1. Transcendentalism, Romanticism, and Regionalism

2. Differing Individuals...
How does early 19th Century Romantic literature explore the connection between nature and one’s identity?
How did American Romantics views about the INDIVIDUAL and SOCIETY as expressed in Romantic essays, poetry, and shorts stories define the “American” as an idea and the United States of America as a political and cultural entity?
How did views of INDIVIDUALITY as expressed in Romantic literature in U.S. history inspire and shape artistic, cultural, and political movements?

3. Literary Terms
Paradox – a statement that appears self-contradictory but that reveals a kind of truth.
Irony – in general, a discrepancy between appearances and reality
Juxtaposition – is placing two elements or words side by side and letting the reader or viewer compare them. This act compares and contrasts the two elements and can show irony, humor or sadness
Ex. Light and Dark. Calm and Chaos.

4. Literary Terms
Parallel Structure – the repetition of the same or similar words, phrases, clauses, or sentences.
Onomatopoeia – the use of words whose sounds echo their meaning.
Assonance – the repetition of similar vowel sounds.
Alliteration – the repetition of similar consonant sounds.
Imagery – the use of language to evoke visual pictures, as well as sensations of smell, hearing, taste and touch.
Analogy–a comparison of two things to show their similarities
Ex. Finding a good man is like finding a needle in a haystack.

5. Literary Terms
Motif–is an object or idea that repeats itself throughout a literary work
Antecedent– a literary device in which a word or pronoun in a line or sentence refers to an earlier word
Ex. David plays football in the courtyard. All the children have gathered there.
Inversion–a literary technique in which the normal order of words is reversed, in order to achieve a particular effect of emphasis or meter
Ex.What a beautiful picture it is!

6. Transcendentalism Beliefs
Everything in the world is a reflection of the Divine Soul/Oversoul (GOD)
Nature is the doorway to the spiritual world
Intuition can reveal God’s spirit in nature or in self
Self reliance and Individualism must be more important than conforming
Conformity: to go along with the accepted and established “rules” society, specifically social rules, attitudes, and practices
Spontaneous feelings and intuition are superior to intellect and rationalism

7. Transcendentalism
American Transcendentalists based their beliefs off of several other philosophies
18th century German philosophy Immanuel Kant—first coined the term “Transcendental”
Philosophical work of Plato, who believed in human perfectibility
Buddhist philosophy
American Puritan Tradition
Romantic ideals

8. Transcendentalism Key characteristics Intuition Optimism
God is good and God works through nature
Live a life of purpose for others

9. Transcendentalism Key Characteristics Nationalism Plain Living
Non Conformity and Individualism
Ideas and Dreams are important, more important than reason and logic

10. Ralph Waldo Emerson Background
Born in Boston to a cultured but poor family
Educated at Harvard
Family expected Ralph to become a minister like seven generations of Emersons before him
Worked as a minister, a public education reformer, and an abolitionist
Found success as a lecturer—a new pulpit
Created a grassroots movement among young, college educated Americans who were searching for a “higher truth”

11. Henry David Thoreau 1817-1862 Background Info Born in Concord, Mass.
Longtime friend of family/mentor to Thoreau: EMERSON
Graduated from Harvard in 1837
First introduction to English literature, Romanticism, and German Transcendental Philosophy
Attempted career as a teacher from
Felt unfulfilled and directionless
Began experiment at Walden Pond in 1845
Emerson’s land and idea
Attempt to rediscover the heroism of simple life
2 ½ years lived alone off the land
Published Walden in 1854—had no intention of writing a book. Wrote Walden to answer the numerous questions of others

12. Romanticism
Romanticism symbolized America's break away from traditional European literature.
It was a reaction to the emphasis on logical thought and reason of the Age of Rationalism.
God was viewed as less strict than the Puritans view of God.
Major publishers cropped up on the Atlantic coast, and books were printed here instead of in England.

13. Romanticism Romanticism dared to explore the supernatural.
Romanticism was spontaneous. Writers and readers could explore individual feelings, wild nature and AVOID rational thought, logic, planning, and cultivation.
Through their poetry, short stories, novels, and other works, writers during this period established a clear American voice.

14. Characteristics of American Romanticism
Values feeling and intuition over reason
Shuns the artificiality of civilization and seeks unspoiled nature
Prefers youthful innocence to educated sophistication
Champions individual freedom and the worth of the individual
Places faith in inner experience and the power of the imagination
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
Sees poetry as the highest expression of the imagination
Finds inspiration in myth, legend, and folk culture
Contemplates nature’s beauty as a path to spiritual and moral development 14

15. The FIRST American Hero
During the Romanticism period, authors are creating the first truly American hero.
Who would we call an American hero in our culture today? Name and describe three.
What characteristics do these heroes have in common?

16. Characteristics of the American Romantic Hero
Has knowledge of people and of life based on deep, intuitive understanding, not on formal learning
Loves nature and avoids town life
Quests for some higher truth in the natural world
Young or possesses youthful qualities
Innocent and pure of purpose
Has a sense of honor based not on society’s rules but on some higher idea 16

17. Regionalism Natural outgrowth of Realism
Accurately represents the speech, manners, habits, history, folklore, and beliefs of a people in a specific geographic area
Factors that contributed to Regionalism?
Publishing boom of late 1880s, especially in magazines and subscription publishing
Targeted rural, middle class
Readers wanted characters who sounded and behaved liked them

18. Importance of Setting to Regionalism
Key elements of Setting
Geographical location and physical features
The history of the time period in which the story is set
The jobs and daily activities of the characters
The culture of the characters, including
Religious beliefs
Moral beliefs
Socio-economic conditions
Dialect: distinctive forms of language spoken in particular areas