AMERICAN LITERATURE PERIODS Romanticism - Transcendentalism We will walk with our own feet We will work with our own hands We will speak our own minds -Ralph Waldo Emerson

What was Romanticism?  Romanticism (or the Romantic Era) was a complex artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe.  Romanticism has very little to do with things popularly thought of as "romantic," although love may occasionally be the subject of Romantic art. Rather, it is an international artistic and philosophical movement that redefined the fundamental ways in which people in Western cultures thought about themselves and about their world.  It was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, and literature, but had a major impact on history and education.

How long was the Romantic Era?  Beginning in Germany and England in the 1770s, by the 1820s it swept through Europe and traveled quickly to the Western Hemisphere.  It spanned from (but really got started during the American Revolution)  A revolutionary energy was also at the core of Romanticism, which set out to transform not only the theory and practice of poetry (and all art), but the very way we perceive the world.

Romantic Characteristics  Interest in the common man and childhood  Romantics believed in the natural goodness of humans which is hindered by the urban life of civilization. They believed that the savage is noble, childhood is good and the emotions inspired by both beliefs causes the heart to soar.  They believed that adolescence is naturally a time of rebellion in which one "finds oneself," the idea that the best path to faith is through individual choice, and the idea that government exists to serve the individuals who have created it.

Romantic Characteristics  Strong senses, emotions, and feelings  Romantics believed that knowledge is gained through intuition rather than deduction. This is best summed up by Wordsworth who stated that “all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.”

Romantic Characteristics  Awe of nature  Romantics stressed the awe of nature in art and language and the experience of inspiration through a connection with nature. Romantics rejected the rationalization of nature by the previous thinkers of the Enlightenment period.  They viewed nature as a healing power, nature as a source of subject and image, nature as a refuge from the artificial constructs of civilization

Romantic Characteristics  Celebration of the individual  Romantics often elevated the achievements of the misunderstood, heroic individual outcast.  During the Enlightenment, art was created for a handful of Church and aristocratic patrons who largely shared the same values (society/tradition).  The newly rich merchants operated under new ideals— individualism — creating opportunities for painters, composers, and writers to seek out sympathetic, paying audiences. They could now afford to pursue their individual tastes in a way not possible even in the Renaissance.

Romantic Characteristics  Importance of imagination  Romantics legitimized the individual imagination as a critical authority.  Symbolism and myth were given great prominence in the Romantic conception of art. They were valued because they could simultaneously suggest many things, and were thus thought superior to the one-to-one communications of allegory.  Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm were collecting “fairy” tales during this time (many were actually frightening).