11 Honors English

Semester 1 Review

Timeline

The Puritans: escaping the Old World

Timeline

Romanticism 1800-1830

Timeline

Romantic Writing

The Gothics

The past as a model for decay,

further turmoil

Dark side of human emotion

Chaos of the human mind relative to

the order of reason

Edgar Allan PoeThe Raven, 1845• Alliteration• Refrain• Fear of supernatural• Longing, loss

The Fall of the House of Usher, 1839

• Paranoia of family legacy of mental illness

• Decay of buildings• Guilt• Fear of illness• Fear of the past

recurring

Modern Gothic

William Faulkner“A Rose for Emily”, 1930

• Gothic architecture• Sexuality• Family legacy• Antiquated lifestyle• Southern prejudices

Joyce Carol Oates“Secret Observations of the

Goat Girl”, 1988

• Family issues• Malformation?• Fascination with the

grotesque

American Renaissance1840-1860

• Expanding nation brought technology, trains, telegraphs

• Hard work being replaced by machine

• Concern over people not having time to reach full potential led to Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism:• Reject decay of society• Focus on individual potential• Reject Rationalism; truths of

universe lie beyond our senses• Life is organic, mimics nature• Ability to experience God firsthand• We are in God, God is in us• Search for enlightenment

Transcendentalists

• Began in Concord, MA• Gathering of friends,

like-minded people that focused on education and enlightenment

• Lectured in lyceums• Published The Dial

Oversoul: the common heart; supreme underlying unity which transcends the plurality of nature and man. The individual soul is accessed by transcending the mind, reason.

TranscendentalistsRalph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882• Published Nature, first major piece• Lectured, published in Concord & elsewhere• Mentor to Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau• Many essays including Walden, story of his “social experiment”• “Civil Disobedience”• Criticized as lazy, idle• Lived out Emerson’s theories

Emily Dickinson, 1830-1886• Published poetry posthumously• Associated with Emerson• Focused on nature, solitude, the soul

The Anti-TranscendentalistsNathaniel Hawthorne, 1804-1864Herman Melville, 1819-1891Both famous for fiction in American Renaissance

• Both saw radical contradictions not accounted for in transcendentalist thinking; they viewed life less optimistically; focused on the gap between human desire and human possibility

• In exploring the human spirit they sought a more clear sense of American actuality, or “usable truth” (Melville)

• Usable Truth: “the absolute condition of present things as they strike the eye of the man who fears them not.”