American Romanticism

1. American Romanticism 1800-1860

2. Objectives • Understand the historical and social forces that shaped American Romanticism • Interpret the way historical context influenced literary works in the Romantic Period • Understand the relevance of the Romantic era to our own day

3. Rationalism • Rationalism is the belief that human beings can arrive at truth by using reason, other than by relying on the authority of the past, on religious faith, or on intuition. • This way of thinking led to the American Revolution at the end of the 17th century. • We did not study much Rational literature because you have studied most of it in American History class: • The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, “Common Sense,” the Federalist Papers, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, etc. • Rationalists saw cities as a place of opportunity and promise, where dreams can come true.

4. The City, Gray and Grim • In the early 1800’s, the largest cities were Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, and New York. • Cities were overcrowded. Many lived in “tenements”, where 8 people lived in one room with no furniture and as many as 200 people might share one bathtub. • The major mode of transport was horses. The streets were littered with horse droppings, and when a horse died, it’s body was left on the curb for days. • Cities were plagued by disease, homelessness and crime.

5. American Romanticism • Most students assume that “Romanticism” means that we are studying love poems. THIS IS NOT TRUE!!!! • American Romanticism can best be described as a journey away from the corruption of civilization and the limits of rational thought. • American Romantics moved toward the integrity of nature and the freedom of the imagination.

6. The Romantic Sensibility: Celebrating the Imagination • Romanticism is the name given to any schools of thought that value feeling and intuition over reason. • The repulsive and wretched working and living conditions in the cities showed the limits of reason. • The Romantics believed that the imagination could comprehend truths that could not be reached with reason alone. • These truths were often accompanied by powerful emotion, and were associated with natural, unspoiled beauty. • The Romantics valued poetry above all other works of the imagination.

7. Romantic Escapism • Romantics wanted to rise above “dull realities” to find a realm of higher truth. • There were two ways that the Romantics tried to understand higher truths. • One was to explore the past, the exotic and the supernatural. • The other was to contemplate the natural world.

8. Characteristics of Romanticism • Feelings and intuition over reason • Experience; imagination • Civilization; unspoiled nature • Youthful innocence; educated sophistication • Freedom; individual • Beauty; spiritual; moral • Past; progress • Exotic; supernatural; imagination • Poetry • Myth, legend, and folk

9. America vs. Europe • Prior to the American Romantic period, nearly all American literature is based on European models. • American authors had not yet found a unique and “American” perspective to write from. • The American frontier was a unique experience – all of Europe had been settled for hundreds of years. • Novels related to westwardexpansion and the development of the frontier provided the first break from European literature • In addition, Europeans tended to view Americans as unsophisticated and uncivilized.

10. A New Kind of Hero • Some people (Like Benjamin Franklin) were offended by the European image of Americans and fought to prove it was untrue. • The American Romantics turned the insult on its head • They implied that there was more virtue in American innocence than in European sophistication, and more truths to be discovered in the American wilderness than in libraries or cities.

11. Literary Nationalism • This literature embraced uniquely American character. The works of Washington Irving focused on • American themes • Good-humored presentation of American eccentricities • Special feeling for setting and local custom • Seen in the works of Washington Irving • These works concentrated on nationality,  a category by which humans define themselves. Nationalism necessarily categorizes people— one either is or is not a member of “my nation.” It thrives through the use of such elements as national folklore, symbols, heroes, sports, music, religion, and the idea that there is a national identity or character. 

12. What also emerged was a distinctly nationalistic sensibility. Nationalism denotes a form of extreme patriotism that celebrates the homeland. • There is no better evidence of this ideology than in the early American hero 

13. Characteristics of the American Romantic Hero • Is young, or possesses youthful qualities • Is innocent and pure of purpose • Has a sense of honor based not on the rules of society, but on some higher principle • Has a knowledge of people and of life based deep, intuitive understanding, not on formal learning • Loves nature and avoids town life • Quests for some higher truth in the natural world

14. Romantic Hero • Can you think of a character that meets these characteristics? • Think about the books you have read, the TV shows you have watched and the movies you have seen. • What characters have you seen that fit three or four of the bullets above?

15. The Plaster Saint a person considered to be without human failings A flawless character Honorable and honest even in challenging situations The Self-Made Man The rags-to-riches story Persevering, clever, intuitive The Frontiersman Blazing new frontiers Endures physical and emotional challenges Brave and adventurous The Athlete Physically accomplished Magnificent gestures Beloved by the masses Faces challenges to expertise The Martyred Leader Killed for a noble cause Sacrifice for a higher purpose Does the right thing Strong New American ArchetypesSubgenres of the American Hero

16. American Romantic Poetry: Read at every fireside • While novelists were ignoring (or embracing) European criticisms of Americans, the Romantic poets were attempting to prove that Americans were not unsophisticated hicks. • They did this by embracing classical European literary traditions and poetic forms.

17. Fireside Poets • American poetry at this time was so popular that “The Fireside Poets*” of this time are still among the most famous (and successful) American poets. * The Fireside Poets are Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and James Russell Lowell • They were called The Fireside Poets because families often read their poetry around the fire as a form of entertainment.