1. American Romanticism 1800- 1860
Thoreau
Longfellow
Hawthorne P O E
Walden

3. Romanticism: a reaction to the Age of Reason
Idealism/Utopia
Glorification of the common man
Recognition of the nobility of the primitive
Imagination to engender faith and hope
Age of Reason
Romanticism
Realism
Patrician Classicism
Dominion over the Native American
Logic, always facts to counter fear and doubt

4. Characteristics Intuition - intuition over fact
The Five I’s
Imagination -imagination over reason and formal rules
Intuition - intuition over fact
Idealism - Optimistic period of invention, Manifest Destiny, abolition movement, and the “birth” of truly American literature
Inspiration – creativity and nature
Individuality- self discovery, self reliance, back to nature

5. The City was a Place of
The Rationalists saw the city as a place of industry, success, self realization, and civilization.
The Romantics saw the city as a place of poor work conditions, moral ambiguity, corruption, and death.
The journey from the city to the country was
part of Romanticism.

6. The Fireside Poets The Most Popular American Poets of Their Time
John Greenleaf Whittier, William Cullen Bryant, James Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes
Their poems were often read aloud at the fireside as family entertainment.
It is poetry that seeks a higher truth from the natural world.
(also called the "schoolroom" or "household" poets)

7. Literature Folktales, regional writer Washington Irving
The Last of the Mohicans
James Fennimore Cooper
American novelists looked to
westward expansion and the
frontier for inspiration.

8. What is Gothic?
Originally named for the German “goths.”
Renaissance usage
Architecture, focus on the medieval, death, decay
17th-18th century novel
Themes/motifs: Castles, darkness, madness secrets, ghosts, mystery, haunted houses
The Characters (stock characters): tyrants, villains, bandits, maniacs, Byronic heroes, persecuted maidens, femmes fatales, madwomen, magicians, vampires, werewolves, monsters, demons, revenants, ghosts, perambulating skeletons, and the Devil himself.

9. Romanticism ( )
Writers celebrated individualism, nature, imagination, creativity, and emotions.
Interest in fantasy and supernatural
Writing can usually be interpreted two ways—surface and in depth
Writing is didactic—attempting to shape readers
Good will triumph over evil.
Strong focus on inner feelings
Imagination prized over reason; intuition over fact
Blossoming of short stories, novels, and poetry