American Romanticism E D G A R A L L E N P O E A N D N A T H A N I E L H A W T H O R N E

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1 American Romanticism E D G A R A L L E N P O E A N D N A T H A N I E L H A W T H O R N E

2 Short fiction reading group This will be starting this week (Thursday 17 th January) at the same times and in the same room as last term: Thursdays at 4-5pm and 5-6pm in H450 This is your chance to discuss the questions set from the lecture before the next class.

3 Lecture overview Romanticism and American literature American Romanticism and the Gothic The Age of Transcendentalism The Romantic anti-hero and narratorial unreliability

4 What is Romanticism? Variable term refers to different time spans in different literatures. Inspired by change and idea of limitless aspiration towards good. In English literature it began in 1785 or 1789 (outbreak of French Revolution) or 1798 (publication of Coleridge and Wordsworth s Lyrical Ballads). In English literature it ended in by 1832 after the death of Sir Walter Scott and the passing of the Reform Bill.

5 Key features of Romanticism Favoured innovation rather than traditionalism in materials, forms and style of literature. Privileges common life and language really used by men. Refers to the supernatural and ancient times/distant lands. Focuses on natural world as source of inspiration and symbolism. Romantic protagonists are no longer part of society are solitary outcasts or non-conformists. The imagination is seen as crucial the poet/writer is often viewed as a prophet or visionary.

6 Two elements of Romanticism The Pastoral The Sublime Focuses on the beauty of the natural world Landscapes usually populated (people and/or buildings) Idealises rural life Man is seen in harmony with nature Focuses on the power and might of natural world Extreme landscapes (mountains, polar regions, high seas) Emphasises man s powerlessness

7 The Pastoral vs the Sublime Theodore Gericault, Evening: Landscape with an Aquaduct (1818) Horace Vernet, Stormy Coast Scene After a Shipwreck (1830s)

8 The spread of Romanticism Romantic characteristics appeared in English and German literature in 1790s. Took years for these characteristics to appear in French and American literature. American Romanticism spans ended with the American Civil War. It is the movement that saw the development of a homegrown American literature in the 1840s.

9 Romanticism and American Literature Sense of anxiety in mid C19th American literature trying to equal European literary traditions. America at this time was a nation of excess trying to assert their independence and cultural identity. Puritan heritage literature had been seen as dangerous supplement to the Bible and was considered immoral and frivolous. But literature is a sign of culture dilemma faced by Poe and Hawthorne.

10 Romanticism and American Literature Poe and Hawthorne use Romanticism to keep to European literary tradition stories not usually set in America. This partly due to Romantic use of distant places, but also reflects anxiety about validity of American literature and culture. America gained independence in 1776 but Poe and Hawthorne (writing 1840s) show cultural independence took far longer.

11 Casper David Friedrich, Cloister Cemetery in the Snow ( )

12 American Romanticism and the Gothic Gothic romance prevalent in England between 1787 and These stories often uncanny, macabre, melodramatic and violent atmosphere of gloom and terror Usually involve a vulnerable figure, often female, who needs protection from a male character. Narrative resolution is not usually attained death or alienation the only outcome for Poe and Hawthorne.

13 American Romanticism and the Gothic Poe focuses on personal relationships and emotional chaos. Hawthorne takes a wider view Young Goodman Brown undermines religious and social structure, while Rappaccini s Daughter attacks academic and scientific integrity. This mistrust of social structures was explored in another element of American Romanticism: Transcendentalism.

14 The Age of Transcendentalism Transcendentalism was a philosophical and literary movement started in 1836 and ended with American Civil War in 1860s. Based on Kant s concept of transcendental knowledge which consists of all forms and categories that are universal conditions of sense experience, ie. time, space, quantity, etc. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Thoreau extended Kant s idea to include intuitive recognition of moral and other truths that transcend sense experience, ie. good and evil.

15 The Age of Transcendentalism Transcendentalism was a reaction against Rationalism of C18th, ie. empirical philosophy of Locke which derived all knowledge from sense impressions. Was also reaction against highly formalised religion, especially the Calvinism of New England. Transcendentalism stood against social conformity, materialism and commercialism.

16 The Age of Transcendentalism Transcendentalism also: Values knowledge grounded in intuition. Promotes individualism (self-sufficiency, etc) Turns away from materialism to natural world, which is seen as a representation of the human spirit as well as a physical fact. Has faith in a divine Principle or Spirit that involves both humanity and the cosmos.

17 Poe and Transcendentalism Roderick Usher is extreme example of Transcendentalist beliefs thinks all matter is sentient. This leads to an over-identification with his family house can t separate himself from its fabric. This belief in the animate soul of all matter fuels Roderick s disturbance sees himself as linked to his environment but also doomed by it. Leads him to lose his sense of self a key Romantic element possibly why he buries Madeline alive?

18 Hawthorne and Transcendentalism Hawthorne s stories are more focused on a mistrust of organised religion, especially Calvinism. Calvinism was obsessed with the sign the world must be clearly marked in order to function. Hawthorne s novel The Scarlet Letter explores this idea of an adulteress made to wear a red letter A to identify her.

19 Hawthorne and Transcendentalism In Young Goodman Brown Hawthorne depicts signs as unstable everything is ambiguous. In Calvinism the pervasiveness of evil is the only sure thing in the world, but recognition of evil leads to nightmare of doubt for Goodman. Is a very spiritual story but is full of confusion and uncertainty none of the solace found in organised religion and its literature.

20 Hawthorne and Transcendentalism Rappaccini s Daughter also focuses on unreliability of signs Giovanni s confusion and doubts about what he sees. Beatrice herself is an example of misreading signs she is poisonous but innocent. Faith in signs is what leads to her death they aren t a true reflection of reality. The story is a world of mistrust but also of absolutes Beatrice s last words focus on delineation of good and evil.

21 The Romantic anti-hero Roderick Usher Edgar Allen Poe A cadaverousness of complexion; an eye large, liquid and luminous beyond comparison; lips somewhat thin and very pallid, but of a surpassingly beautiful curve; a nose of a delicate Hebrew model [...] hair of a more than weblike softness and tenuity.

22 Roderick Usher as Romantic Anti-hero Usher is highly creative but unable to live in reality has to live on own terms. Is extreme version of Transcendentalism s idea of selfreliance but is not sustainable. When confronted with the reality of his sister s entombment, Roderick dies. But his fantasy world is contagious infects the narrator.

23 Young Goodman Brown as Romantic anti-hero Goodman is less of a Romantic figure than Usher, but is emotionally isolated and alienated by the end of the story. His narrative is about a lonely quest almost a dream-vision. Is perhaps an American Romantic hero the focus on Calvinism and witchcraft suggests Hawthorne is remaking the tradition for greater relevance to American society.

24 Poe and narrative unreliability Both of the Poe stories are in the first person and unreliable narrators states of mind questionable. How do we react to what these narrators tell us? Again returns us to the uncertainty of the whole Romantic project in American literature.

25 Hawthorne and narrative unreliability Hawthorne s use of third person narrators makes his stories less problematic. But there is still great uncertainty in the reliability of each protagonist s perceptions both Goodman and Giovanni are unsure of what they see. This uncertainty is maintained throughout YGB but not RD why the former has a more unsettling effect?

26 Questions for the seminar What is the function of these stories? How realistic is the characterisation? What is the relationship between the individual and society? What are the key themes in American Romanticism?

27 Questions for next week s class How are these stories developing the Gothic genre what are the key differences and similarities with Poe and Hawthorne? Who is creating meaning in these stories the reader or the narrator? How do the concepts of good and evil function in these stories?