A GROWING NATION

Unit 4: 19th Century Literature

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Several factors aged the nation’s spirit• Industrialism• Population Explosion• Economic Growth• The Civil War

1800• 16 states clustered together near the east coast

1803• Louisiana Purchase doubled the nation’s size

• Orchestrated by Thomas Jefferson

Rapid Population growth inspired national pride and self-awarenessImproved transportation helped bind the old and the new states together

• Canals, turnpikes, railroads

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY AT HOME:1800-1840

Americans began taking more direct control of their government.Andrew Jackson

• “The People’s President”• Elected in 1828

Era of the common man• Property requirements for voting began to

disappear• Democratic advances were confined to white

malesIndian Removal

• Forced migration of Native Americans• Trail of Tears- 4,000 of 15,000 Cherokee died

on the trek from Georgia to Oklahoma

YO U NG NATION O N THE WO R LD STAGE

First decades of the 1800s were hopefulWar of 1812

• Convinced Europeans that the United States was on the world stage to stay

Monroe Doctrine of 1812• President James Monroe warned Europe not to

intervene in the new Latin American nations1830- conflict over the secession of Texas from Mexico

• 1836 Mexican Army attacks the Alamo• Every Texan defender was killed

THE WAY WESTAmerican history moved westward

• New territories opened up, transportation improved

• All 13 original states were on the eastern seaboard, blocked in by mountain barriers

Transportation was steadily changing and improving

• 1825- The Erie Canal• 1850- The Iron Horse• By 1869 rail lines linked the east and west

coasts

ADVANCES IN TECHNOLOGY

Spurred Social Change• Factories sprang up around the

Northeast• Steel plow and reaper

encouraged frontier settlement• Made farming practical on

the grasslands• Telegraph facilitated

communication across great distances• Inventor Samuel F. B. Morse

LEAD UP TO WARNew prosperity led to fierce competition

• Child labor• Unsafe working conditions• Limited rights for women

Slavery divided the nation• Conflicts between abolitionists and

advocates of states’ rightsCulmination of 250 years of tension

• The War of 1861

LITERATURE!

American literature was coming of ageAmerican writers were not widely read before this periodThe American voice was developing

• Personal • Idiosyncratic• Bold• The quest of the individual to define him

or herself

Artistic movement• Not necessarily

about loveElevated the imagination over reason and intuition over factWashington Irving

• First American to be widely read overseas

ROMANTICISM

Romantics • Reveled in

nature• Preferred nature

over civilization• Accented the

fantastic aspects of human experience

TRANSCENDENTALISM

Remarkably difficult to define• “The understanding a person gains intuitively

because it lies beyond direct experience.” – Immanuel Kant

• Core belief emphasizes the inherent goodness of both man and nature

References many historical thinkers• Plato, Pascal, Swedenborg, Buddhism• Philosophy, religion, and literature merged

producing a blend that was romantic, intuitive, mystical, and easier to recognize than explain

The real truths, the most fundamental truths lie outside the experience of the senses

THE DARK S IDE OF TRAN SCENDENTALISM

Not everyone shared in the optimistic views of TranscendentalismNathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville

• Expressed the darker vision of those who “burrowed into the depths of our common nature” and found the area not always shimmering, but often dusky.

• Hawthorne held onto guilt about Puritan heritage• Both men saw human life in grim terms, but they

were not identical.• Hawthorne was stable and shrewd.• Melville was tortured and at odds with the world.

GOTHIC LITERATURELiterary Genre

• The story is set in bleak or remote places

• The plot involves macabre or violent incidents

• Characters are in psychological and/or physical torment

• A supernatural or otherworldly element is often present

Poe, Irving, Hawthorne