1. New England Renaissance
1840 – 1855

2. Review America is growing Romantic Period – 1800-1840
New states and population increase
Transportation growth
Literary growth
Romantic Period –
Favor imagination over reason and intuition over facts
Intense interest in nature

3. Introduction Population still growing Growth of intellect in America
Democracy successful
Growth of intellect in America
American literature
in its prime

4. Hub of the Solar System
Boston – New England’s center of culture and commerce
Factory system centered mostly in New England was growing
Lowell girls
America was still an agricultural nation
Farms growing as well

5. The Way West American population making its way west Transportation
Railroads
Agricultural Advances
Steel plow and reaper
Communication
Telegraph, Morse Code

7. Clouds in the Summer Sky
America’s problems
Factories and mills
Poor working
conditions – child
labor, long hours,
unsafe environment,
etc.

8. Cont… Women’s Rights were nonexistent Her property was
under husband’s control
Women’s Rights and Anti-slavery movements underway
Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, etc.

9. Utopias and Lyceums Utopias – perfect communities Movement for reform
Brook Farm, Amana colonies

10. Cont… Education Reform
Nation agreed on free public education and higher education for a price
Adult education often provided through Lyceums – organizations that sponsor public programs or entertainment
Formed associations and a cultural framework

11. Literature in Full Flower
Sudden outburst of creativity in literature from
From around Boston, world-famous authors produced writings that would become staples of American literature

12. Goodbye, Courtly Muse
American writers experience “intellectual Declaration of Independence”
Interpret culture in their own way
Courtly Muse = European writers
Writers
Emerson was Thoreau’s “mentor”, Hawthorne

13. Transcendentalism
Philosophical movement that merged philosophy, religion, and literature
Founded by Emerson
Idealism that had diverse and confusing set of beliefs
They were idealistic and optomistic – believed in man’s potential
Thought everything is connected

14. 3 Main Transcendentalist Beliefs
There is a direct connection between the universe and the individual soul – that connection is found in nature.
By contemplating nature, people can transcend the world (move beyond) and discover union with the “over-soul” that unites us all
Individual happiness depends upon self-realization
Aristotle’s “Know thyself”

15. Nodding Fields and Walden Pond
Emerson’s essay, Nature is the first full-scale expression of American Transcendentalism
Thoreau’s work focuses on his views of individualism, simplicity, and passive resistance to injustice

16. The Possibility of Evil
The optimism of transcendentalists (Emerson & Thoreau) was viewed as unrealistic and naïve by some
Anti-transcendentalists = take a darker outlook on life. They took a pessimistic attitude that man had limited potential, nature was incomprehensible and that man must fight against evil

17. Transcendentalism vs. Anti-Transcendentalism
Optomistic
We are all spiritually united in a universal soul
All people are inherently good
Faith in human potential
Wrote mostly essays about beliefs
Pessimistic
Truths of existence are disturbing
Man has limited potential and cannot understand nature
Expressed beliefs through themes of novels and short stories using symbolism

18. Anti-Transcendentalist Authors
Hawthorne was Melville’s mentor
The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne is set in Puritan Boston and deals with concealed sin and guilt
Moby Dick by Melville reflects
his bitterness against society

19. When Poetry Was in Bloom
Poetry very popular during this time period
Popular poets formed the Fireside Poets group
Wrote on a level for all readers and established poetry’s popularity
Longfellow only American buried in Britain’s Westminster Abbey’s Poet’s Corner

20. At Home in Amherst
Emily Dickinson was a unique writer during this time
Raised in Amherst, Massachusetts
Her writings were not of
any specific type and most
were not published until
after her death

21. Beyond the Flowering
Renaissance began to subside due to Civil War conflicts
Most writers (being from New England) supported the northern war effort