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Romanticism Highlights

Romanticism Highlights. Historical and Literary Eras Overview, Romanticism Slideshow, and Huckleberry Finn Questions. “Monsters” represent the Irrational or A-rational forces in us. (from the picture… think “imagination” OR “heart,” “gut,” and “bowels”— above or below the head ).

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Romanticism Highlights

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  1. Romanticism Highlights Historical and Literary Eras Overview, Romanticism Slideshow, and Huckleberry Finn Questions

  2. “Monsters” represent the Irrational or A-rational forces in us. (from the picture… think “imagination” OR “heart,” “gut,” and “bowels”—above or below the head) “The Sleep of Reason” represents the inability of our Reason to operate all the time and account for everything we experience. (from the picture… think “mind” and “intellect” OR “brain”—the head) Francisco de Goya The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters 1797

  3. Enlightenment: • Man-centered; but men are just men • Emphasis on reason and logic • Intellect is most important Counter-Enlightenment: • Man-centered; but men often play God and become either famous or infamous for it • Emphasis on feeling • Imagination is most important

  4. In Conclusion: Puritans: • Man is inherently corrupt. He seeks faith. His purpose is to give glory to his Creator through commitment, sacrifice, and hard work. Age of Reason: • Man is inherently imperfect, but he can always improve. He seeks knowledge. His purpose is to explore and understand the created world using his rational mind. Romantics: • Man possesses both a good and an evil side. Oftentimes, trying to be terrific, he cannot help but be terrible. He seeks intuition. His purpose is to explore and appreciate the created world using his imagination.

  5. Romantic History (1828-1865) Meanwhile, in Europe… First Industrial Revolution Immigration Wave begins Marx and Engels publish The Communist Manifesto, 1848 Revolution sweeps continent, 1848 • 1828 Andrew Jackson, “People’s President,” elected • 1830 Cooper’s locomotive • 1844 Morse’s telegraph • 1846 Oregon Treaty, U.S. and England divide Oregon territory • 1846 U.S. annexes Texas from Mexico • 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, Mexico gives up Alta California and Nuevo Mexico • 1848 Seneca Falls, Women’s Rights Convention • 1861 American Civil War begins • 1862 Homestead Acts encourage Americans to settle the west • 1863 Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation

  6. Romantic Literature • Supernatural elements • Meaning is uncovered/discovered • Setting, external nature, is beautiful or sublime, inspires consideration or awe, and stimulates reflection on the nature of God and man • Main character goes on an adventure to find self-knowledge—wanders, rebels, tests his limits • About representative man > men • Enchanted • Original impulse (resists the notion that man is defined by his time or place) • Genres include: short story, novel, poetry, etc.

  7. What the Romantics Gave America:the Original impulse • “artifice” or “artificial,” which means conventional • primacy of exterior realties, e.g. time, place, circumstance or convention upon men • pragmatic or disenchanted, all about cold, hard facts • here-and-now • “nature” or “natural” • primacy of interior realities, e.g. man’s spirit or heart upon itself • idealistic or enchanted, all about possibility • both mythically old (think “origin story”) and magically new (think “how original!”) REALISM

  8. Huckleberry Finn as Romantic (2 Romanticism Slides Combined) • “nature” or “natural” • primacy of interior realities, e.g. man’s spirit or heart upon itself • idealistic or enchanted, all about possibility • both mythically old (think “origin story”) and magically new (think “how original!”) • Supernatural (natural+) elements • Meaning is uncovered/discovered • Setting, external nature, is beautiful or sublime, inspires consideration or awe, and stimulates reflection on the nature of God and man • Main character goes on an adventure to find self-knowledge—wanders, rebels, tests his limits • About representative man > men • Enchanted • Original impulse (resists the notion that man is defined by his time or place)

  9. HF, Three Part Story Part 1: • Boy’s Adventure Tale, genuine Part 2: • Bildungsroman—tale in which Boy becomes Man, developing morally and spiritually • Romanticism of River (“raft”=“home,” “free and easy and comfortable” vs. “other places”=“cramped up and smothery”) Part 3: • Boy’s Adventure Tale, again, this time as satire • Romanticism of River FAILS as Romanticism of Shore (“romantical” becomes “style,” the “right,” the “regular,” “romantical” becomes, in other words, conventional)

  10. Huckleberry Finn as Romantic (A Complex Issue) • How does life with the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson represent “Convention”? • How does the River represent the opposite of Convention, a “Romantic” safe-haven for Huck and Jim? • How does the Town/Shore infect or haunt the River? In what persons, places, and events? • How is Tom’s plan to free Jim, which Tom calls “romantical,” really a parody, or caricature, of the Romantic that ends up revealing Romanticism’s tragic failure?

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