Transcript Romanticism PPT

Romanticism
1800-1860
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
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
Romanticism: Reaction To The Age of Reason
Age of Reason
Realism
Patrician
Romanticism
Idealism/Utopia
Classicism
Glorification
of the
common man
Dominion
over the
Native American
Recognition
Reliance
Credibility
on
reason for
truth
of the
nobility of the primitive
of intuition
and reflection
Age of Reason
Romanticism
Logic: Always
facts to
counter fear and doubt
Imagination
Man’s
dominion over
Nature: Manifest Destiny;
bring to serve mankind
Man’s
Deism:
Transcendentalism:
De-emphasize
organized religion
to engender
faith and hope
interdependence
upon Nature: Generative,
antidote; mystical unknown
God
always available-Over-Soul
The City was a Place of . . .
Age of Reason
Industrial
Revolution
Success
Self-realization
Civilization

Romanticism
Poor Work
Conditions
 Moral Ambiguity
 Corruption
Death
Romanticism: Often Seen As A Journey
--The journey from the city to the country
--The journey from rational thought to the imagination
The Fireside Poets
The Most Popular American Poets of Their Time
*John Greenleaf Whittier, William Cullen Bryant,
James Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes
•Their poems were
often read aloud at
the fireside as family
entertainment.
•It is poetry that seeks
a higher truth from
the natural world.
Literature
• Folktales - varied from region
to region. Washington Irving
was very popular.
•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.
Two Schools of
Philosophical Thought -
The
Transcendentalists
vs.
The AntiTranscendentalists
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
Transcendentalists Beckon Us To Leave Behind
The Hurried & Technological World
*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
* Be a keen observer of Nature
* Stay Quiet & Be Still
To Hear Her Lessons
The Anti-Transcendentalists
• 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”
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