The Romantic Period (1800-1870)

AMERICAN RENAISSANCE

1803 Louisiana Purchase—westward expansionTransportation—canals, turnpikes, railroads,

steamboatsGold Rush of 1849Advancement in Technology—factories, steel

plow and reaper, telegraphCompetition for wealthIncrease in democratic

principlesPROGRESS!

The American Scene

Romanticism is the name for the literary period that follows the Age of Reason (The Revolutionary Period) in America that emphasizes creativity, imagination, and emotion

What Romanticism IS

Increasing emphasis on individualNationalism on the riseMood of OptimismIntellectual curiosityReligious spiritDesire to escape the routineIncrease in population and

immigration

Characteristics of Romanticism

Characteristics of RomanticismValue feeling over

reasonPower of the

imaginationShun artificiality of

civilization

Seeks unspoiled NATURE!!!

Interest in unusual and mysterious

Contemplates nature’s beauty as path to spiritual and moral development

Winds of ChangeChild labor and unsafe conditionsWomen’s right’sNative American removal—1838 “Trail of

Tears”War with MexicoSlavery

NovelsPoetryEssays

and……SHORT STORIES!!!!!!!!!!

Types of Writing

Washington Irving: American mythology (folklore)—setting in American landscape

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau: sublimity of nature and personal connectionWalt Whitman: merged his all

encompassing self with the nationEmily Dickinson: explored universal

qualities of landscape

American Masters

Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville: Dark side of the wilderness

Known as anti-transcendentalistsExplored conflicts between good and evil,

psychological effects of guilt and sin, and madness!

American Gothic

Quest for beautyNATURE!

Source of knowledgeRefugeRevelation of GOD to the individual

Subject Matter

Remoteness of setting—time and place

Improbable plotsUnlikely or inadequate

characterizationHarmful morality—world of lies!

Techniques