american romanticism intro
TRANSCRIPT
Do you ever get overwhelmed and wish that life was more simple?
Where do you go to find peace? Describe.
How does this make you feel? (look at the people)
Are there moments when you feel small or insignificant in the world? When? Compared to what?
Think about nature. Describe it and your feelings toward it.•Are there calming aspects of nature?•Are there violent and threatening ones?
• Is the price of progress ever too high? Name negative instances of progress?– expansion made
people feel soulless
• Is it patriotic to protest one's government? What role do you think activism plays in democracy? When is it ok/not ok to protest?– Problems: slavery, women's
rights, mistreatment of workers– Protests bring awareness and
change
• Does everyone have a dark side? Describe a situation in which a person might struggle to keep his or her dark side under control (personal or film).
• Where/why do people look for truth? – escape from
materialism and industrialism to nature and the idea of the self = simplicity, truth, beauty
• Page 296: List contradictory pairs of words in the text. – patriotic/individualistic, urban/untamed,
wealthy/enslaved– Society is complex and inconsistent - causes people
to search for the truth inside and to escape civilization.
• Romanticism: individual spirit, beauty of nature, possibilities of the imagination
• response to the country's growth and to the Industrial Revolution
Historical Context
• Louisiana Purchase doubled the country's size• Moved west for money and land• land taken from Native Americans – brutality• Mexican American war- immoral, expanded slavery
I. The Spirit of Exploration - "manifest destiny"
II. Growth of Industry
• War of 1812 forces USA to produce many goods they previously imported
• Industrial Revolution: from farm to industry • factory system: long hours, low wages, harsh
conditions• people left their farms for the cities• hectic pace, lack of conscience - writers turn to
nature, self, truth and beauty
III. The Tragedy of Slavery
• Cotton gin - numbers of enslaved rise
• Life was brutal for slaves• Romantics created
awareness of the injustice of slavery with their poems and writing - supported human rights
IV. Call for Social Reform
• Rise in opposition to social ills• Abolition movement - emancipation of slaves• Workers' rights - unions, conditions improved• Women's rights
V. Nationalism vs. Sectionalism
• Nationalism - interests of the country are placed above the interests of the individual states
• American literature - no longer imitating Europeans
• Sectionalism - placing of the interests of one's own region ahead of the nation
VI. Romantic Literature
• Themes of nature and individualism (imitated nature, valued imagination and emotion)
• Opposed to those that imitated Europe• Opposed to the rationality of the Age of
Reason and the strict doctrines of Puritanism (fear of supernatural favored over the fear of God)
• Man is small compared to the natural world
VII. The Fireside Poets
• reading poetry aloud beside a fire• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - individualism,
appreciation of nature, America's past• Poetry to bring about social reform• concern with the common man (farmers,
lumbermen, migrants, poor)
VIII. Transcendentalists – meaning beyond reason and experience
• living a simple life, found truth in nature/emotion/imagination
• Ideas of optimism, freedom, self-reliance• Emerson - every individual has the intuition to
discover their own truth• people are inherently good; should follow their
own beliefs, no matter how strange
• Criticized the closed minded Puritans• Distaste for the materialistic side of American life• spiritual being instead - close relationship to
nature • Valued intelligence over money• Movement faded when confronted with the
reality of slavery
IX. American Gothic: The "Brooding" Romantics
• Did not believe people were naturally good, explored the human capacity for evil
• focus on inner life of characters and character motivations
• elements of fantasy and supernatural• emphasized feelings, the individual and nature
Gothic elements
• grotesque characters - exaggerated• bizarre situations• violent events• creepy - vampires, monsters, insanity, demons,
shadows• psychology of the human soul - effect that sin
and guilt have on the mind• mysterious and hidden aspects of humanity -
haunted by threat of disaster