American Romanticism 1800 ~ 1860

The Pattern of the Journey… The characteristic Romantic Journey is to the countryside, associated with independence, moral clarity, and healthful living.

American Romanticism can best be described as the journey away from the corruption and limits of rational thought toward the integrity of nature and the freedom of the imagination.

Corruption Immorality Reason Logic Planning routine The City (Civilization!) Corruption Immorality Reason Logic Planning routine Poor working conditions Conformity No imagination or freedom Romantics shun the artificiality of civilization and seek unspoiled nature!

Ahh… the countryside! American Romantics contemplate nature’s beauty as a path to spiritual and moral development.

The Romantic Journey is about ESCAPISM from the dull realities to higher realms. The Romantics did this in two main ways: Searched for exotic settings in a natural world, removed from the grim and noise of the town/city. Sometimes, they found this in the supernatural realm, or in legends and folklore.

2. The Romantics tried to contemplate (meditate on) the natural world until dull reality fell away to reveal underlying beauty and truth.

American Romanticism values feelings and intuition over reason and logic. places faith in inner experience and the power of imagination.

A Typical American Romantic belief that reason and logic are limiting and imagination is superior is illustrated in this quote from Albert Einstein

American Romantics prefer youthful innocence over educated sophistication!

The Romantic HERO Typical hero of Romanticism was Youthful Innocent Intuitive Close to nature Pure of purpose Sense of honor based on a higher principle Quests for some higher truth in the natural world. The classic hero of the time was James Fennimore Copper’s Natty Bumppo.

Intuitive and uses the “force!” Always on a quest for a pure purpose! There are 21st Century Natty Bumppo descendants all around us in the guise of pop-culture heroes all around us! Dirty Harry Rugged and lives in nature! Luke Skywalker Intuitive and uses the “force!” Indiana Jones Always on a quest for a pure purpose!

The Romantics valued individuality over conformity. Are you my mother?? Individual feelings and spontaneity were of greater value than logic, planning and using reason to get to truth.

American Romantics saw POETRY as the highest expression of the imagination.

Poetry was the highest and most sublime embodiment of the imagination. What is sublime??? It is the ability to fill the mind with grandeur and power! It is how your mind can move beyond the imperfections of reality to a higher realm (spiritually)

Early Romantic poets, such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and James Russell Lowell are some of the most popular poets American has ever produced. And while they kept a traditional style and form when writing their poems, their subject matter was clearly American: nature, love, family, God and patriotism!

American Romantics valued individualism and freedom of expression of the imagination, they did not embrace “industrial progress.” They felt that factories, grim and crime all found in cities was a lower existence. While not traditionalist in the sense of conformity, they looked to past for wisdom.

Here is what makes me comfortable!! NO THANKS!!!!! The Romantics look backward to the wisdom of the past and distrust progress!

Can you make a connection between each image a value of the American Romantics??