Transcript A Growing Nation (1800

A Growing Nation
(1800-1870)
Literature of the Period
Romanticism
• Artistic movement that dominated Europe &
America during 19th century
• Not necessarily about love
• Imagination over reason/intuition over fact
• Great love of nature
• Accented the fantastic aspects of the human
experience
New England Renaissance
(1840-1855)
• Sparked by Ralph Waldo Emerson
– Called for American intellectual independence
from Europe
– Believed American writers should interpret their
own culture in new ways
– Led to a burst of literary activity in and around
Boston
Transcendentalism
• Refers to understanding gained intuitively
because it lies beyond direct experience
• Blend of the romantic, the intuitive, the
mystical
• Most truths lie outside of the senses
• Strong belief in the importance of the
individual
Walden
• Henry David Thoreau, protégé of Emerson
• Withdrew from society to live by Walden Pond
• 18 essays using nature to explore philosophies
of individualism, simplicity, and civil
disobedience
The Possibility of Evil
• Nathaniel Hawthorne
– Always conscious of his Puritan roots
• Herman Melville
– Like his mentor, saw life in grim terms
Fireside Poets
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
– First poet to create national interest in American
poetry
– Adapted traditional European forms to American
subjects
• William Cullen Bryant
– Lawyer, journalist
– Defender of human rights
– First to win world-wide acclaim and establish the
Romantic Movement here
Fireside Poets, cont.
• Oliver Wendell Holmes
– Descendent of Anne Bradstreet
– Leading medical researcher of his time
• John Greenleaf Whittier
– No formal education
– Raised a Quaker
– Deeply involved in social issues
– Captured the simple rural life as it was
disappearing
Great Poets of American Literature
• Emily Dickinson
– Born in Amherst, Massachusetts
– As an adult, became increasingly isolated
– Devoted most of her time to writing poetry
– Wanted her poems destroyed after her death
– Saved by her sister
Great Poets of Am. Lit. continued
• Walt Whitman
– Self educated
– Broke every poetic tradition…rhyme, meter,
subject matter
– Strong beliefs in democracy, equality, unity, and
the potential of the human spirit
– Life’s work: Leaves of Grass