1. Romanticism 1800-1860

2. Characteristics of Romanticism Contemplating nature’s beauty is the path to spiritual and moral development. Values feeling and intuition over reason Looks backward to the wisdom of the past, shuns progress

3. The Age of Reason or The Enlightenment Founded on: Deism Logic Observation as means of obtaining Truth Inalienable rights Contributed to: Industrialization: Growth of cities & factories Mobility and breakup of families and communities American expansion –(Lewis and Clark and Manifest Destiny) More encounters with Native Americans Albert Bierstadt

4. Romanticism: Reaction To The Age of Reason Realism Idealism/Utopia Patrician Classicism Glorification of the common man Dominion over the Native American Recognition of the nobility of the primitive Reliance on reason for truth Credibility of intuition and reflection Age of Reason Romanticism

5. Logic: Always facts to counter fear and doubt Imagination to engender faith and hope Man’s dominion over Nature: Manifest Destiny; bring to serve mankind Man’s interdependence upon Nature: Generative, antidote; mystical unknown Deism: De-emphasize organized religion Transcendentalism: God always available-Over-Soul Age of ReasonRomanticism

6. The City was a Place of... Industrial Revolution Success Self-realization Civilization Poor Work Conditions Moral Ambiguity Corruption Death Age of ReasonRomanticism Romanticism: Often Seen As A Journey --The journey from the city to the country --The journey from rational thought to the imagination

7. The Fireside Poets *John Greenleaf Whittier, William Cullen Bryant, James Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes Their poems were often read aloud at the fireside as family entertainment. The Most Popular American Poets of Their Time It is poetry that seeks a higher truth from the natural world.

8. Folktales - varied from region to region. Washington Irving was very popular. Literature The “Noble Savage” was promoted through works such as James Fennimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans. American Novelists looked to westward expansion and the frontier for inspiration.

9. Two Schools of Philosophical Thought - The Transcendentalists vs. The Anti- Transcendentalists

10. The Transcendentalists (Continued) Optimistic view of the world The natural world is a doorway to the spiritual or ideal world Self-Reliance – Rely on your own thought – Seek not to follow others

11. Transcendentalists Beckon Us To Leave Behind The Hurried & Technological World

12. *To venture forth to the natural world *To find our inner peace *To reconnect with all mankind & Nature *Use intuition to find truth and connect with the spiritual realm

13. * Be a keen observer of Nature * Stay Quiet & Be Still To Hear Her Lessons

14. Works of Hawthorne, Melville & Poe: –Acknowledged existence of sin –Pain & evil in human life –Formed counterpoints to the optimism of the transcendentalists –Regarded as “the dark side” in the eyes of Transcendentalists who use “the force”

15. The Force vs. The Dark Side Transcendentalists  Idealists/Individualist  Intuition  Everything is a reflection of the divine soul  Nature is good; even Man is good  Man & Nature in partnership  Embraces science as part of nature Anti-Transcendentalists  Realists  Experience  Spirituality based on Puritanism/Calvinism  Nature is indifferent; Man is evil  Man’s dark side  Suspicious of science and technology