaret Fuller, Elizabeth and Sophia Peabody). ~1838 Emerson’s “Address” at the Harvard Divinity School graduation. -portrayed church (Unitarian) the graduates were about to lead as an “eastern monarchy of Christianity” and “in juror of man” ~1840-1844 The Dial (Transcendental Club’s annual quarterly review) edited by Fuller, then Emerson. ~ February 16, 1788 Edmund Burke gave sensational speeches during the impeachment of a governor. It was the first time someone spoke out in an emotional and dramatic wayconcerning brutality against Indians. ~1848 The French Revolution Artists felt more able to express themselves using their own feelings and emotions, rather than the standard types of painting, writing, etc.

6. Works Transcendentalism ~ Nature Ralph Waldo Emerson -Considers the relationship between nature and man (spirituality) - Assigns power to the self, discovering itself in nature (The eye reads omens where it goes) - Advises reader to turn away from the “dead” letters (history, past literature, etc.) & toward nature - Essay about how to see nature or learning to see it by looking through Emerson’s “eye” - “Let us demand our own works and laws and worship.”  individualism, determining own fate ~Civil Disobedience Thoreau - July 4, 1845- He went to live by himself in a cabin built on Emerson’s land beside Walden Pond. He wrote Walden (aka Life in the Woods) while there.. -After refusing to pay his poll tax in opposition to the Mexican War he wrote Civil Disobedience. -Later influenced passive-resistance movements of Gandhi & Martin Luther King, Jr. - “’That government is best which governs not at all’; and when men are ready for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.”  individualism Romanticism ~ Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge Wordsworth, in his preface, claimed his theory of poetry’s origins. Poetry resulted from “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.” ~ Other authors’ writings focused on the individual self and the personal reaction to life. One example is Thomas De Quincy’s autobiographical Confessions of an English Opium Eater, an account of his opium addiction. He focuses on the psychology of the individual and makes use of dark nightmares.

7. Other Works Transcendentalism Romanticism The good can still be seen, even in this dark and scary painting. As transcendentalists would see it, the good is hiding in the background!! This sensual painting is more open to interpretation and emotion very Romantic ;)

8. http://transcendentalism.us/ http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA95/finseth/trans.html http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rtanscendentalism http://www.smith.edu/artmuseum/exhibitions/spectrum/edcolefull.htm Excerpt from The Dial http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/rtanscendentalism/ideas.dialhistroy.html Ralph Waldo Emerson- Nature http://www.vcu.edu.engweb/transcendentalism/authors/emerson/nature.html Henry David Thoreau- Civil Disobedience http://www.transcendentalists.com/civil_disobedience.htm www.uwasa.fi/~f76724/ kuvat/heaven.jpg 8) www.inboundlogistics.com/.../ Smiley%20Face%20(flat).jpg 9) www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/ h/e/hedge_fh.htm 10) www.concordma.com/magazine/ nov98/trans.html courses.washington.edu/hum523/ fuller/ovalfuller.gif www.flexi.net.au/~mkendall/weddingphotos/ thumbs%20up%20... www.warddraw.com/calligraphy/romanticism.jpg www.macalester.edu/~sisk/mindmshakespeare.jpg www.comedie-francaise.fr/ biographies/hugo.htm www.kbba.com/images/Nature.jpg www.loggia.com/art/artists/images/delacroix.gif www.rc.umd.edu/publications/cup/fulfordandkitson/kitson/kitson1.html www.english.uga.edu.232/voc/romanticism.voc.html www.bartleby.com/65/ro/romantic.html www.scholars.nus.sg/landow/victorian/philosophy/phil14.html Works Cited Transcendentalism Romanticism