AMERICAN ROMATICISM

PREVIEW WHAT IS AMERICAN ROMATICISM? HOW DID IT INFLUENCE LITERATURE? HOW DID IT AFFECT OTHER ASPECTS OF LIFE IN THE UNITED STATES?

ROMANTICISM LITERARY AND CULTURAL MOVEMENT REVOLT AGAINST THE ENLIGHTENMENT PLACED IMPORTANCE ON EMOTIONAL RESPONSE TO NATURE. RANGED FROM TREPIDATION, HORROR AND TERROR, AND AWE AND WONDER

ROMANTICISM IMAGINATION INTUITION SPONTANEITY INDIVIDUALISM “HEROIC ISOLATION” PSYCHOLOGY SUPERNATURAL

ROMANTICISM OPTIMISM AND INDIVIDUALISM WORLD IS ALWAYS IMPROVING ORDINARY PEOPLE CAN BETTER THEMSELVES, THEIR POLITICAL SYSTEM AND SOCIETY

KINSHIP WITH NATURE A CLOSE LINK BETWEEN HUMANS AND NATURE INDUSTRY AND TECHNOLOGY THREATENED THE NATURAL WORLD AND ISOLATED PEOPLE FROM IT ROMANTICISM

POWER OF DARKNESS FASCINATION WITH DISEASE, MADNESS, DEATH, EVIL, THE SUPERNATURAL HIGHLIGHTS THE DESTRUCTIVE ASPECTS OF NATURE

WHAT FORCES SHAPED THIS PERIOD? ARRIVAL OF EUROPEAN ROMANTICISM OUTBURST OF REFORM MOVEMENTS SPREAD OF INDUSTRY INCREASING SECTIONAL CONFLICT

RALPH WALDO EMERSON CENTRAL FIGURE OF AMERICAN ROMANTICISM REVOLUTIONARY IDEAS: – INDIVIDUALISM – CLAIMS ABOUT THE DIVINE – ATTACKS ON SOCIETY

RALPH WALDO EMERSON FATHER UNITARIAN MINISTER AND MOTHER A DEVOUT ANGLICAN FATHER DIED WHEN HE WAS 8-YEARS-OLD AND MOTHER OPENED A BOARDING HOUSE TO SUPPORT FAMILY

RALPH WALDO EMERSON ENTERED HARVARD AT 14- YEARS-OLD STUDIED AT HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL ORDAINED MINISTER BY 1829

RALPH WALDO EMERSON IN 1831, WIFE ELLEN TUCKER DIED SUDDENLY SHOOK HIS ALREADY QUESTIONING FAITH LEFT THE CHURCH TO BECOME A WRITER

RALPH WALDO EMERSON 1833 – MOVED TO CONCORD, MASS. AND STARTED WRITING NATURE. – IT WOULD BE ONE OF HIS MOST INFLUENTIAL WORKS. – PUBLISHED ANONYMOUSLY REMARRIED 2 YEARS LATER AND HAD 4 CHILDREN.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON GAINED FAME ON THE LECTURE CIRCUIT – THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR – HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL ADDRESS BOTH REJECTED ORGANIZED RELIGION AND RESULTED IN A BAN FROM HARVARD FOR 30 YEARS.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON HIS IDEAS ANGERED SOME BUT EXCITED OTHERS IDEAS HELPED CREATE THE TRANSCENDENTAL MOVEMENT – OPTIMISM, SELF- RELIANCE, INTUITION, IDEALISM

RALPH WALDO EMERSON EMERSON’S OPTIMISM WAS CHALLENGED IN 1842 WHEN SON WALDO DIED OF SCARLET FEVER CO-FOUNDED THE DIAL, A TRANSCENDENTAL PUBLICATION INFLUENCED MANY WRITERS OF THE TIME AND FOR YEARS LATER

SPIRIT OF THE WEST