The Romantic Period

1800-1860

Write what is in RED!

• Romanticism: viewing life as we would like it to be rather than how it really is

• The Romantic Period began in Germany; it influenced music, art, and literature.

• The development of slums and poverty from the Industrial Revolution turned people away from Rationalism. Romanticism is the answer to Rationalism.

• Life’s “journey” was a declaration of independence

Rationalists VS Romantics

• Valued city life– • They wanted to find

success and self-realization

• valued reason

• saw the city as a place of poverty and death

• associated the country with independence and purity

• it was an escape and idyllic • valued feeling and intuition

Romantics believe in…

• Imagination • Emotion • Spontaneity • Feeling • Nature

Characteristics of Romanticism• Feelings vs. intuition• Power of imagination• Seeks the beauty of

unspoiled nature• Values youth and

innocence• Values individual freedom• Values lessons of the past

• Finds beauty in exotic places, supernatural, and imagination

• Believe poetry is the highest expression of the imagination

• Values myth, legend, and folk cultureculture

• Wanted to “become one” with the natural world

Gothic

• The Gothic novel emerged from Romanticism• Gothic literature contained – Wild haunted landscapes– Supernatural events– Mysterious– Edgar Allan Poe was the most famous Gothic

author

Poetry in the Romantic Period

• Focused on beauty of nature• Intent was the seek truth• Through contemplation of simple, natural

beauty

James Fenimore Cooper

• Known as the first American novelist