Literary Movements

1. Literary Movements Classicism, Neo Classicism, Romanticism, Realism, and Naturalism

2. Classicism and Neo Classicism • A literary and artistic movement of the 18th century (1700s) • Stressed reason, balance, clarity, ideal beauty, and orderly form • Imitated the arts of Ancient Greece

3. Romanticism • A literary and artistic movement of the 19th century • Was a reaction to classicism/neo classicism • Stressed imagination, emotion, nature, individuality, and intuition (instead of reasons and facts) • Evident in New England in America • TRANSCENDENTALISM • An off-shoot of Romanticism – philosophical in nature • Many were optimistic, but not all (Poe, Melville, and Hawthorne)

4. Transcendentalists • Ralph Waldo Emerson • Henry David Thoreau • Walt Whitman • Focused on individuality and emotions • Emily Dickinson • Somewhat “obsessed” with the soul – man’s connection to God and nature

5. Realism • A literary and artistic movement of the 19th century • Was in reaction to/against Romanticism • Stressed the actual/physical instead of the imaginary or fanciful • Authors and artists tried to write truthfully and objectively about ordinary situations (Twain)

6. Naturalism • End of the 19th century, beginning of the 20th century • Traced the effects of heredity and environment on people who were helpless to change their situations • Stephen Crane • Jack London