Unit Three:

American Romanticism1800-1860

A. What was it?1. An international artistic and

philosophical movement that redefined the fundamental ways in which people in Western cultures thought about themselves and about their world.

2. Consumed with the need to find an “American voice”

3. free experimentation over the "rules" of composition, genre, and correctness

4. they promoted the formation of the artist as "inspired" creator

5. Turn toward artistic, metaphysical (abstract thought or subjects as existence or truth), and intellectual frontiers to recapture the joy of exploration and discovery

6. Manifest Destinya. The belief prevalent in the 19th century

that the United States had the God‐given right to expand into and possess the whole of the North American continent

B. New Philosophy vs. Old Philosophy

1. Puritans – God over logic (faith over head)2. Age of Reason– science/logic over faith

(head over heart)3. Romanticism ‐ intuition over logic

(instinct/feelings over head) - Humans are innately good and can better themselves through their actions 1.Truth is more a matter of intuition and

imagination than logic and reason 2.all people had access to divine inspiration, and

sought and loved freedom, knowledge, and truth.

C. Imagination

1. The imagination is the supreme faculty of the mind, not reason

2. Imagination is an active part of the soul – creative power

3. We not only perceive the world around us, but also in part, create it

4. Imagination enables us to "read" nature as a system of symbols

D. Nature

1. Nature as a healing power2. “ as a refuge from the artificial

constructs of civilization 3. “ as "natural," rather than a

system of "mechanical" laws 4. “ has its own symbolic language 5. Nature is the main subject of

Romantics because Nature tells us about ourselves. It is where all eternal truths can be found (i.e.-on nature walks in the wilderness).

Romanticism (summary)

• Romanticism is a movement that flourished in literature and philosophy, music, and art during the 19th century. Beginning as a revolt against classicsism. Romanticism essentially upholds feeling and the imagination over reason and fact. It attempts to show life as we might imagination wit to be or think it should be. It favors the picturesque, the emotional, the exotic, and the mysterious. One kind of romanticism glorified nature and upholds the notion that people are good and perfectable. Another kind investigates the dark side of the human soul.

I. Philosophy of RomanticismA. The universe is not static, but dynamic. This dynamism extends to all facets of the universe and existence.

II. Aspects of RomanticismA. Social

1. Individuals can develop inner potential to raise higher in society.B. Domestic

1. Women are perceived as individuals free to develop their potentialC. Psychological

1. Feeling, whim, and intuition are valid guides to behavior.

2. Personality is open and limitless, capable of feeling and achieving more.

III. The Optimistic Romantics-William Cullen Bryant, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and Robert Frost.

IV. The Pessimistic Romantics-Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville

E. Pessimistic Authors

1. Nathaniel Hawthorne2. Edgar Allan Poe

a) Biographical Background 1) Poe's work is shadowed by the deaths of

three women he loved intensely (besides his wife): i. His mother (died at age 2)ii. Jane Stanard (idealized mother of a

school friend), who died insane at age 28 ("To Helen")

iii. Frances Allan (his foster mother)

b) Major Phases of Poe's Career 1. 1827-1831

i. Work during this period expresses poetry of life's burdens and sorrows.

2. 1831-41 i. Poe experienced a radical change; his works involved the theme of

death as a finality in a cosmic void of darkness and silence. 3. 1841-1849:

i. A return to poetry and essays and fiction on theme of psychic transcendentalism.

c) Types of Works (please put on Vocab sheet)1. Satiric tales (a novel, play, entertainment, etc., in which topical issues,

folly, or evil are held up to scorn by means of ridicule and irony)2. Parodies (humorous imitation of a serious piece of literature or writing)3. Grotesques (tales where one aspect of the character is heightened for a

marked effect)

"The Raven"

• From a spectator's account: Poe wore black, and, adjusting the atmosphere to suit the mood of his work, "would turn down the lamps till the room was almost dark. Standing in the center of the apartment he would recite those wonderful lines in the most melodious of voices. So marvelous was his power as a reader that the auditors would be afraid to draw breath lest the enchanted spell be broken." Elmira Royster Sheltonsaid, "When Edgar read 'The Raven,' he became so wildly excited that he frightened me, and when I remonstrated with him he replied he could not help it--that it set his brain on fire."

