1. American Romanticism &
The American Literary “Renaissance”

2. America Post Revolution
After the American Revolution there was a growing sense that this new nation needed its own artistic canon.
Nathaniel Hawthorne and others saw an opportunity to emphasize the unique nature and spirit of the American landscape:
The effects of strict religious traditions;
The vastness and dangers of the American wilderness;
The conflicts between white European settlers and Native Americans.

3. The American “Renaissance”
The period of American literature between 1830 to 1865 has been referred to as the American Renaissance because of the number of great authors and literary works that emerged in a few short decades.
The term remains a bit of a misnomer, however, as it means “rebirth,” and this period was not a rebirth, but in fact, the birth of the American literary cannon.

4. Writers of the Period Key writers of the period include:
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Henry David Thoreau
Herman Melville
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Edgar Allan Poe
Walt Whitman

5. What is Romanticism?
Let’s start with what it’s not. It is not referring to the steamy novels sold in grocery stores and airports with Fabio on the cover.

6. What is Romanticism?
Romanticism was the response to the desire to establish “a distinctly American cultural identity” (Brantley).
The American Romantic movement followed a similar movement in Europe. American Romantic writers, like their European counterparts, favored imagination and intuition as inspiration, but tended towards nationalism while European writers leaned towards the historic and gothic (Simon and Schuster). (Edgar Allen Poe would follow a more European tradition in his writing).

7. Rejection of Puritanical Ideas
Puritans saw the American wilderness as dangerous; demonic
Narrow view of man’s relationship to God and spirituality
Plurality of thought and expression was seen as threat to Puritan ideals
Romantics found inspiration in nature and saw the wilderness as uniquely American
Broader view of spirituality; Transcendentalists, saw nature as a conduit to spirituality
Emphasis on individual creative expression

8. Elements of American Romanticism
The Power of the individual
The romance of the frontier
A quest for beauty
Exotic or fantastic settings – often in the past
Subjectivity and imagination over objectivity and realism
Escapism

9. Transcendentalism
Ralph Waldo Emerson is largely cited as the “father” of American Transcendentalism.
Transcendentalism was a movement that saw the divine in all things, the innate goodness of all people, and personal insight over logic
The search for truth
Social good
Communing with nature and meditation
The importance of art

10. Centered in Massachusetts
Centered in Boston and Concord
Members included writers such as Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and the Alcotts
Utopian communes
Social reform movements including women’s rights, the abolition of slavery, and labor rights

11. The Distinction between Romance & Novel in the 19th Century
The Novel
Attention to realistic detail
Representation of real life
Probable events
Believable characters
The Romance
Non realistic representations
Character’s experiences are meant to be symbolic
Plot and characterization are designed to help the reader arrive at a moral or inner truth.

12. Early Romanticism and the Birth of the American Hero
Early American Romanticism writers include:
James Fenimore Cooper
Washington Irving
William Cullen Bryant
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Oliver Wendell Holmes
John Greenleaf Whittier
Edgar Allan Poe

13. Historic Background
Between 1800 and 1803, the United States doubled in sized
Canals, railroads, tunnels, and turnpikes emerged to improve travel across the developing country.
The war of 1812
The Monroe Doctrine
Growing sense of nationalism

14. Romanticism as Response to Rapid Growth
James Fenimore Cooper writes The Leather Stocking Tales, a series of novels which include The Last of the Mohicans, that feature the frontier of New York State and introduce the Romantic hero, Natty Bumppo, also known as Leather Stockings. Cooper’s hero represents the mix of European history with the quintessential American wilderness.

15. Romanticism as Response to Rapid Growth
Cooper’s novels reflect the conflicts between white settlers and Native Americans.
Bumppo’s character rejects much of his European heritage and adopts the wilderness as his new home, living among the Native Americans.
Full of symbolism, Cooper’s books reflect a seminal warning against rapid growth that threatens the existing beauty of the Eastern frontier.

16. Romanticism as Response to Rapid Growth
Washington Irving writes “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle,” both set in the Hudson River Valley of New York state.
Irving’s stories lean heavily on myth and legend derived from both European tradition and early colonial times.
Both “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle” reflect the Romantic’s desire to return to the past and distrust of rapid progress.

17. Works Cited
Brantley, Margaret. Introduction. The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, , Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2004, pp. vii-xxiii