1. Early 1800’s to 1865 Free Write: In the “Journal” section of your spiral, write about the following for the entire time you are given. What makes life meaningful and worth living? What do you think is the ideal way of life?

2. We will walk with our own feet. We will work with our own hands. We will speak our own minds -Ralph Waldo Emerson

3. Despite the name of the literary period, Romanticism does not deal with sappy love stories. THIS IS NOT THE KIND OF LITERATURE THAT WE ARE GOING TO STUDY!

4. Romanticism is the name for the literary period that followed the Age of Reason (The Revolutionary Period) in America. Due to the fact that the country was now established, writers moved their focus away from political matters and revolutionary governmental ideas, and began to focus on other aspects of life (emotions, possibilities, imagination etc…)

5. Introduction The rationalistic view of urban life was replaced by the Romantic view Rationalists saw cities as a place to find success and self-realization Romantics saw the city as a place of moral corruption, poverty, and death

6. Values feeling and intuition over reason Places faith in inner experience and the power of the imagination Shuns the artificiality of civilization and seeks unspoiled nature Prefers youthful innocence to educated sophistication Champions individual freedom and the worth of the individual Contemplates nature’s beauty as a path to spiritual and moral development

7. values the power of the imagination seeks the beauty of unspoiled nature values youthful innocence values individual freedom values the lessons of the past finds beauty in exotic locales, the supernatural, and in the imagination values poetry as the highest expression of the imagination values myth, legend, and folk culture

8. The Romantic Sensibility Romanticism: viewing life as we would like it to be, rather than how it really is Romanticism began in Germany and influenced literature, music, and art Romanticism is a reaction against Rationalism The development of slums and poverty due to the Industrial Revolution turned people from Rationalism Romantics believed that imagination, emotion, spontaneity, feelings, and nature were more important than rational thought

9. Looks backward to the wisdom of the past and distrusts progress Finds beauty and truth in exotic locals, the supernatural realm, and the inner world of the imagination

10. A sample of American Romantic art- note the wild landscape, no hint of civilization and ominous clouds.

11. Short stories Novels Poetry Essays

12. Frontier: vast expanse, freedom, no geographic limitations. Optimism: greater than in Europe because of the presence of frontier. Experimentation: in science, in institutions. Mingling of races: immigrants in large numbers arrive to the US. Growth of industrialization: polarization of north and south; north becomes industrialized, south remains agricultural.

13. The quest for beauty and does not tell people how to live their lives Escapism - from American problems. The use of the far-away and non-normal Interest in external nature - for itself, for beauty: Nature as source for the knowledge of the primitive. Nature as refuge. Nature as revelation of God to the individual.

14. Remoteness of settings in time and space. Improbable plots. Inadequate or unlikely characterization. Socially "harmful morality;" a world of "lies." Organic principle in writing: form rises out of content, non-formal.

15. The theme of journey as a declaration of independence The Romantic journey is to the countryside The Romantics associated the country with independence, moral clarity, and purity Romantic writing looked for comforting or exotic settings from the past The Gothic Romantic, E.A. Poe, saw the country as a place of phantasm The Gothic novel emerged from Romanticism Irving saw the country as idyllic and as an escape

16. This was found in the supernatural, in nature, and/or in folk legends Romantics believed in contemplating, or becoming one with the natural world

17. William Cullen Bryant Henry Wadsworth Longfellow DARK ROMANTICS Nathaniel Hawthorne Herman Melville Edgar Allan Poe

18. Bryant, Homes, Whittier, Longfellow, and Lowell are Romantic poets Irving is the Father of American Literature Cooper is the Father of the American novel Poe is the inventor of the American Short Story

19. Emerson is the Father of American Transcendentalism Thoreau is a famous practical transcendentalist Melville and Hawthorne are Anti-Romantics Dickinson and Whitman are bridge poets between American Romanticism and the 20 th century

20. Romantic VIEW OF MAN: Focus on the individual and his inner world (imagination and emotions).

21. Romantic VIEW OF NATURE: Nature is beautiful, mysterious, and symbolic. God can be seen in nature.

22. Romantic GUIDE TO TRUTH: Intuition (inner voice or gut feeling) and imagination guides each individual to understanding.

23. Romantic Escapism The Gothic novel had wild, haunted landscapes It had supernatural events in the plot It was often mysterious The Gothic concept had roots in France, Germany, and England Edgar Allan Poe was Romanticism’s great American writer

24. Edgar Allen Poe with Hawthorne and Melville known as anti-Transcendentalists or Dark Romantics Had much in common with Transcendentalists Explored conflicts between good and evil, psychological effects of guilt and sin, and madness

25. Dark Romanticists Nathaniel Hawthorne Herman Melville Edgar Allan Poe

26. The American Novel Most American Romantic writers imitated the European writing style American Romantic novelists broke away from the European tradition and discovered uniquely American topics and settings American novelists explored the vast unknown lands – something the Europeans could not do

27. The American Novel James Fenimore Cooper was the first American novelist to break from European tradition His novels were set in the American frontier His central character, Natty Bumppo, was the first American literary hero

28. The New American Hero American Romantic literature created this unique person he was youthful he was innocent he was intuitive he was one with nature he was a loner – uneasy around women he was handsome he was brave he was moral and honorable

29. An important American Literary and Philosophical Movement (though NOT a religion) 1830s to 1860s

30. to go beyond a limit or range, for example, of thought or belief So, TRANSCENDENTALISM, at its core is about “moving beyond” common experience and understanding.

31. The idea that in determining 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. Also based on Romantic ideas Based on intuition; optimistic

32. There is a direct connection between the universe and the individual soul By thinking about objects in nature, people can transcend the world and discover a union with the Over-Soul Follow your intuition and beliefs no matter how much they differ from the social norms All people are inherently good

33. Ralph Waldo Emerson (former Unitarian minister from Massachusetts who became the most well known Transcendentalist.) Henry David Thoreau (his pupil, the son of pencil maker who dropped out of society to live a solitary and transcendent life).

34. Transcendentalists Ralph Waldo EmersonHenry David Thoreau

35. As with Romanticism, Americans felt that there must be more to life than logical, rational experience. The Transcendentalists sought to regain a spirituality that they thought was missing from current thought and philosophy.

36. 1. How are you affected by nature? Do you find comfort in it? Do you reflect the moods of nature? 2. What is the role of nature in your life? 3. What is meant by an individual’s “spiritual side?” How do you define it? 4. What is the connection between the individual’s spirit and nature? 5. What does it mean to know something intuitively? 6. How do you demonstrate that you are an individual? Do you think independently of others or do you follow the crowd?