1. AMERICAN RENAISSANCE

2. Boom for American Literature
Edgar Allan Poe ( )
Herman Melville ( )
Washington Irving ( )
Nathaniel Hawthorne ( )
Emily Dickinson ( )

3. America 1820 - 1865 Westward Expansion Population Growth (Immigration)
Technological Advancements
Communication
Transportation
Travel Literature
Newspapers & Magazines
New outlets for writers

4. Civil War States' Rights Economy Slavery North: industrialization
South: farming

5. Literature 1820-1865 Writers on East Coast Writing not a career
Communication with Europe
Writing not a career
Lecturing
Editing magazines
Writing for newspapers
Writing criticism
Historical Fiction

6. Transcendentalism “American” literature
Spiritual connection with nature
Individualism
New England

7. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
Transcendentalists
Ralph Waldo Emerson ( )
Henry David Thoreau ( )
Walt Whitman ( )

8. Romanticism Individual expression in arts European roots
Dreams and imagination
The quest for "pure beauty"

9. Dark Romanticism/Gothic Fiction
psychological effects of guilt and sin
the conflict between good and evil
people plagued with madness
tales of obsession, revenge, shame, and madness