The isms Classicism An approach to literature and

The –isms!

Classicism • An approach to literature and the other arts that stresses reason, balance, clarity, ideal beauty, and orderly form in imitation of the arts of ancient Greece and Rome

Romanticism • A literary and artistic movement of the nineteenth century that arose in reaction against eighteenth century Classicism and placed a premium on imagination, emotion, nature, and individuality.

Romanticism- Early to mid 1800 s Stressed the importance of the individual Focused on imagination Relied on emotion, rather than logic

Romanticism Had an optimistic outlook on life The “Natural World” was glorified

Famous Romantic Authors • Washington Irving • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • James Fenimore Cooper

Romanticism’s two offshoots • Transcendentalism • Anti-Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism- Mid to late 1800 s “Transcendent forms” of truth exist beyond reason and experience Intuition should be used to gain higher truth Optimistic offshoot of Romanticism Communing with nature helped form an intuitive connection with the universe; the Universal Oversoul Non-conformists

Famous Transcendental Authors • Ralph Waldo Emerson • Henry David Thoreau

Famous Emerson Quotes • We have no experience of a Creator, therefore we know of none • Why should we not have a poetry and philosophy of insight, and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs • Speak what you think now in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you said today • Good men must not obey the laws too well • To be great is to be misunderstood • Imitation is suicide

Anti-Transcendentalism- Mid to late 1800 s Dark side of individualism Focus on the demonic, fantastic, insane Pessimistic offshoot of Romanticism- Reaction to Transcendentalism Pessimistic view of humans; saw the potential for evil Essential truths found in extreme situations or the darker side of human nature (greed, betrayal, fear)

Nature • Transcendentalists saw nothing but good in nature; anti-transcendentalists were very different • Nature is vast and incomprehensible, a reflection of the struggle between good and evil • Nature is the creation and possession of God and it cannot be understood by human beings

Literary Works Allegory Symbolism • Prose- Short stories and novels • Allegories • A work of literature in which events, characters, and details of a setting have a symbolic meaning • Ex. A character representing one trait of mankind, like guilt • A symbol is a person, place, or thing that has a meaning in itself and also represents something larger than it. • Ex. Moby Dick is massive and threatening, but also beautiful and inspiring, just like nature

Writing Style • • Man vs. Nature brings out the evil in humanity Raw, morbid diction Focus on the protagonist’s inner struggles Typical protagonists are haunted outsiders who are alienated from society

Famous Anti-Transcendental Authors • Herman Melville • Edgar Allen Poe • Nathaniel Hawthorne

Realism • The presentation in art of the details of actual life. A literary movement that began during the nineteenth century and stressed the actual as opposed to the imagined or the fanciful. Realists attempted to write objectively about ordinary characters in ordinary situations. Authors included Mark Twain, W. E. B. Du. Bois, and Kate Chopin.

Naturalism • A literary movement among novelists at the end of the nineteenth century and during the early decades of the twentieth century. The Naturalists tended to view people as hapless victims of immutable natural laws. Stephen Crane, Jack London, and Theodore Dreiser were Naturalists.