THE AMERICAN RENAISSANCE Romanticism 1828-1865 Transcendentalism Goodwin English III
VIP’s of the Period Henry David Thoreau Ralph Waldo Emerson Walt Whitman Emily Dickinson Edgar Allan Poe
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Also James Fenimore Cooper Nathaniel Hawthorne Washington Irving Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Herman Melville
(Literal and metaphorical journey) The Romantic Period was all about the journey, a flight from something and to something. (Literal and metaphorical journey) The most obvious journey at this time was from the city to the country.
To the Romantics, (who came after Benjamin Franklin) the city was not the center of civilization. It was seen as a place of moral ambiguity & worse, of corruption & death.
The Romantic journey is to the countryside The Romantic journey is to the countryside. Romantics associated it with independence, moral clarity, and healthful living. Sometimes it was a journey or voyage to the country of the imagination as the Gothic inspired writers like Poe.
The long distance journey is part of our history, a pattern that occurs often and in much of narrative literature. Lord of the Rings The Wizard of Oz Forrest Gump Odyssey Bible
Writing in the Romantic Period The journey as a personal quest A declaration of independence A quest for opportunity
Romanticism developed partly as a reaction against rationalism.
The Dark Romantics served as a counterpoint to the optimism of the Transcendentalists. They acknowledged the existence of sin, pain, and evil in human life. (Poe, Melville, & Hawthorne)
of American Romanticism Characteristics of American Romanticism
2. Places faith in inner experience and power of imagination 1. Values feeling and intuition over reason ****************************** 2. Places faith in inner experience and power of imagination
3. Shuns the artificiality of civilization and seeks unspoiled nature ******************************** 4. Prefers youthful innocence to educated sophistication
5. Champions individual freedom and the worth of the individual **************************** 6. Contemplates nature’s beauty as a path to spiritual and moral development
8. Sees poetry as the highest expression of the imagination 7. Looks backward to the wisdom of the past and distrusts progress ************************************************** 8. Sees poetry as the highest expression of the imagination
9. Finds beauty and truth in exotic locales, the supernatural realm, and the inner world of the imagination
Inspiration from nature 5 I’s of Romanticism Intuition Imagination Innocence Inspiration from nature Inner experience
What is Transcendentalism? Any system of philosophy; (especially that of Emerson) that emphasizes the intuition as a means to knowledge or the importance of the search for the divine. www.dictionary.com
Transcendentalism, cont. To determine the ultimate reality of God, the universe, the self, and other important matters, one must transcend, or go beyond, everyday human experience in the physical world. Elements of Literature Fifth Course, p. 211
"What is popularly called Transcendentalism among us, is Idealism.” Simply stated, Transcendentalists were Idealists.
They believed in human perfectibility and they worked to achieve this goal. They viewed nature as a doorway to a mystical world holding important truths.
A Transcendentalist’s View of the World
Everything in the world, including human beings, is a reflection of the Divine Soul. ********************************** The natural world is a doorway to the spiritual or ideal world.
People can use their intuition to behold God’s spirit revealed in nature or in their own souls. ******************************* Self-reliance & individualism must outweigh external authority and blind conformity to custom and tradition.
Spontaneous feelings and intuition are superior to deliberate intellectualism and rationality.
In reality, Transcendentalism was a far more complex collection of beliefs: The spark of spirituality lies within man. Everything in the world is a microcosm of existence.
“I was simmering, simmering, simmering; Emerson brought me to a boil.” ~Walt Whitman “Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
From “Self-Reliance" (1841) "There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide ... " “ “Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string." “To be great is to be misunderstood.”
“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.” ~Henry David Thoreau If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. ~Henry David Thoreau
“Whatever satisfies the soul is truth.” “The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity.” ~Walt Whitman “Whatever satisfies the soul is truth.” ~Walt Whitman