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AMERICAN ROMANTICISM: INTRODUCTION

American Romanticism, a literary movement from the late 18th to early 20th centuries, championed inner experience, imagination, and nature. Romanticists valued freedom, innocence, and individual worth over reason and formality. Notable American Romantic poets and writers include Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Dickinson, and Poe, who sought truth in myth, imagination, and the natural world. This period, also known as the American Renaissance, emphasized transcendentalism and intuition, showcasing a break from traditional Enlightenment values.

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AMERICAN ROMANTICISM: INTRODUCTION

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  1. AMERICAN ROMANTICISM: INTRODUCTION

  2. ROMANTICISM: THE MOVEMENT • dominated cultural thought from the last decade of the 18th century well into the first decades of the 20th century • To a large degree, Romanticism was a reaction against the Enlightenment or Age of Reason, especially its emphasis on formal propriety, classical style, and decorum

  3. The rationalists believed the city to be a place to find success and self-realization The romantics associated the countryside with independence, moral clarity, and healthful living. Rationalism vs Romanticism

  4. Values feeling and intuition over reason Places faith in inner experience and the power of the imagination Shuns the artificiality of civilization and seeks unspoiled nature Prefers youthful innocence to educated sophistication Champions individual freedom and the worth of the individual Contemplates nature’s beauty as a path to spiritual and moral development Characteristics of American Romanticism

  5. Looks backward to the wisdom of the past and distrusts progress Finds beauty and truth in exotic locals, the supernatural realm, and the inner world of the imagination Sees poetry as the highest expression of the imagination Finds inspiration in myth, legend, and fold culture Characteristics (continued)

  6. AMERICAN ROMANTICISM • Often associated with the terms “American Renaissance” and “Transcendentalism” • Poets: William Cullen Bryant, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson • Prose Writers: Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Herman Melville.

  7. The idea that in determining the ultimate reality of God, the universe, the self, and other important matters, one must transcend, or go beyond, everyday human experience in the physical world. Ralph Waldo Emerson influenced by ancient Greek - Plato Also based on Puritan belief and Romantics Based on intuition; optimistic Henry David Thoreau- Emerson’s close friend Transcendentalism

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