ENGLISH 11 AMERICAN LITERATURE American Romanticism 1800 1860
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ENGLISH 11 AMERICAN LITERATURE American Romanticism (1800 -1860)
WHAT CORRUPTS US? INNATELY CORRUPT- RELIGION SAVES Humans are born corrupt and in need of saving (Puritanical Ideal) INNATELY CORRUPT-LOGIC/REASON SAVES Humans are born corrupt, but can be saved through careful attention and development of reasoning and deep thinking to find truth. (Revolutionary Ideal) INNATELY INNOCENT- SOCIETY CORRUPTS Humans are born innocent, but society/civilization corrupts them by stripping them of their innocent roots. (Romantic Ideal)
HISTORICAL & CULTURAL CONTEXT • U. S. becomes its own country and grows as a global power. • Westward Expansion, Gold Rush, Louisiana Purchase • Slavery necessary for economic success by Southern plantation owners • Many advances in transportation (railroad, horseless carriage) and communications (telegraph)
VIEWS AND BELIEFS (TENETS) • Man is born innocent, but corrupted by society and civilization. • Man can be “saved” by returning to his natural state through the power of nature and the individual human mind. • Truth is no longer found in reason, but in trusting one’s emotions, spontaneity, and sincerity.
VIEWS AND BELIEFS (TENETS) CONT… • NATURE is the source of instruction, delight, and nourishment for the soul. • Life in nature VERSUS unnatural life in society • Strong beliefs in values of democracy and freedom (esp. of the individual) • Art moves toward highlighting the sublime, grotesque, and the beautiful with a touch of strangeness INSTEAD OF the order and proportion from the Age of Reason (Rev. ).
MOVEMENTS WITHIN ROMANTICISM • Romanticism- celebrates and shows off the power of the individual • Dark Romanticism (Gothic)- use of the supernatural and darker side of human emotion and the power • Transcendentalism- to achieve a higher understanding of truth and to get back to one’s roots through the power of nature and to rely on only one’s self.
MORE ABOUT TRANSCENDENTALISM • Many truths about human nature and the universe can be learned through nature. • The small things in nature contain the same perfection contained in all of nature. • Intuition (instinct) is more powerful than reasoning • Everything is connected by an inner “spark” that can be found or fired up.
MAJOR AUTHORS AND TEXTS • Washington Irving • “The Devil and Tom Walker” (Faustian Legend) • “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (Headless Horseman) • Walt Whitman/Emily Dickinson (poets) • Ralph Waldo Emerson/Henry David Thoreau • “Walden, ” “Self-Reliance, ” “Civil Disobedience” • Edgar Allan Poe
CHARACTERISTICS OF AMERICAN ROMANTICISM • Values feeling and intuition over reason • Places faith in inner experience and the power of the imagination • Shuns the artificiality of civilization and seeks unspoiled nature • Prefers youthful innocence to educated sophistication • Champions individual freedom and the worth of the individual • Contemplates nature’s beauty as a path to spiritual and moral development
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