ROMANTICISM

• 1800’s (1830ish-1860ish) • Art, literature and music• Not “romantic”• The natural world was inherently good, but societywas corrupt• Romantic literature was personal,intense, and emotional• Major theme – the quest of the

individual to define himself

ROMANTICISM

The predominance of imagination

over reason and formal rules

Human experience Love of nature

An interest in the past

Mysticism

IndividualismIdealization of

rural life Enthusiasm for the

wild, irregular, or grotesque in

nature Enthusiasm for the

uncivilized or “natural”

CHARACTERISTICS

Imagination is more important than reason or

logic

IMAGINATION:

Romantics valued feelings and instincts

over reason/logic

INTUITION:

TheoryThe spirit, the mind and

language make the world the way it is

Think of the movie “Inception”

IDEALISM:

Emphasized being spontaneous instead of

planningSpur of the moment/ inspired

INSPIRATION:

Celebrated the individualStart of women’s rights and

abolitionismPeople’s destinies are not

preordained – more personal and individual relationship with God

“Song of Myself” “I Celebrate Myself”

INDIVIDUALITY:

• America’s first great creative period – people outside of America began to take interest

• Became the “American voice”• In response to the rules of the neoclassical

period• Authors: Hawthorne, Melville, Stowe, Irving,

Poe, Dickinson, Longfellow• Works: The Scarlett Letter, Moby Dick, Tell-Tale

Heart, The Last of the Mohicans

MORE ABOUT ROMANTICISM

The Romantic Era segued into Transcendentalism

SEGUE TO TRANSCENDENTALISM

Used ideas of Romanticism Had a “dark side”

MysteriousMacabre (Ghosts, death, morbid)

GOTHIC ROMANTICISM