1. Romanticism in America 1800-1860ish
It’s more than love!

2. Road to Romanticism
After the Revoluntionary War, America expanded quickly.
National pride and industrial progress soared after the Revolution.
The Louisiana Purchase (1803) expanded the country westward from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains.

3. Road to Romanticism
The War of 1812 convinced Europeans that the Americans had staying power on the global stage.
Advances in transportation and technology spread west.
Immigrants poured into American cities, making extreme overcrowding and poverty huge problems.

4. Social Issues in the 1800s
Overcrowing and poverty in large cities (immigrants)
Only white land owners could vote
Slavery was rampant across most of the South and Mid-Atlantic
African Americans and women were marginalized
African American men can vote in 1870; women in 1920.
Civil War begins in 1861

5. Road to Romanticism
Before 1800, American authors were very unpopular worldwide (and even in America!).
Drawing inspiration from British Romantics, writers like Washington Irving (“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”) put American literature into the hands of European readers—for good.

6. Rationalists Vs. Romantics
The Revolutionary rationalists preferred practicality and realism over all else.
“Age of Reason” = valuing reason and logic over imagination
They saw cities as places to find success, progress, and self-realization.
Romantics saw the crowded cities as breeding grounds for corruption and death.
Many Romantic writers went to nature to escape.

7. Characteristics of Romantic Writing
Romantic writing is marked by a fascination with:
nature
emotions
imagination
intuition (trusting your “gut”)
mystery
innocence (being untouched by city life/thoughts)
youth
creativity
the supernatural

8. Romanticism Defined
Literary movement in reaction to Industrial Revoltion and social issues.
The individual and his or her experience were valued over group logic or reason.
Romantic writers found spirituality in nature and let their imaginations run wild.
The artist/poet/author became highly regarded because he (or she) could tap into nature and creativity in ways “regular” people couldn’t.

9. The Five I’s of Romanticism
Imagination – valued over realism and logic
Intuition – trusted an individual’s experience and “gut” feelings over society’s mindset
Innocence – valued the “pure” mind, untouched and not corrupted by greed and
Inspiration – usually from nature or an individual’s experience in nature
Inner experience – personal experiences connected people to nature and to one another.

10. The American Novel
James Fenimore Cooper broke with the traditional Europen style novel
Novels were set in the ever-expanding American West
Natty Bumppo, Cooper’s main character, appeared in a series of novels called The Leatherstocking Tales

11. The Romantic Hero
Natty Bumppo became the model for the American literary hero.
The American Romantic hero was:
brave
handsome
young/innocent
slightly awkward
intuitive
one with nature

12. Popular Voices in American Romanticism
Romantic authors and poets made American literature seem legitimate to the European audience.
Authors who strayed from traditional European models of writing and gave American literature a unique voice.
However, most “popular” authors still relied on English models of poetry.

13. Washington Irving First American author to widely read overseas
Satirist who used several pen names to poke fun at New York high society
Diedrich Knickerbocker
Johnathan Oldstyle
Geoffrey Crayon
“Rip Van Winkle”
“The Devil and Tom Walker”
“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”

14. Toward the middle of the Romantic movement, several authors like Edgar Allan Poe pushed the fascination with nature, mystery, and human experience toward the dark side...
....but we’ll just have to wait to hear about that in the coming weeks!

15. Sources http://www.tlaupp.com/LPTerritory.html
Lecture notes. Elizabeth Wade. University of Alabama, Spring 2008.
Prentiss Hall Literature
Elements of Literature