1. The American Renaissance

2. Hawthorne and Melville
Though they seemed like opposites and fifteen years apart with completely different life experiences, Hawthorne and Melville hit it off immediately
They discovered a common bond: They saw a dark side to human existence, and they sought to record this aspect of human nature in their works.
“It is the blackness in Hawthorne that…fixes and fascinates me.” -- Melville

3. Anti-Transcendentalists
The graphic really says it all.
Hawthorne, Melville, and Poe were considered “Dark Romantics” or Anti-Transcendentalists because they acknowledged the existence of sin, pain, and evil in human life and formed a counterpart to the optimism of the Transcendentalists.

4. Transcendentalism
The term comes from Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher, and refers to 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.

5. Transcendentalism Cont’d.
Ralph Waldo Emerson really spearheaded the movement and influenced American literature and many other writers such as Whitman and Thoreau.
He believed in the power of intuition, the ability to learn directly without conscious use of reason. He emphasized the importance of each individual and his outlook was optimistic.

6. Transcendentalism Tenets
Everything in the world, including human beings, is a reflection of the Divine Soul
The physical facts of the natural world are 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 and individualism must outweigh external authority and blind conformity to custom and tradition
Spontaneous feelings and intuition are superior to deliberate intellectualism and rationality

7. Conclusion
Though they seemed opposite the Transcendentalists, Melville, Hawthorne and Poe still supported the Romantic ideals in their works.
In the mid-nineteenth century, writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Herman Melville produced some of the early masterpieces of American literature.

8. Sources Images taken from Google Images
All information taken from Elements of Literature: Fifth Course.