American Romanticism1800-1855

Lit book pg. 304

Historical Context• Westward Expansion:– 1803: The Louisiana Purchase

doubled the size of the country– Manifest Destiny: the idea

that it was the destiny of the United States to expand to the Pacific Ocean and down into Mexico

– Many Americans (such as Thoreau) found the Mexican-American War immoral, as it would expand slave-holding states

• Growth of Industry:– Industrial Revolution changed the country from agrarian

(farming-based) to an industrial nation– Writers responded to the negative effects of industrialization

Cultural Influences and Ideas• The Tragedy of Slavery:

– Rise in production of cotton meant more demand for slaves in the South

– Life in slavery was brutal and often inescapable• Call for Social Reform

– Rise of abolitionist movements and writers (fiction, nonfiction, and poetry)

– Americans began to fight for the rights of other groups, such as workers and women

• Nationalism vs. Sectionalism– Nationalism: the belief that national interests should be placed

ahead of regional concerns– Sectionalism: placing the interests of one’s own region ahead of

the nation as a whole– Factions in the United States were split over issues such as slavery

and economic issues

1. Early Romantic Literature:• First emerged in Europe• Inspired by the beauty of nature• Emphasized emotions and imagination over

reason (anti-rationalists)• Celebrated the individual spirit• Some had fascination

with the supernatural• William Cullen Bryant,

Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper

Romanticism was seen as a Journey• Away from civilization and back

to nature• Away from corruption and back

to innocence and youth• Away from industrialization and

back to intuition and emotion• Away from rationalization and

back to imagination• Away from science and back to

poetry

2. The Fireside Poets• Read aloud for family entertainment• First time American

poetry seen as equal to English

• Mimicked European styles, themes, meter, imagery

• Subjects include love, patriotism, nature, family, God/religion

• Fireside Poets also introduced new subjects: American landscapes, abolitionist issues, women’s rights, American Indian culture

• Championed the common person (reflected the movement of government in the time period)

• Focused on moral issues and themes; committed to social reform

• Longfellow, Lowell, Holmes, Whittier

Emerson

Thoreau

3. Transcendentalists• Ralph Waldo Emerson &

Henry David Thoreau• Also inspired by European ideas• Emphasized living a simple life• Stressed close relationship with nature• Celebrated emotions and imagination• Stressed individualism and

self-reliance• Believed intuition lead to knowledge• Inherent goodness in people (optimism!)• Spiritual well-being over financial well-being• Each person is part of the Divine Soul

4. American Gothic• “Anti-transcendentalists”: Nathaniel

Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe

• Did not believe in the innate goodness of people (pessimistic)

• Explored the human capacity for evil• Probed inner life of the characters and

explored their motivations• Agreed with Romantic emphasis on

emotion, nature, and the individual• Elements of fantasy and the

supernatural; gothic elements of grotesque characters, bizarre situations, and violent events