The American Renaissance (1800 – 1870)

• • •

European Renaissance (rebirth of arts and learning): 14 th , 15 th ,and 16 th century American Renaissance (not a “rebirth” but a first flowering): first half of 19 th century)

Two major events: 1. capital moved to Washington, D.C.

2. foundation of the Library of Congress (first cultural institution in the capital)

Events…

• • • • • • Thomas Jefferson –

Louisiana Purchase of 1803

(doubled the territory of the US) Improved transportation: canals, turnpikes, railroads, steamboats

California became US territory (1848) Gold Rush of 1849

New industries, new kinds of jobs (more productive farming)

Telegraph

– improved communication across the US

• • • • • • • •

Politics

1828 – Andrew Jackson - “The People’s President”

The “era of the common man” – no more

property requirement for voting

Only white males allowed to vote Little attention paid to women African-Americans still enslaved Native Americans – tribal lands confiscated; forced to move to the West

Texas becomes territory of the US (1845)

Conflict over slavery leads to civil war

What is the relationship between place (property) and literature ?

• • • • • •

Vast land: open prairies in the Midwest deserts in the SE immense forests in the NW great canyons and mountains in the W Oceans on both sides Countless natural resources

• • •

(Cont.)

Spirit of acquisition, pride of ownership Exploration led to exploitation Limitless possibilities • • •

Literature:

Explorers recorded facts of their expeditions in colorful words and drawings Fiction writers (Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper) - created an American mythology by setting stories in forests and towns of the American landscape Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – narrative poems : colonial Americans, Native Americans, and Revolutionary War heroes within the American wilderness

The American Masters

•

Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman

Melville – dark side of wilderness •

Transcendentalists:

Ralph Emerson, Henry D. Thoreau – emphasized nature’s sublimity

How does literature shape or reflect society?

• Harriet Beecher Stowe - antislavery novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (national and international phenomenon) • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – best-selling poet in the English language

What did the American writers want to achieve?

(What is their purpose for writing?)

•

The social vision: Lectures, essays, speeches, debates,

pamphlets, editorials, songs – women’s rights, slavery, treatment of the Native Americans, land use, immigration, trade, taxes • Americans to define their own self

(cont.)

•

The Romantic vision: Directly in contrast to the Age of Reason

•

While rationalists saw the move to the big city a move toward success, romantics saw it as a place of moral decay, corruption, and death

• •

Individual freedom Individual quest for self-discovery

•

Nature’s beauty as a path to spiritual and moral development

•

Journey led to the countryside

•

Youthful innocence vs. sophisticated education

I’s of Romanticism

•

intuition

•

imagination

•

innocence

•

inspiration from supernatural and from nature

•

inner experience

• • • •

A Transcendental Vision: Thoreau and Emerson - 1830’s and 1840’s Individual - center of the universe, more powerful than any political or religious institution Thoreau’s Walden