ROMANTICISMTRANSCENDENTALISM

AND REALISM/REGIONALISM

Romanticism

1800-1860

Genres and Style of Romanticism Character sketches Slave narratives Poetry Short stories

Effects and Aspects of Romanticism Value feeling and intuition over

reasoning Journey away from corruption of

civilization and limits of rational thought toward the integrity of nature and freedom of the imagination

Historical Context

Expansion of magazines, newspapers, and book publishing

Slavery debates Industrial revolution brings ideas that the

old ways of doing things are now irrelevant

Authors and Titles

Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” Dunbar’s “We Wear the Masks” Emily Dickinson Walt Whitman

American Renaissance/Transcendentalism

1840 – 1860

Note the overlap in time period with Romanticism. Some consider the transcendentalists to be the dark romantics or gothics

Genres and Style of Am. Renaissance/Transcendentalism

Poetry Novels Anti-transcendentalists Holds readers’ attention through dread

of a series of terrible possibilities Feature landscapes of dark forests,

extreme vegetation, concealed ruins with horrific rooms, depressed characters

Effects and Aspects of Transcendentalists True reality is spiritual Comes from the 18th century philosopher

of Immanuel Kant Idealists Self reliance and individualism Emerson and Thoreau

Effects and Aspects of Anti-Transcendentalism Used symbolism to great effect Sin, pain, and evil exist Hawthorne, Poe, and Melville

Historical Context

Portrayal of alluring antagonists whose evil characteristics appeal to one’s sense of awe

Stories of the persecuted young girl forced apart from her true love

People seeking beauty in life and in nature, a belief in true love and contentment

Authors and Titles

Poems, aphorisms, and essays of Thoreau and Emerson

Edgar Allen Poe Nathaniel Hawthorne*

Realism and Regionalism

1855 – 1900 Civil War period and post Civil War

Styles and Genres

Novels and short stories Objective narrator Does not tell reader how to interpret the

story Voices from around the country Local color stories

Effects and Affects

Social realism seeks to change a social problem

Aesthetic realism: art that insists on detailing the world as one sees it

Historical Context

Civil War brings demand for a truer type of literature that does not idealize people or places

Authors and Titles

Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (some say it is the first American novel)

Ambrose Bierce Stephen Crane The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass Jack London