American Romanticism 1800-1855

1. American Romanticism 1800-1855

2. Major Events • U.S. annexed Texas in 1845 causing The Mexican-American War (1846-48). • Edgar Allen Poe published “The Raven” in 1845 • Thoreau published Walden in 1854 • Between the years 1820 and 1840 the population of New York City more than tripled-5.3 million to 17.1 million!

3. Major Events • Washington D.C. becomes the United States’ capital in 1800 • The Louisiana Purchase, negotiated by Thomas Jefferson, doubled US territory, giving opportunity seekers even more land to spread into. • The first baseball game was played in Hoboken NJ in 1846

4. The City, Dark and Grim • One of the reasons Romantic artists valued imagination over reality was that reality was just plain horrid. They wanted to escape. • In New York City, apartment buildings were overstuffed with tenants. Eight people would share one room and 400 shared the same bathroom.

5. The City, Dark and Grim • Horse manure littered the streets, as well as the dead, rotting corpses of overworked horses. • In the summer of 1832 a cholera epidemic swept through Manhattan-disease was rampant in such a crowded space. • Homeless children wandered the streets and often died before the age of twenty due to violence, starvation, and accidents • Crime ruled the streets. Real life pirates robbed over 15,000 sailors in one year on the notorious Cherry Street. • Anti-abolitionists set fires to African Americans’ homes, churches and schools.

6. Characteristics • Americans were inspired to leave the filthy cities and travel west into a new world of opportunity • Romantic writers tried to capture this attitude of yearning and striving for opportunity and independence by writing “journey” stories and poems.

7. Examples of Journey stories • The Bible • The Odyssey • The Wizard of Oz • Forrest Gump

8. What about Ben? • Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography is also an excellent example of a “journey” story…it was his own declaration of independence and a move from constraints towards prosperity • Keep in mind, journey stories are about both “escaping” a troubled past and traveling towards a better life.

9. No Wonder • It is no wonder then that people wanted to escape. • The characteristic Romantic journey is to the countryside which is associated with independence, moral clarity and healthful living. • The first popular writer during this time was Washington Irving who wrote “Rip Van Winkle.” The story is about a quirky man who escapes a critical wife by falling asleep for 100 years.

10. Escaping Rationalism • Romanticism developed as a reaction to Rationalism. • Romantics valued imagination, spontaneity, individual feelings, intuition, wild nature. • Rationalists valued reason, logic, planning and cultivation.

11. Romantics felt that poetry was the highest most sublime embodiment of imagination-the path to finding truth Science is like a “vulture” to the imagination- always waiting to prey on natural beauty simply to find more “dull realities” Rationalists deduced that the study of Science was the path to find the truth Romantics vs Rationalists

12. Rising above “Dull Realities” • Romantics searched for exotic settings in the past or in a world far removed from the industrial age (often supernatural worlds, or settings inspired by legends or folklore). • Romantics strove to contemplate the Natural world until dull reality fell away to reveal beauty and truth. Going into nature!

13. Light vs Dark • While some Romantics believed that nature was sublime (find God in nature) and that humanity was inherently good, some believed that humanity and nature also held an inherently evil or dark force. • They were known as the Dark Romantics or Gothic artists. They believed in both the light and dark side of humanity and nature. Edgar Allen Poe was a Dark Romantic

14. American Romantic Hero • James Fenimore Cooper created the first American heroic figure. • Rationalists valued the worldly, educated, sophisticated, social climber • The typical Romantic hero was young or youthful, innocent and pure of purpose who had a sense of honor based on higher principles than society, knowledge of people and life based on deep intuitive understanding, and a love for nature.

15. Dark Romantics • What happened to the concept of Original sin? The innate depravity of man? • Focus on the mystical and melancholy aspects of Puritan thought • Conflict between good and evil • Psychological effect of guilt and sin • Madness and derangement of human psyche

16. Gothic Literature • Wild, haunted landscapes • Supernatural events • Mysterious medieval castles • Psychological exploration of the human mind

17. Edgar Allan Poe • 1809-1849 • Parents • David Poe • Elizabeth Arnold • Foster Parents • John Allan • France Allan • University of Virginia

18. sought the mystical realm in the derangement of the senses. • journeyed into the dark side of the human mind • imagination was chaotic and potentially evil • nostalgia for the past was revealed through medieval castles with dungeons and dark, mysterious settings • tales of horror • purpose to stimulate the emotions, fire the imagination (all good literature should do this) • creates strange effects through combination of sounds, words, rhymes and colors—things whirl and swirl like in a nightmare • first person point of view

19. Psychological Thrillers • Distraught narrators • Deranged heroes • Doomed heroines • Searched for the unsettling truth that lies in the dark, irrational depths of the human mind

20. Nathaniel Hawthorne • 1804-1864 (Salem) • Puritan ancestors—Judge Hathorne • Father’s death (sea captain) • Dark insight into the human heart • Awareness of the guilt that comes with a Puritan conscience • Twice Told Tales—offered a vision of the human heart as a lurking place for the secrets of past sins • The Scarlet Letter—a tale of sin and redemption, the tragic consequences of hypocrisy and concealed guilt