Romanticism

Love Stories??

Ewwwww!!!!

Prior to Romanticism All Puritan writing focused on religion They wrote to achieve spiritual insight and self-

examination They wrote:

Theological studies Hymns Histories Biographies and Autobiographies

Prior Romanticism Writing focused on politics and was mainly

persuasive Revolutionary writing consisted mainly of

newspapers magazines almanacs government documents

What’s Missing???

What is Romanticism? Romanticism IS NOT a collection of love

stories. Romanticism IS an artistic movement that

dominated Europe and America during the 19th century.

What was it? Anti Age of Reason

(Revolutionary Period) -Fewer instructional texts, increase in novels, short story, and poetry.

Revolt against Industrial Revolution I.R.=overcrowding in cities. People wanted to

escape to nature (Escapism)

What was it? Also, America was still young. The American people wanted to create their

own identity

What Contributed to Romanticism? Independence from England

New government “of, by, and for the people” National Expansion

We gained territories out west, and people began to explore “new frontier”

Economic Growth Transportation across the nation opened up trade

Industrialism Factory mass production, steel plow and reaper, telegraph

What’s common among all these? Change. And change can cause fear of the unknown.

Characteristics Imagination and Escapism

Imagination gateway to truth

Individuality

Nature is a form of Spirituality

Looking to the past for wisdom

Common Man= Hero

Final Characteristics Obsessive interest in

folk culture, national and ethnic cultural origins, and the medieval era.

Loved the exotic, the remote, the mysterious, the weird, the occult, the monstrous, the diseased, and even the satanic.

Themes

-Valued feeling and intuition over reason-Equality and Individualism-Nature of good and evil-Nature as symbol of the Divine-Dignity of the common man-Primitivism

Primitivism a belief in the value of what is simple and

unsophisticated, expressed as a philosophy of life or through art or literature.

Famous Authors- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

1807-1882 1 of the famous Fireside

Poets Wrote “Paul Revere’s

Ride” Wrote “Song of Hiawatha” Wrote “Tide Rises, Tide

Falls”

1783-1859 Wrote the book Rip Van

Winkle Wrote the short story

“Legend of Sleepy Hollow”

Wrote the short story “The Devil and Tom Walker”

Famous Authors- Washington Irving

Famous Authors- Edgar A. Poe

1809-1849 The Raven

UsherAloneLenoreAnnabelle Lee

Cask of Amontillado Fall of the House of Usher

Pit and the Pendulum

Famous Authors- Nathanial Hawthorne

1804-1864 From Salem Related to Judge

Hawthorne Wrote House of 7 Gables Wrote The Scarlet Letter Wrote short story

“Minister’s Black Veil”

Novels Showed the common man could be a hero Universe is uncomprehensible Foreshadowing using dreams or visions Plots demonstrate romantic love, honor and

idealism of self

As you study this unit, you will be asked to think about three key question:

What is the relationship between place and literature?

How does literature shape or reflect society?

What makes American literature American?

What is the relationship between place and literature?

The greatest American writers were all profoundly involved in the American Landscape.

Authors like Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthonre, and Herman Melville saw the dark side of the wilderness.

What is the relationship between place and literature?

Writers such as Washington Irving, and Henry Wordsworth Longfellow helped to create an American mythology by setting their stories in areas in American landscapes

How does literature shape or reflect society?

What social forces shaped America during the period?

Technology- Bigger, better, stronger, fastereverything in America was on the "Fast Track"

What makes American literature American?

Most Americans came from the English colonists and spoke English.Gradually the "American" way of speaking and took on many interesting features.

Americans began to have many Dialects. Becoming a mixture of French,Spanish, Dutch, English and Native American depending on where you lived.

What makes American literature American?

Americans began to coin their own terms. Colloquial-American English is more colloquial orinformal than British English.

What makes American literature American?

British thought Americans were ruiningthe language.

"Barbaric Yawp"- During this movement, American writers found their own voices.

What makes American literature American?

Each of them contributing to the American style. But no one sounded quite like Walt WhitmanHis style was plain and elegant at the same time.

Whitman's sound wasthe American sound.