1. The Romantics
Emotion is everything

2. What is Romanticism?
Emotions are everything (Not just love, but ALL emotions)
Emotions are extreme (Never a little of anything)
Truth is found by trusting your gut feeling rather than logic
The environment will reflect the emotional nature
Fiction rather than non-fiction

3. What inspires Romanticism?
German “Sturm und Drang” movement
Translation: Storm and Stress
Free to express any emotion
Reaction to Enlightenment and results of the French Revolution
French Revolution turns incredibly bloody-supposed to be new era
Maybe logic doesn’t get every answer
Industrial Revolution
Cities are starting turning dirty and crowded
Older buildings are starting to decay
First novels take off
Britain starts this trend

4. Famous Authors Major Romantic Authors
Washington Irving (First Major American Author)
Nathaniel Hawthorne
James Fennimore Cooper (First American Novelist)
Herman Melville
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Kate Chopin
Transition authors to Realism
Walt Whitman
Emily Dickinson

5. Fireside Poets First poets to rival the British poets Kept poetic form
Changed topics to the every day
Poets:
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,
William Cullen Bryant,
John Greenleaf Whittier,
James Russell Lowell,
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.,

6. Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Aunt Harriet Beecher Stowe
Mom overprotective
Wouldn’t let them read
Only showed affection while she was asleep
Marries despite doubts
Post-Partum Depression after birth of child
No one listened to her problem
Ends marriage

7. Kate Chopin 1850-1904 Publishes in magazines
Atlantic Weekly
Vogue
Most famous novel (The Awakening) condemned as too much
Forgotten after death until 1950s
Common themes
Women
Trapped by marriage or sexual roles

8. Herman Melville Family Careers Most famous stories:
Grandfather participated in Boston Tea Party
Father dies while leaving the family with no money
Careers
Worked on Whaling ships: topic of many stories
Loses fame as a writer and forgotten until 1920
Most famous stories:
Moby Dick: Novel about a man on a search for a whale
“Bartleby the Scrivener”: Short story about a man who gives up on his life on Wall Street
“Benito Cereno”: Short story about a slave ship

9. Washington Irving 1783-1859 Growing up
Scottish immigrants
Born the same week the Revolution ended
Terrible student- liked theater more
Also historian (Christopher Columbus) and biographer (George Washington)
Most famous works:
“Legend of Sleepy Hollow”
“Rip Van Winkle”: Guy sleeps through the American Revolution