The Romantic Period 1828-1865

The Romantic Period (1828-1865) 1828 – Andrew Jackson is elected President. 1865 – The Civil War ends. The limits of American unity were tested during this period, due to the rapid rate of westward expansion and, more importantly, the issue of slavery. During this turbulent time, the first truly American literature was produced, with significant works appearing in all areas except drama, thereby giving rise to the name American Renaissance. Romantics emphasize emotion the individual inspiration, imagination, and intuition the wild and natural over over intellect. society. over logic, discipline, and order. over the tamed. American romantic novelists and poets were heavily influenced by English romanticism and yet produced the first truly distinctive American works. The Fireside Poets Henry Wadsworth Longfellow John Greenleaf Whittier • • • Oliver Wendell Holmes James Russell Lowell The Fireside Poets gained their name from the popularity of their works, which were widely read as fireside entertainment and in the schoolroom, where generations of children memorized them. All four poets—all New England born and bred—chose uniquely American settings and subjects. Their themes, meter, and imagery, however, borrowed heavily from the English tradition. The Age of Transcendentalism • • The Romantic Period is often called the Age of Transcendentalism. Transcendentalism is most closely associated with the poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson. Tenets Important Figures Each individual is innately divine. Each individual has the ability to discover higher truths. Humans have near god-like powers in their creative imaginations. The natural goodness of the individual should be glorified. Self-reliance should be praised. Ralph Waldo Emerson Other notes pp. 384-385 Henry David Thoreau The Dial Margaret Fuller New England Amos Bronson Alcott The Gothic • • • Gothicism first developed in England during the late eighteenth century. It first appeared in American literature in the works of Early National writer Charles Brockden Brown. Gothic literature emphasizes horror, suspense, doom, mystery, passion, and the grotesque and supernatural. Edgar Allan Poe (obsession, madness, horror) Nathaniel Hawthorne (evil, guilt, moral despair) Herman Melville (philosophical quests, truths about human nature and the universe) Edgar Allan Poe pioneered detective fiction through works like “Murders in the Rue Morgue.” • Edgar Allan Poe is credited with being America’s first literary critic. • The “American Renaissance”: American Literature reaches its first significant maturity… • It is thought that the “American Renaissance” began with the works of Emerson in the 1830s and reached its height in the 1850s with Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter (1850) and The House of the Seven Gables (1851), Emerson’s Representative Men (1850), Melville’s Moby-Dick (1851) and Pierre (1852), Thoreau’s Walden (1854), and Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass (1855). Other Important Authors and Developments during the Romantic Period • • • • Emily Dickinson – Emily Dickinson packet Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) is not only credited as America’s first sociological novel, but it is also said to have instigated the Civil War by its depiction of slavery. Louisa May Alcott, who sold her first story in 1852 and published her first book in 1854, became worldfamous for her novel Little Women (1868). Slave narratives and autobiographies also increased in number and became increasingly popular in the North, even as they were banned in the South. Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845) and Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) are two of the most well-known examples of the slave narrative genre. “The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls” “Old Ironsides” from “Nature” from “Self-Reliance” from Walden from “Civil Disobedience” “The Raven” “The Cask of Amontillado” “America” from “Song of Myself” “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” “I Hear America Singing” “Success is counted sweetest” “Faith is a fine invention” “I know that He exists” “I never saw a Moor—” “Apparently with no surprise” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Oliver Wendell Holmes Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe Walt Whitman Walt Whitman Walt Whitman Walt Whitman Emily Dickinson Emily Dickinson Emily Dickinson Emily Dickinson Emily Dickinson 272; 275 272; 281 388; 390 393 402; 404; 407 416 310; 330 packet handout; notes 442 446 448 Emily Dickinson packet Emily Dickinson packet Emily Dickinson packet Emily Dickinson packet Emily Dickinson packet