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Objectives

• Identify the common themes in American literature and art in the mid-1800s.

• Describe the flowering of American literature in the mid-1800s.

• Discuss the development of unique American styles in art and music.

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Terms and People

• transcendentalism reason – a movement that sought to explore the relationship between humans and nature through emotions rather than through • Ralph Waldo Emerson transcendentalist who wrote popular speeches and essays – the leading • individualism individual – the unique importance of each American Literature and the Arts

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Terms and People (continued)

• Henry David Thoreau who wrote Walden – a transcendentalist • civil disobedience – the idea that people should peacefully disobey unjust laws if their conscience demands it • Herman Melville – author of Moby-Dick • Nathaniel Hawthorne

Letter

– author of The Scarlet • Louisa May Alcott – author of Little Women American Literature and the Arts

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Warm Up Questions:

1. What was the goal of the transcendentalism movement? 432 2. Give me one example showing how writers focused on American history. 434 3. What was a major topic of American paintings during this time period? 435 4. Before this time period, artists and authors were influenced by where, rather then American history and nature?

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How did American literature and art have an impact on American life?

Americans were divided by sectionalism and slavery, but they were united by nationalism society.

and an optimistic belief in the possibility of improving themselves and These ideas were expressed in and reinforced by American art and literature.

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Before 1800, American writers and artists modeled their work on European styles.

They used formal language and referred to Greek and Roman myths.

However, by the mid 1800s, American writers and artists had begun to develop styles that reflected American optimism and energy.

American Literature and the Arts Their work explored American.

subjects that were uniquely

Chapter 12 Section 4 Stories Famous character Inspiration Washington Irving

• “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” • “Rip Van Winkle” • Rip Van Winkle was a lazy farmer who slept through the American Revolution.

• Dutch history of New York American Literature and the Arts

Chapter 12 Section 4 Novels Famous character Impact James Fenimore Cooper

• The Deerslayer • The Last of the Mohicans • Natty Bumppo was a frontiersman who kept moving westward and criticized the destruction of nature.

• Cooper’s novels helped American literature gain popularity in Europe.

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By the early 1800s, a new artistic movement called Romanticism took shape in Europe.

Romantics emphasized the importance of nature, emotions, and imagination.

A small but influential group of writers and thinkers in New England developed an American form of Romanticism. American Literature and the Arts

Chapter 12 Section 4 This movement was called transcendentalism, and its goal was to transcend human reason.

Transcendentalists argued that humans should pursue a close link with nature and live simply.

Humans Humans seeking beauty, goodness, and truth within their own souls .

Nature American Literature and the Arts

Chapter 12 Section 4 Ralph Waldo Emerson, the leading transcendentalist, wrote speeches and essays in which he urged Americans to:

• question the value of material wealth, instead.

and pursue higher values • rely on principles of

individualism

improve society.

to guide their lives and American Literature and the Arts

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The transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau: • spent two years living in the woods at Walden Pond, meditating on nature.

• published Walden,

a book in which he urged Americans to live simply.

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Like Emerson, Thoreau believed people must judge right and wrong for themselves.

He encouraged

civil disobedience

and once spent a night in jail for refusing to pay taxes that he felt supported slavery.

Thoreau’s ideas about civil disobedience and nonviolent protest influenced later leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Two later novelists, who were both fascinated by psychology and extreme emotions, began to change the tone of American literature.

Today, Moby-Dick is considered one of the greatest American novels.

Herman Melville’s

1851 novel,

Moby-

Dick, told the story of a sea captain who destroys himself during an obsessive search for a white whale.

American Literature and the Arts

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American Literature and the Arts

Chapter 12 Section 4 Nathaniel Hawthorne often used historical themes to explore the dark side of the mind.

• In his 1850 novel, secret guilt.

The Scarlet Letter,

a young Puritan minister is destroyed by • Hawthorne—who was descended from the Massachusetts Puritans—paints a grim picture of Puritan life.

American Literature and the Arts

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American Literature and the Arts

Chapter 12 Section 4 Louisa May Alcott

presented a gentler view of New England life in her 1868 novel

Little Women,

a story about four sisters growing up together.

• The novel’s main character, Jo March, was one of the first young American heroines portrayed as a real person rather than as a shining ideal.

American Literature and the Arts

Chapter 12 Section 4 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Walt Whitman Poets of Democracy

• Longfellow based poems, such as “Paul Revere’s Ride,” on American history.

• “The Song of Hiawatha” was one of the first works to honor Native Americans.

• In books of poetry such as his 1855

Leaves of Grass,

Whitman is seen as the poet who best expresses the democratic American spirit.

Frances Watkins Harper and John Greenleaf Whittier

• Harper and Whittier wrote poems that described and condemned the evils of slavery.

American Literature and the Arts

Chapter 12 Section 4 After 1820, American artists turned away from European themes and focused on American landscapes.

Kindred Spirits, Asher B. Durand American Literature and the Arts

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The Hudson River School was a group of artists who painted scenes of the Hudson River valley.

Thomas Cole and other painters of this school sought to stir emotions with the beauty of nature.

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Other American painters were inspired by the daily lives of common Americans.

• George Caleb Bingham painted scenes of life on the great rivers.

• George Catlin captured the ways and dignity of Native Americans.

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Just as art and literature shifted away from European themes, American songs also drifted away from English, Irish, or Scottish tunes.

Over time, there emerged a wide variety of new American songs such as work songs and spirituals.

The most popular American songwriter of the 1800s was Stephen Foster, composer of “Camptown Races.” American Literature and the Arts

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Close Questions: 1. What is Civil Disobedience?

2. How did the idea of Civil Disobedience influence Martin Luther King Jr.?

American Literature and the Arts

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Section Review

QuickTake Quiz Know It, Show It Quiz American Literature and the Arts