Transcript Romanticism - A Moveable Feast: 11th American Literature

American
Romanticism
1800 - 1860
Historical Background
 Optimism
 Successful
revolt against English rule
 Room to grow
 Frontier
 Vast
expanse
 Freedom
 No geographic limitations
Historical Background

Experimentation
 Science
 Social
institutions

Immigration

Industrialization
 Differences
between North and South grow
(agricultural v. industrial economies)
Characteristics

The Five I’s
 Imagination
 Intuition
 Idealism
 Inspiration
 Individuality
Subject Matter

Quest for beauty

Escape from daily troubles

Journey to freedom, represented in nature as
opposed to the oppressive city

Use of far-away, imaginative settings

Supernatural, myth, legend & folklore
Literary Techniques
 Remote
settings
 Improbable
plots
 Experimentation
in new forms of writing
Romantic Authors
 Washington
 Rip
Van Winkle
 Nathaniel
 The
Irving
Hawthorne
Scarlet Letter
Sub-Movements of Romanticism
 Gothicism
 Edgar
Allan Poe
 The
Fall of the House of Usher
 The Raven
 Nathaniel
 The
Hawthorne
Minister’s Black Veil
Sub-Movements of Romanticism
 Transcendentalism
 Ralph
Waldo Emerson
 Nature
 Self-Reliance
 Henry
David Thoreau
 Walden
 Resistance
to Civil Government
Romantic Poets
 William
Cullen Bryant
 Thanatopsis
 Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow
 The
Tide Rises, the Tide Falls
 The Cross of Snow
 Oliver
 The
Wendell Holmes
Chambered Nautilus
Romantic Poets
 Emily
Dickinson
 Heart!
We will forget him!
 Some keep the Sabbath going to Church
 Tell all the Truth but tell it slant
 Walt
I
Whitman
Hear America Singing
 Song of Myself
The Arts
 Romanticism
was a movement across all
the arts: visual art, music, and literature.
 All of
the arts embraced themes prevalent
in the Middle Ages: chivalry, courtly love.

Shakespeare came back into vogue.
Visual Arts: Examples
Romantic Art
Neoclassical Art