Download - AMERICAN RENAISSANCE
The Romantic Period (1800-1870)
AMERICAN RENAISSANCE
1803 Louisiana Purchase—westward expansionTransportation—canals, turnpikes, railroads,
steamboatsGold Rush of 1849Advancement in Technology—factories, steel
plow and reaper, telegraphCompetition for wealthIncrease in democratic
principlesPROGRESS!
The American Scene
Romanticism is the name for the literary period that follows the Age of Reason (The Revolutionary Period) in America that emphasizes creativity, imagination, and emotion
What Romanticism IS
Increasing emphasis on individualNationalism on the riseMood of OptimismIntellectual curiosityReligious spiritDesire to escape the routineIncrease in population and
immigration
Characteristics of Romanticism
Characteristics of RomanticismValue feeling over
reasonPower of the
imaginationShun artificiality of
civilization
Seeks unspoiled NATURE!!!
Interest in unusual and mysterious
Contemplates nature’s beauty as path to spiritual and moral development
Winds of ChangeChild labor and unsafe conditionsWomen’s right’sNative American removal—1838 “Trail of
Tears”War with MexicoSlavery
NovelsPoetryEssays
and……SHORT STORIES!!!!!!!!!!
Types of Writing
Washington Irving: American mythology (folklore)—setting in American landscape
Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau: sublimity of nature and personal connectionWalt Whitman: merged his all
encompassing self with the nationEmily Dickinson: explored universal
qualities of landscape
American Masters
Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville: Dark side of the wilderness
Known as anti-transcendentalistsExplored conflicts between good and evil,
psychological effects of guilt and sin, and madness!
American Gothic
Quest for beautyNATURE!
Source of knowledgeRefugeRevelation of GOD to the individual
Subject Matter
Remoteness of setting—time and place
Improbable plotsUnlikely or inadequate
characterizationHarmful morality—world of lies!
Techniques