STUDY GUIDE AMERICAN LIT ROMANTIC PERIOD 1830-1860

TRANSCENDENTALISM 1830-1850

ROMANTICISM Overview

Not “romance” as in love or courting or flirting, etc.

In America, about 1830 to the Civil War (early 1860s) – in Europe earlier and longer

Also, in America most often expressed through novels/stories—in Europe, poetry

Still an influential theory/philosophy today--that’s why it is still studied

No set of hard and fast rules that ID a work of art as “Romantic.” More of a general feeling-so, in a sense, most works can be considered “romantic” in nature

BUT, the one characteristic that must drive the work is the primacy of IMAGINATION

·  the imagination trumps all other human faculties

·  the imagination is the best way to encounter life/humanity

·  the imagination can lead to perfect understanding or even to creating perfection itself

Romanticism values the individual over society and nature over industry

Inseparable from TRANSCENDENTALISM

Two of its most significant attributes are:

1. NATURE is a whole, unified, perfected system that man should and can meld with, become part of.

2. Use of symbols and symbolism

WASHINGTON IRVING

First Truly American author

First American author who was admired and read in Europe

First American author to make a living off his writing

Took German folk tales and made them authentically American

Responsible for how we imagine Santa Claus in the U.S.

EDGAR ALLEN POE

Father of the detective story

One of 1st masters of the short story—not thought of as a separate work of art before this time

His whole life can be defined by death, depression, loss—not surprising his work is full of such haunting/dark/terrifying images

Never had any real or lasting or financial success during his lifetime

He is considered a Romantic author due to his insistence on imagination and individual responsibility-his characters not driven to act by society

TRANSCENDENTALISM

Some consider it the most influential literary/philosophical movement in American history-keeps popping up at historic times (Green movement-nonviolent protest)

Just like Romanticism, it is hard to define-depends on the principles of the specific writer—it is considered a subset of Romanticism because of the time it flourished and the importance of imagination to its practitioners

Easier to recognize than explain

And in practical terms, it is a blip on the timeline-lasting only about twenty years (1830s-1850s) and producing only two major books: Nature and Walden

KEY CONCEPTS

The individual is at the center of the universe-no institution was as powerful as the individual

The most vital aspect of life is the understanding a person gains INTUITIVELY because it lies beyond direct experience

Real truth(s) lie outside of the sensory experience but instead reside in an OVER-SOUL: a universal spirit

Ralph Waldo Emerson-troubled by the diminishing importance of the Individual with the advancing Industrial Rev. and religions

·  noted lecturer whose speeches were then turned into essays

·  particularly popular and influential with youth (H. D. Thoreau)

·  comes to believe that “the individual is the world”- the mind of man is powerful enough to unlock all the mysteries of the universe

·  Radical thought in an age that was giving more and more authority to government, industry, religion, education

·  every soul and all of nature (see the connection) belongs to an OVER-SOUL, a universal spirit-or every living thing was a part of the mind of God

Publishes Nature, which becomes the defacto Transcendentalist statement of belief or manifesto: intuition, individuality, and self-reliance

Henry David Thoreau-like the others, fierce abolitionist

·  Most famous follower of Emerson

·  will write Walden and “Civil Disobedience” (Ghandi-MLK)

·  moves in with Emerson and decides to try to live the precepts/philosophy of Transcendentalism (Emerson had no desire to do this)

EMILY DICKINSON

·  Wrote almost 1800 poems but only a few were ever published in her lifetime-she didn’t write them for others to read them

·  Lives the last third of her life as a recluse in her Mass. home

·  Many of the works are UNTITLED but have become known by their first lines

·  Her sister discovers her trove of poems after her death and ignores Emily’s wish they be burned

·  Family and friends organize the poems and begin to have them published but still not in their original form

·  Editors and publishers were always trying to “fix” her poems-her odd punctuation, capitalization, and syntax were thought to be problems or evidence of lack of education

·  We know that she wrote this way on purpose

·  Only in 1955 were her poems published the way she wrote them

·  Now recognized as a pioneer of “Modern” poetry

·  Eccentric, reclusive

·  Many poems deal with Solitude-both positive and negative aspects