Overview
This lecture introduces the American Romanticism literary movement (early 1800sā1865), its key characteristics, major authors, and the related philosophy of Transcendentalism.
Defining American Romanticism
- American Romanticism followed the Age of Reason, shifting focus from politics to emotions, imagination, and individual experience.
- Romanticism is not about love stories, but about valuing intuition, emotion, and imagination over logic and reason.
- Writers celebrated nature, youthful innocence, individuality, and questioned the progress brought by industrialization.
Key Characteristics and Subject Matter
- Faith in inner experience and imagination is prioritized.
- Preference for unspoiled nature and rural life over urban civilization.
- Emphasis on innocence and naivete, often using youthful protagonists.
- Literature explores spiritual and moral development through contact with nature.
- Looks to the past for wisdom and is skeptical of societal progress.
- Includes exotic, supernatural, and imaginative fiction, such as short stories, novels, and poetry.
Historical and Cultural Context
- The expanding American frontier inspired themes of freedom and optimism.
- Immigration and industrialization altered society, causing division between North (industrial) and South (agricultural).
- Social institutions and science became more formalized.
Literary Techniques
- Remote or fictional settings, improbable plots, and stereotypical or underdeveloped characters.
- Escapism from societal issues and emphasis on personal truths.
- Organic, non-formal writing styles developing a unique American literary voice.
Major Writers and Movements
- Early romantic poets: William Cullen Bryant, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
- Dark Romantics/American Gothics (also anti-transcendentalists): Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe.
- These writers focused on conflicts between good and evil, guilt, sin, and psychological depth.
The Romantic View of Humanity and Nature
- Focus on individual emotions, imagination, and personal truth.
- Nature is celebrated for beauty and as a source of spiritual inspiration, often symbolizing deeper meanings.
Transcendentalism
- Philosophical movement within Romanticism, emerging in the 1830s-1860s.
- Emphasizes transcending ordinary experience to discover ultimate truths about self, nature, and the universe.
- Belief in the inherent goodness of people and a direct connection between the soul, nature, and the divine (oversoul).
- Ralph Waldo Emerson (theorist) and Henry David Thoreau (practitioner) were major figures.
- Sought to recover spirituality missing from rationalist philosophy.
Key Terms & Definitions
- Romanticism ā Literary movement prioritizing emotion, imagination, and intuition over logic.
- Transcendentalism ā Philosophy emphasizing intuition, the spiritual unity of humans and nature, and going beyond the physical.
- Dark Romantics ā Writers focusing on evil, guilt, sin, and psychological conflict.
- Escapism ā Literature providing escape from reality or societal problems.
Action Items / Next Steps
- Review works by Emerson, Thoreau, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, Bryant, and Longfellow.
- Read selected romantic poems, short stories, and essays to identify the discussed characteristics.