Romanticism Transcendentalism Anti-Transcendentalism

1. RomanticismTranscendentalismAnti-Transcendentalism

2. Romanticism • Time Period: early to mid 1800s • Brought about as a reaction of the Age of Reason and the strict doctrines of Puritanism () • A time when the natural world was glorified.

3. Major Themes • Importance of the individual • Values the imagination and emotional side of human nature rather than rational (logical) side of human nature • Some had a fascination with the supernatural. • Writers had an optimistic outlook.

4. Famous Romantic Writers • Washington Irving • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

5. The Breakdown of Romanticism

6. Transcendentalism~optimistic offshoot of Romanticism • Time period: mid to late 1800s • Transcendent: not realizable in human experience • A belief that ‘transcendent forms’ of truth exist beyond reason and experience

7. Values intuition as a means of gaining this higher truth • Communingwith nature made possible an intuitive connection with the entire universe • This connection with all: God, mankind, and natural world was known as the Universal Oversoul. • Valued non-conformity.

8. Famous Transcendentalist Writers • Ralph Waldo Emerson • Henry David Thoreau • Walt Whitman

9. Anti-Transcendentalism(Gothic)~a pessimistic offshoot of Romanticism • Time period: mid to late 1800s • Known as the Dark Side of Individualism • The focus on the imagination in Romanticism led to a focus on the demonic, the fantastic, and the insane for the Gothic

10. Gothic writers took a pessimistic view of humans and saw the potential for evil in all people. • ‘Essential truths’ about life were found in extreme situations or the darker side of human nature (greed, betrayal, fear, etc.)

11. Famous Anti-Trans Writers • Edgar Allen Poe • Nathaniel Hawthorne (a descendent of the judge from The Crucible!!!!!) • Also, famous Southern Gothic writers include William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor

12. Gothic Elements • Settings- include large, drafty old houses that have "been in the family for years." • Atmosphere of mystery and suspense • A ghostly legend, an unexplainable occurrence, or a story about a horrible death or murder . • Omens, foreshadowing, and dreams usually play a large role in the mysterious air that is created within the story.

13. Gothic Elements • Include highly charged emotional states like: terror, a feeling that one is on the brink of insanity, anger, agitation, an exaggerated feeling of some impending doom, and obsessive love. • Supernatural events: ghosts, doors that open themselves, unexplained sounds, etc.

14. Gothic Elements • Damsels in distress are frequent. Women who are frightened and confused, wandering around lost, or dying due to a slow and unexplainable ailment. • Words designed to evoke images of gloom and doom: dark, foreboding, forbidding, ghostly, etc.

15. Gothic Elements • Romantic themes often involve the death of a man or woman in the throes of some great passion, the obsessive nature of a man or woman in love, or excessive grief one feels upon the loss of a loved one.