What is your definition of Romanticism?

1. What is your definition of Romanticism? • Romanticism was a literary, artistic, and philosophical movement that originated in English literature in the 18th century. • Romanticism gradually came to America in the 19th century—American Romanticism: 1800-1860 OR

2. American Romanticism Introduction 1800-1860

3. A quick timeline for reference…. This unit will cover the era from the territorial expansion of the Louisiana Purchase to the eve of the U.S. Civil War.

4. Romanticism 1) Conviction that intuition, imagination, and emotion provide clearer route to truth than reason alone 2) Conviction that poetry is superior to science 3) Belief that contemplation of natural world is a means of discovering the truth 4) A distrust of industry 5) An interest in the supernatural EX: “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving

5. Events that Influenced American Literature in the 19th Century Library of Congress 1800 Charles Darwin publishes his theory of evolution 1859 Louisiana Purchase (Doubling the size of the country) 1803 Dred Scott Case- Ruled that slaves are not U.S. Citizens 1857 Fugitive Slave Act- Forced slaves to return to their owners 1850 The War of 1812 Noah Webster’s 1st Dictionary Of American English 1828

6. American Romanticism included the rise of American English • Noah Webster (1758-1843) was inspired to write his American Dictionary of the English Language to help standardize and simplify spelling. For example, he replaced the English spelling honourwith honor. He also added new words, like skunk and squash, from Native American Languages. Noah Webster

7. American Renaissance • Intellectual and social ferment • Social Improvements: public education, mental institutions, abolition movement, women’s rights

8. What events can you think of that might have made a writer long to return to a simpler way of life in which he was closer to nature? • Inventions that change the way people do things. • Examples include the steamboat, mechanical reaper, and the telegraph. • These new inventions quickened the pace of life and lead to extra stress. • Warfare could make people long for a peaceful life.

9. Values of the Romantic Writers • Imagination, feeling, individualism, freedom, human goodness, equality, self-government, and the importance of nature.

10. Optimism/Individualism and Nature Authors • Ralph Waldo Emerson • Margaret Fuller • Henry David Thoreau

11. American Romantic Authors Optimism; Individualism& Kinship with Nature vs. Mystery; Gothic Poe Emerson

12. 3 Big Ideas of American Romanticism • 1) Optimism and Individualism (p. 170-171) • 2) Kinship with Nature (p. 172-173) • 3) The Power of Darkness (p.174-175)

13. Big Idea #1Optimism and Individualism • Optimism is the belief that the world around us is always improving. Some American Romantics presented an optimistic view of the possibility of human progress, based in part on a democratic confidence in the ability of ordinary individuals to better themselves, their political system, and society. ANDREW JACKSON

14. Big Idea #2Kinship with Nature • Many American Romantics believed in the beneficial effects of a close link between humanity and nature. This belief coexisted with a concern that the spread of industry and new technology threatened the natural world and isolated people from it.

15. TranscendentalismTranscendental Club founded1836 Individualism Optimism Nonconformity

16. Transcendentalist • God is in every aspect of nature, including every human being • Everyone is capable of apprehending God through intuition • Nature is a reflection of divine spirit • Optimism holds that the existing world is the best possible one

17. Transcendentalism • Emerson was a leading figure within this group. • The essence of Transcendentalism was the philosophy known as Idealism. (Nature is not “out there” in material objects but instead exists in our ideas about those objects). • The Transcendentalists believed that intuition is a more valuable guide than sensory experience in grasping what nature really is. • EXAMPLES: • Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson • Walden by Henry David Thoreau

18. Transcendentalists view ofNature

19. Big Idea #3The Power of Darkness • There was a dark underside to American Romanticism. It took a variety of forms, including a fascination with disease, madness, death, evil, the supernatural, and the destructive aspects of nature.

20. Mystery/Gothic Authors Washington Irving Nathaniel Hawthorne Edgar Allan Poe

21. What interests characterized the dark side of Romanticism? These interests included the supernatural, destructive aspects of nature, evil, insanity, remote periods in history, and exotic places. FEAR – bone-chilling, palm sweating fear Mesmerism (hypnotism) Resurrection of corpses The workings of the human mind Desolate or remote settings Mysterious or violent incidents

22. Gothic “Dark” View of NATURE

23. The First American Short Stories

24. The First American Short Stories • “It has been a matter of marvel, to my European readers, that a man from the wilds of America should express himself in tolerable English.” -Irving • Dominated by Puritanism, early American culture had no place for made up stories created largely for entertainment. • …That was until Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgar Allan Poe laid the foundation for the American short story…. • These authors crated literary forms and ideas about how to write short stories that remain important today.

25. The First American Short Stories • Washington Irving was the first American writer to become famous outside of his own country. • Irving transplanted traditional European narratives and gave them American settings. • For example, he based the story “Rip Van Winkle” on old legends about people captured by fairies. • Hawthorne used both European material and the histories and legends of Puritan New England as the basis for his fiction. • Poe helped develop the new American literary magazines into mass-circulation marketplaces for short stories. • More importantly, he was a true innovator who pioneered new literary forms…. detective stories and science fiction.

26. The First American Short Stories • Poe thought that a short story should create a single effect on the reader. • Hawthorne focused on moral and psychological themes. • Poe’s theory of a unique effect continues to influence short story writers today. • Hawthorne is known for his deep exploration of the role of guilt in people’s inner lives. • While reading the Dark Romantic works, try to see these characteristics in each short story.

27. Short Story Elements • Setting– The time and place in which events occur. • Characters-the participants in the story: Protagonist: main character / Antagonist: a character in conflict with the protagonist. • Point of View – The perspective of the storyteller or narrator. • Theme - The central message of the story (the moral). • Plot - The sequence of related events in a story.

28. New American Poetry • Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson • Innovators who expressed themselves in poetic voice • Broke with established tradition