American ROMANTICISM (1800-1860)
What is Romantic? Valentine s day? Roses? Cupids? Candle-light dinners? Love letters? Sunsets? Long walks on the beach?
That is NOT Romantic!
Romantic Love is NOT the same as Romanticism in Literature When it comes to literature and the arts, the word ROMANTIC has a broader definition than how we commonly use the word today.
Romantic Love is NOT the same as Romanticism in Literature This is a movement about the idealization of emotion, desire, and freedom from constraint. "She's a real Romantic." = dreamer, idealist, nonconformist, on a quest for undefined or unfamiliar goals
American Romanticism was a journey away from the CORRUPTION OF CIVILIZATION and the LIMITS OF RATIONAL THOUGHT to the integrity of NATURE and the freedom of the IMAGINATION.
The Original Romantics of the initial movement in Europe 1785 Early Romantics were BRITISH: Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, Byron - poets who emphasized emotion and drew inspiration from the lives of ordinary people.
The American Romantics Irving, Bryant, Longfellow, Holmes, Poe, Melville, Hawthorne, Dickinson, Whitman lived in NEW ENGLAND
Causes/Historical Context for the Movement 1803 - The Louisiana Purchase doubled the country s size
Causes/Historical Context for the Movement The War of 1812 interfered with trade, so Americans had to start producing items they were used to importing, thus, leading to the Industrial Revolution.
Changes in American cities Poverty In New York, people lived in tenements or slums small, rundown, overcrowded housing
In New York City 1832 - streets filled with squalor and crime 20,000 children were homeless and many worked in sweatshops
In New York City Cholera killed 100 people a day
So American writers began to react to the negative effects of industrialization by turning to
1. The beauty and spiritual power of unspoiled nature These paintings are from the Hudson River School (1825-1870)-- a group of American painters known for depicting landscapes.
2. The power of the imagination rather than reason and logic.
Rain, Steam, and Speed William Turner Notice how this painting of a train emphasizes a feeling rather than a realistic depiction of a moving train Joseph Mallord William Turner
3. A celebration of the INDIVIDUAL rather than society
American Romantic Fiction For the first time, American writers stopped imitating Europeans, and an American style of writing emerged. Washington Irving becomes the first American famous short story writer. His stories rely on the features of folk tales and myths.
Caspar David Friedrich Washington Irving Chalk Cliffs on Rugen His stories--like the art of this period-- often feature exotic locales and supernatural events. Rip Van Winkle (1819)
American Romantic Fiction James Fenimore Cooper creates the first American series of novels that feature a common man leading adventures in the western frontier.
American Romantic Fiction Writers created stories that allowed readers to experience grand adventures! The Indiana Jones character is a modernday example of a Romantic hero Natty Bumppo, hero of The Last of the Mohicans (1757)
Romanticism: The 1 st of its kind! For the first time American writers are creating opportunities for readers to experience PLEASURE and ESCAPE instead of merely LEARNING and POLITICAL ARGUMENT. Remember what we have read thus far: Patrick Henry s Speech, Ben Franklin s Autobiography....
However, above all, the most celebrated art form of American Romanticism was
The Fireside Poets Got their name because people--instead of watching TV, playing videogames, or texting, would read poems out loud by their fireplaces for entertainment! I m so glad I m listening to Longfellow instead of playing Assassin s Creed
The Fireside Poets They often emphasized moral themes and were committed to social reforms, such as abolishing slavery From Stanzas on Freedom by James Russell Lowell Men! Whose boast it is that ye Come of fathers brave and free, If there breathe on earth a slave, Are ye truly free and brave? If ye do not feel the chain, When it works a brother s pain, Are ye not base slaves indeed, Slaves unworthy to be freed?
American Romantic Poets often wrote about the spiritual truths found in nature. James Fenimore Cooper called poet William Cullen Bryant, the author of America. Turn to p.338 and let s read the first stanza of his poem Thanatopsis --a poem he wrote at age 18! This poem was so famous that people memorized it.
Kindred Spirits (1849) by Asher B. Durand A depiction of poet, William Cullen Bryant and American Romantic painter, Thomas Cole
Rationalism vs. Reason is the most reliable means to discover truths Stressed the spirit of society as a whole Led by writers with sophisticated, privileged backgrounds Romanticism Emotion and imagination is relied upon to discover truths Valued the unique spirit of the individual Fiction focused on unsophisticated, common people as heroes