AMERICAN ROMANTICISM

CITY VS. COUNTRY  For Age of Reason, city was: Independence Adventure Prosperity Commerce Sophisticated society

CITY VS. COUNTRY  For Romantics, city was: Dangerous Corruption Decay and death Evil Morally ambiguous

CITY VS. COUNTRY The countryside became associated with: Independence Good health Straightforward moral certainty

JOURNEY MOTIF  Popular in 19 th century literature  Represents the journey away from the town, into the country  Moves toward the world of nature  Both a flight from something and  A flight to something

COMPARING TWO AGES  Age of Reason ‘character’ Do-gooder Ambitious Hard-working Found energy in “town/city” life

COMPARING TWO AGES  Age of Romanticism character: Do-nothing No ambition Escape responsibility Flee to the mountains/nature Escape the limitations of town (domestic) life Loves nature Distrusts civilization

THE ROMANTIC SENSIBILITY Intuition was favored, with and emphasis on: Imagination Spontaneity Individual feelings nature

THE ROMANTIC SENSIBILITY  Rational thinking, was inferior: Reason Logic Planning Cultivation

THE ROMANTIC SENSIBILITY  Why? People discovered the limits of reason People believed you could discover truths that were accompanied by Powerful emotion Associated with beauty This thinking was essentially for the purposes of ART!

THE ROMANTIC SENSIBILITY  How did they do this? Two Ways:  Explore settings in a more natural past Remove thoughts from the industrial age Remove oneself from the present; go back to a mythical time

THE ROMANTIC SENSIBILITY  Contemplate Nature until dull reality falls away View commonplace events Search for deeper meaning or insight

THE AMERICAN HERO  Youth (or childlike qualities)  Innocence  A love of nature  A distrust of town life  Uneasiness with women  Need to engage in a quest for some higher truth in the natural world

THE AMERICAN HERO  Novels tended to look at: the Wilderness Westward expansion Growing Nationalist spirit Rapid growth of cities (seen as negative)

THE AMERICAN HERO  Your quintessential frontiersman Idealized frontier life Virtuous Lives a moral life (follows the code of the forest) Highly skilled Seeking a higher good