American Romanticism: 1800-1860

1. American Romanticism: 1800-1860 Light Romanticism, Dark Romanticism, Transcendentalism

2. Romanticism as a Journey Away from • Corruption of civilization • Limits of rational thought

3. Romanticism as a Journey Toward • Integrity of nature • Freedom of imagination Source The Deerslayer N. C. Wyeth

4. Which are you?

6. Big Ideas of Romanticism source: Skipp, Francis in American Literature

7. Characteristics of American Romanticism • Values feeling over reason • Places faith in inner experience and imagination • Shuns artificiality of civilization; seeks unspoiled nature • Prefers youthful innocence to educated sophistication • Emphasizes individual freedom and worth • Believes nature’s beauty can lead to spiritual an moral development Elements of Literature (145)

8. Characteristics of American Romanticism • Looks backward to the wisdom of past and distrusts progress • Finds beauty and truth in • Exotic locales • Supernatural realm • Inner world of the imagination • Sees poetry as the highest expression of the imagination • Finds inspiration in myth, legend, and folk culture Elements of Literature (145)

9. A New Hero • Young or youthful • Innocent and pure of purpose • Sense of honor based on principle higher than society’s rules • Understanding of the world is intuitive, not based on formal learning • Loves nature • Quests for higher truth in the natural world Elements of Literature 149

10. LegacyLasting Effects of American Romanticism • Humanitarian reform • Abolitionism • Feminism • Liberal religious movements • Unitariansim • Universalism • Economic experiments • Communal living (Brook Farm, New Harmony) James D. Hart, The Oxford Companion to American Literature, 6th ed. (572).

11. Light Romanticism • Emily Dickinson • “Some Keep the Sabbath Going to Church” • Walt Whitman • “Learn'd Astronomer” • Ralph Waldo Emerson • “Each & All” Focus on the inherent inner light of humans, the beauty of nature, and the perfection of the universe.

12. Dark Romanticism • Nathaniel Hawthorne • “The Birthmark” (packet 131) • “Dr. Heidegger's Experiment” (packet 124) • Washington Irving • “Devil and Tom Walker” (packet 93) Focus on the inherent inner darkness of humans, the perverseness of spirit, and the flaw of the universe.

13. Dark Romanticism • Key Beliefs: • Romantics see value in unspoiled nature and shun artificiality (things that are not natural) • Show the inner darkness in humanity-man’s potential for evil • See nature as a powerful and punishing force • Uses gothic or grotesque imagery (think dark or threatening)

14. Quiz: “The Birthmark” • In a well-developed paragraph(s), discuss the four elements of dark romanticism. Use examples from “The Birthmark” to explain and further your analysis. • Quiz is worth 25 points.

15. Transcendentalism • Ralph Waldo Emerson • “Self Reliance” (packet 67) • “Each and All” (packet 66) • Henry David Thoreau • “Civil Disobedience” (packet 69) • Walden • Solitude (packet 80) • Conclusion (packet 84) Built on the idea of the inner light, but believed that this was the divine spark, that humans carry God inside us. And because we all carry the divine, we are all capable of perfection.

16. Transcendentalism • Immanuel Kant “…concerned not with objects but with our mode of knowing objects." source

17. Transcendental Beliefs • the spark of divinity lies within man; • everything in the world is a microcosm of existence • the individual soul is identical to the world soul(Emerson’s Over-Soul) By meditation, by communing with nature, through work and art, man could transcend his senses and attain an understanding of beauty and goodness and truth. source

18. Transcendentalists • Belief in the Inner Light Authority of Self • Walt Whitman's I • Ralph Waldo Emerson’s doctrine of Self-Reliance • Henry David Thoreau's civil disobedience, • Utopian communities at Brook Farm source

19. Hudson River Painters Art as an agent of moral and spiritual transformation Kindred Spirits, Asher B. Durand, 1849