The Romantic Movement

Classicism = reason (order / balance) and social concerns over personal focus:

the Romantics stressed the individual, imagination, and emotions

Romantic Movement

Born in Europe in the 18th century as a response to neoclassicism

In the U.S. in the 19th century (1800’s)

American Literature – wanted to break away from European style – create American style

Classicism (Age of Reason)

Definition:

Believed that reason is the dominating characteristic of both nature and human nature, and both are governed by fixed, unchanging laws

Classicism

18th C (1700’s)

Nature= a self-contained machine, whose laws could be rationally understood

Valued clarity, order, balance

Imagination had to be restrained by reason and common sense

Classicism

Upheld tradition

Resisted change

Human limitations

Reason over Imagination

Social over Personal all emphasized

Common over Individual by Romanticism

Romanticism

Definition:

Emphasized the emotions, an individual, intuition

Move beyond the limits of reason: explore imagination and the supernatural

Romanticism

1800 – 1830

Imagination gives expression to that which marks each person’s unique being

All art is the imaginative expression of the inner essence of the individual/claim for individual freedom.

Romantic writers tried to express their own intuitive experiences.

Common Romantic Subjects

Nature

The Past

Inner World of Human Nature

Topics: Settlers, Native Americans, madness, sin, and guilt (gothic)

Nature

Emphasized beauty, strangeness, mystery of (not rational laws)

Saw as an organic process, constantly developing and changing

Connection between human imagination and the natural world

The Past

Later Romantic poets used dramatic incidents from early American history

Inner World of Human Nature

The exploration and expression of the writer’s most private inner being.

Belief that this interior world of intense feeling is not ruled by reason.

Interested in the irrational depths of human nature.

A Quick Comparison

Age of Reason Romanticism

Reason Imagination

Social (society) Personal

Common Individual freedom

Common sense Intuition

Tradition Social reforms, spiritual growth (change)

Rational law of nature Nature as mystery

Human limitations Supernatural

Six Primary Elements of Romance

Love of Nature (looked to nature for inspiration)

Focus on the self and individual

Supernatural and Gothic tales – the irrational side of the imagination

Romanticized the past (picturesque and exotic past – wrote about past times and places)

Idealism and Optimism

Nationalism

Preview – the Devil and Tom Walker

The German legend of Faust is the origin for stories that include deals with the Devil.

Generally, what happens in stories that involve a character making a deal with the Devil?