ROMANTICISM

What is Romanticism?

• A world-wide movement involving writers, composers, painters, sculptors, philosophers, politicians, theologians, and many others.

What is Romanticism?

• It’s difficult to clearly define either its time period or the goals and beliefs of those who were involved

• However, it is safe to say that the movement lasted from the late seventeenth century to the mid to late nineteenth century

What is Romanticism?

• In many respects, Romanticism was a reaction to the strict rationality of the Classical period (what we’ve been referring to as the Enlightenment or the Age of Reason).

• People began to espouse the value of imagination and emotion over reason and logic

Why is it called Romanticism?

• Actually, it has nothing to do with romantic love and all that stuff

• The term Romantic is derived from Middle Age “romance” tales of adventure and chivalric values; “romance” is a reference to Latin, in which the tales were originally told

Beliefs of Romanticism

• The natural/innate goodness of man• The perfectibility of man• What is special in man is more important than

what is typical• Nature as a source of truth, inspiration, and

moral guidance• The importance of spontaneity

Beliefs of Romanticism

• The value of the sublime

Beliefs of Romanticism

• The value of the grotesque, the picturesque, and the beautiful

• Interest in the antique—mythology, the Medieval, the gothic

• A connection between all living things

Romantic literature

• Highly imaginative and subjective• Emotionally intense• Escapist• The common man as heroic• Nature as refuge, source of knowledge, and

spiritual guidance• The “noble savage”

Romantic literature

• Nationalistic• Attempt to define American literature– Language– Motifs– Settings– Characters– Themes

Romantic Literature

• Folk tales– Pastoral– Allegorical– Exaggeration/Hyperbole– Supernatural– 1 Dimensional/Caricature – Humor– Moral

Romantic Literature

• Female literature• The Gothic– Dark tales of suspense or horror– Inner world of Human Nature– Interest in irrational side of human nature– Seeks psychological insights into actions

• Nostalgic stories

Differences between Classical and Romantic

Classical Thinkers Valued:• Reason above all• Urban life• Public responsibility• The universal• Objective science• External reality• God and nature as a

“clockwork” mechanism

Romantic Thinkers Valued:• Emotion and feelings• Nature and solitude• Private reflection• The personal• Subjective perception• Introspection• The natural world as a

source of mystery and personal enlightenment

Romantic Writers

• James Fenimore Cooper– The Leatherstocking Tales

• Washington Irving– “The Devil and Tom Walker”– “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”

• Walt Whitman– “Song of Myself”

Transcendentalists

• Transcendental Club• 1830s• Founded by Ralph Waldo Emerson• New England• Emphasized perfectibility of man, role of

natural world

Your favorite Transcendentalists

• Ralph Waldo Emerson

• Henry David Thoreau

Dark Romantics

• Some writers believed that Romantics were too optimistic about human nature

• They felt that people were flawed and self-serving

• They insisted that societies needed traditions and institutions to control the dark side of human nature

Dark Romantics

• Nathaniel Hawthorne– Interested in Puritan past; possibly related to

Judge Hathorne of Salem infamy– The Scarlet Letter, “Young Goodman Brown,” “The

Minister’s Black Veil,” and others• Herman Melville– Moby Dick

• Edgar Allan Poe– We’ll talk about him later in detail

Emily Dickinson

• That isn’t a question• Dickinson wrote poetry in her home• She lived in Amherst, Mass, right near where

the Transcendentalists were living and writing• However, she wasn’t really a member of any

particular group of poets• Only seven of nearly 1300 poems were

published in her lifetime

Emily Dickinson

• Puritan vestiges into 19th century• Power of language• Moral and social inwardness

Effects on today

• Revolt against genre• Rejection of society• Importance of the individual• Civil disobedience• Development of American culture