F. Poetry

1. Poetry is a mediation of life and our connection to nature

2. It is from our intuition (instinct), not rational (reasoning) side of thinking

3. According to Romantics, it is the highest expression of the imagination

G. Mysticism

1. A religious attempt to achieve spiritual union with God through a purging of basic instincts and an existence outside the physical world through intuition and meditation

H. Romantic Hero

1. Romantic Hero follows the importance of the individual, the unique, and even the unconventional (unusual).

2. This hero is youthful, innocent, intuitive, and close both physically and spiritually to nature.

3. Today, we look at these heroes as uneasy with women because of civilization’s need to domesticate.

1. Examples in today’s societies? (books? Movies?)

I. Romantic Artist

• Were involved in society only for the betterment of it (abolitionists, tax reformers, socialists)

• Otherwise, they avoided society (reclusive) because being with nature was better

• Also called “individualists”

J. Utopian

• An imaginary perfect world. In the early Romantic period, the American and French Revolutions gave political liberals and radicals great hopes that humanity was entering a new golden age, in which monarchies, social class hierarchy, and economic injustice would be replaced by democracy and socialist equality

• Individual needs within society

K. Transcendentalism

1. An American Romantic philosophy, flourishing in New England in the mid‐nineteenth century.

2. It consisted of the following:a. Idealist: holding that the natural world was a

symbol of the eternalb. Pantheist: believing all things that exist are

part of a Supreme Mind or Over‐Soul [the religious belief that God and the universe are one and the same]

c. Primitivist: pursuing a simplified and frugal lifestyle [a preference for the simple and the natural over the civilized and the artificial]

d. Anti‐establishment: believing in self‐reliancei. Human beings are basically good

(Absolute Goodness)ii. Humans can learn through intuition

and nature; what is good can change each day (contradictory)

iii. The transcending, or going beyond practical experience, and discovering the basic principles of human knowledge.

K. Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism (summary)

1. A movement in nineteenth-century American literature and thought. It called on people to view the objects in the world as small versions of the whole universe and to trust their individual intuitions.

2. The two most noted American transcendentalists were Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.

3. Beliefa. The spiritual unity of all forms of being with God,

Humanity, and Nature all sharing a universal soul, the Oversoul

b. The innate goodness (divinity!) of Man and Naturec. The value of individualism

d. The belief that the natural world is symbolic of the spirit world

e. The “Lemon Pie” theory (to know the part is to know the whole)

f. That Society is the source of corruptive, distracting materialism

g. That Man is naturally good, even divine, because of his Divine Intellect

h. That Nature is inherently good because it is symbolic of the spirit (God)

i. That God, the Oversoul, is the universal soul that permeates all being

4. Preacheda. Non-violent protesting against governments

that oppress individuals.

b. Drug-free meditation. Drug use keeps us from hearing our intuition.

c. Transcendentalism as an answer to most social problems like racism/slavery, sexism, violence, poverty, etc.

d. Because transcendentalists do what their souls (made in God’s perfect image) say is right NOT what society says is right, humans would never allow atrocities to happen.

5. Popular Transcendentalists of the Era:a.Ralph Waldo Emersonb.Henry David Thoreau

6. Modern Transcendentalists:a.Martin Luther King Jr. b.Mahatma Gandhic.Mother Theresa

7. Anti- Transcendentalists believed:a.Humans need external structure (rules via

government/ organized society)b.Some people, such as the criminally insane or

disabled, choose not to be perfect or cannot be perfect (this led toward gothic writing). 

8. How was Transcendentalism Spread?a. Lectures: Thoreau and Emerson went from town to

town on the lyceum circuit to spread the message (no TV or radio)

b. Books:1) Thoreau wrote Walden – example meditation at

Walden Pond. This showed people how to get in touch with the soul as well as illustrated the benefits of a transcendentalist lifestyle.

2) Thoreau wrote Civil Disobedience – to show people how unfair and inefficient our government was.

3) Emerson wrote Self Reliance – a compilation of several of his best speeches/writings pointing out the importance of transcendental thought on individual happiness. (Example: Some transcendentalists created communes or communities filled with like-minded members separated from all of society to show that it really worked.)

How did Transcendentalism Start?

Some Unitarian ministers realized that society/ government controlled what people did and that the individual person (as God’s perfect creation) could do what’s right if it is left alone

Did Transcendentalism work?

NO! Meditation took too much time- people had to spend their days in the pursuit of survival (farming, child rearing, etc.) and couldn’t take the time to hear their souls.

Naturalism vs.

Realism

Unit Four:

NaturalismA. 19th Century literary movementB. An extension of realismC. Claimed to portray life exactly as if it were being

examined through a scientist’s microscopeD. Influenced by Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” E. Beliefs

1. Human behavior is determined by heredity and environment

2. People have no recourse to supernatural beings (no heaven or hell)

3. Humans, like animals, are subject to the laws of nature beyond their control

4. Authorsa) Theodore Dreiser b) Frank Norris c) Jack London – “To Build a Fire”

RealismA. 19th Century literary movementB. It is the attempt in literature and

art to represent life as it really is (without adding extra stuff)

C. Realistic writing often depicts the everyday like and speech of ordinary people