1. American Transcendentalism
“ It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, always do what you are afraid to do.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

2. Transcendentalism
A literary movement in the 1830’s that established a clear “American voice”.
Emerson first expressed his philosophy in his essay “Nature”.
A belief in a higher reality than that achieved by human reasoning.
Suggests that every individual is capable of discovering this higher truth through intuition.

4. Unlike Puritans, they saw humans and nature as possessing an innate goodness.
“In the faces of men and women, I see God”
-Walt Whitman
Opposed strict ritualism and
dogma of established religion.

6. Transcendentalism: The tenets:
Believed in living close to nature/importance of nature. Everything in nature is a reflection of the Divine Soul--the source of truth and inspiration. (Helped people transcend to higher spiritual levels).
Believed in social reform and peace—a perfect Utopia.
Advocated self-trust/ confidence
Valued individuality/non-conformity/free thought/intuition (over science and laws)
Advocated self-reliance/ simplicity

8. The first transcendentalists
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Henry David Thoreau

10. “Nature” Thoreau began “essential” living
Built a cabin on land owned to Emerson in Concord, Mass. near Walden Pond
Lived alone there
for two years studying
nature and seeking
truth within himself

13. “Still we live meanly like ants
“Still we live meanly like ants.” “Our life is frittered away by detail.” “Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life?” “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity. I say, let your affairs be as two or three and not a hundred or a thousand.”

15. Individuality
“How deep the ruts of tradition and conformity.”

17. “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music he hears, however measured or far away.”

19. Within Transcendentalism
Lies Romanticism
Early 1800’s to 1865

20. We will walk with our own feet. We will work with our own hands
We will walk with our own feet. We will work with our own hands. We will speak our own minds -Ralph Waldo Emerson
What type of values might American Romantics embraced, judging from this quote? Shun industrial progress, disliked factory products, were non comformists

21. Despite the name of the literary period, Romanticism does not deal with sappy love stories.
THIS IS NOT THE KIND OF LITERATURE THAT WE ARE GOING TO STUDY!

22. Romanticism is the name for the literary period that followed the Age of Reason (The Revolutionary Period) in America.
Due to the fact that the country was now established, writers moved their focus away from political matters and revolutionary governmental ideas, and began to focus on other aspects of life (emotions, possibilities, imagination etc…)

23. Values feeling and intuition over reason
Places faith in inner experience and the power of the imagination
Shuns the artificiality of civilization and seeks unspoiled nature
Prefers youthful innocence to educated sophistication
Champions individual freedom and the worth of the individual
Contemplates nature’s beauty as a path to spiritual and moral development
What would have been the subjects of painters of American Romanticism? What might be the topics of writing? Painters- wild landscapes, ominous skies, ancient ruins, rustic scenes

24. Looks backward to the wisdom of the past and distrusts progress
Finds beauty and truth in exotic locals, the supernatural realm, and the inner world of the imagination
Embraced the antique;nature was an instrument of instruction and delight for the soul

25. A sample of American Romantic art- note the wild landscape, no hint of civilization and ominous clouds.
A sample of American Romantic art- note the wild landscape, no hint of civilization. Ominous clouds

26. Short stories
Novels
Poetry
Essays

27. Frontier: vast expanse, freedom, no geographic limitations.
Optimism: greater than in Europe because of the presence of frontier.
Experimentation: in science, in institutions.
Mingling of races: immigrants in large numbers arrive to the US.
Growth of industrialization: polarization of north and south; north becomes industrialized, south remains agricultural.

28. The quest for beauty and does not tell people how to live their lives
Escapism - from American problems. The use of the far-away and non-normal
Interest in external nature - for itself, for beauty:
Nature as source for the knowledge of the primitive.
Nature as refuge.
Nature as revelation of God to the individual.

29. Remoteness of settings in time and space.
Improbable plots.
Inadequate or unlikely characterization.
Socially "harmful morality;" a world of "lies."
Organic principle in writing: form rises out of content, non-formal.

30. William Cullen Bryant
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
DARK ROMANTICS
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Herman Melville
Edgar Allan Poe

31. Romantic VIEW OF MAN: Focus on the individual and his inner world (imagination and emotions).

32. Romantic VIEW OF NATURE: Nature is beautiful, mysterious, and symbolic
Romantic VIEW OF NATURE: Nature is beautiful, mysterious, and symbolic. God can be seen in nature.

33. Romantic GUIDE TO TRUTH: Intuition (inner voice or gut feeling) and imagination guides each individual to understanding.

34. Had much in common with Transcendentalists
Edgar Allen Poe with Hawthorne and Melville known as anti-Transcendentalists or Dark Romantics
Had much in common with Transcendentalists
Explored conflicts between good and evil, psychological effects of guilt and sin, and madness
Known as anti- T because of their pessimism
Like the T’s, they valued intuition over logic and reason

35. Dark
Romanticists
Herman Melville
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Edgar Allan Poe