Historical Context. Reaction to Rationalism 9/22/2015 AMERICAN ROMANTICISM & RENAISSANCE

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1 AMERICAN ROMANTICISM & RENAISSANCE We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds. -Ralph Waldo Emerson O Nature! I do not aspire To be the highest in thy choir, - To be a meteor in thy sky, Or comet that may range on high; Only a zephyr that may blow Among the reeds by the river low; Give me thy most privy place Where to run my airy race. In some withdrawn, unpublic mead Let me sigh upon a reed, Or in the woods, with leafy din, Whisper the still evening in: Some still work give me to do, - Only - be it near to you! For I'd rather be thy child And pupil, in the forest wild, Than be the king of men elsewhere, And most sovereign slave of care; To have one moment of thy dawn, Than share the city's year forlorn. Historical Context Reaction to Rationalism The Louisiana Purchase 1803 Slave states/free states War of 1812 Defeat of the English in the Second War with England Andrew Jackson Common Man as a hero Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo 1848 Population Expansion 4 million (1790) to 30 million (1860) Attempts at Reform Education Temperance Women s Rights Anti-slavery The Romantics were born from a reaction to the rule-following of Rationalism Step-by-step, systematic approach to life is limiting If those of the Revolutionary period had followed the rules, then where would we have been as Americans? Romantics James Fenimore Cooper Washington Irving Fireside Poets William Cullen Bryant Lowell Holmes Longfellow Whittier 1

2 Rationalism vs Romanticism Transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson Henry David Thoreau Dark Romantics or Anti-Transcendentalists Nathaniel Hawthorne Edgar Allan Poe Herman Melville The rationalists believed the city to be a place to find success and self-realization The Romantics associated the countryside with independence, moral clarity, and healthful living. Characteristics of American Romanticism Characteristics Champions individual freedom and the worth of the individual 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 Contemplates nature s beauty as a path to spiritual and moral development God made nature; therefore to be in nature is to be closer to God Looks backward to the wisdom of the past and is skeptical of progress Finds beauty and truth in the world beyond the rational the supernatural and the imagination Sees poetry as the highest expression of the imagination Finds inspiration in myth, legend, and folklore Prefers youthful innocence to educated sophistication Rising to higher truths Noble Savage through the exploration of the past and of exotic, even supernatural, realms the Gothic novel, which incorporates old legends and folklore through the contemplation of the natural world, and its underlying beauty and truth lyric poetry a primitive creature (often living in nature) free from the structure of life (civilization, law) therefore, they are innocent. this makes them innocent, natural men. In American frontier writing (Cooper), the natives live by their own moral code. Europeans (Americans) live without a strong sense of morality, and act arguably more savage than the natives. This comparison is used to criticize the beliefs and laws of the European culture. 2

3 Romantic Hero rejects established norms and conventions (even conventional morality) is often rejected by society and viewed as rebellious and arrogant relies on his intuition as opposed to reason in decision-making and is often self-centered in his focus. is drawn to nature The Fireside Poets They worked within European literary traditions themes, meter, and rhyme with American settings and subjects Easily memorized by both adults and children, which added to their popularity First poets to be as popular as English poets Occasionally addressed social issues of the time, such as abolition TRANSCENDENTALISM Emerson and Thoreau To determine the ultimate reality of God, the universe, the self, and other important matters, one must transcend, or go beyond, everyday human experience in the physical world and rely on our inner self Society and its institutions particularly organized religion and political parties ultimately corrupt the purity of the individual. Based on intuition Optimistic about both people and nature their inherent goodness Ralph Waldo Emerson Emerson Born in 1803 Attended Harvard University and Harvard Divinity School, became a pastor in 1829 Married in 1829 His wife died in 1832, and he resigned his job as a pastor Traveled in Europe, where he met leading Romantic writers, and returned home to begin lecturing on spiritualism and ethical living Returned to Massachusetts, where he began to develop his philosophy through discussion with other writers, such as Thoreau, who he considered his best friend. In 1836 published Nature, which highlighted his Transcendentalist philosophy He lectured, wrote, and traveled for the next 30+ years. He died of pneumonia in

4 Henry David Thoreau Thoreau Born in 1817 Wrote that his first memory was sneaking out of bed at night and looking through the stars to see if [he] could see God behind them. Attended Harvard University, but legend has it that he didn t officially graduate because he would not pay the $5 graduation fee. While at Harvard, he met and began a friendship with Emerson. In 1845 he wanted to write his first book, and he went to live at Walden Pond on some land that Emerson owned He wrote and lectured for years after his time at Walden His writings are credited with long-lasting effects, including the basic ideals of ecology/ environmentalism and the passive resistance of the Civil Rights Movement He died of tuberculosis in 1862 Before Intuition There are/were Truths about the world, the Divine (God), and the mind BUT Truth only existed outside of the mind Truth could only be learned through experience and reason a process that gives us the ability to know something directly without analytic reasoning a thing that one knows or considers likely from instinctive feeling rather than conscious reasoning the creative insight and interpretation of one's own inner voice Truth lies within each individual and could be discovered through intuition Emerson, said in The Transcendentalist (1842) that was Idealism as it appears in Idealism basically meant turning away from materialism and the industrial/organizational facets and focusing on mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of the world Reject old teachings, beliefs, and ideas because they had led to war and oppression Arrive at one s own knowledge of truth Even Emerson and Thoreau advocated others finding their own ways instead of imitating their teachings The individual s soul is identical with the world; therefore, to understand the self is to understand the world. Follow one s own instincts and do not conform to society 4

5 Did not value organized religion Each has the Divine inside us We don t need others (ministers) to approach God Believed all things are knowable Rejected external authority Believed that freeing oneself from encouragement and positive feedback from others was key to determining one s own divinity What is American about? Individually-focused Rejected foreign and previous philosophies Think American Dream The Realm of Darkness Origins of Gothic Literature Edgar Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Herman Melville were known as anti-transcendentalists A response to the perceived Utopian-like views of the transcendentalists. Man was capable of evil, and nature was destructive and indifferent. Their works explored the conflict between good and evil, psychological effects of guilt and sin, and madness and derangement in human psyche. the Gothic literary tradition comes in part from the Gothic architecture of the Middle Ages stems from the Romantic Movement and the reaction against rationalism; the imagination led to the threshold of the unknown the unknown was the region of shadows where the fantastic, the demonic, and the insane reside Gothic writers saw in the individual a potential for evil (as opposed to Emerson/Thoreau who thought that humans were essentially good) Characteristics of Traditional Gothic Literature 19th century s greatest poets Whitman and Dickinson The existence of a villain-hero as the main protagonist A complicated network of family connections, sometimes hidden, which produces one family member endangering the life of another The figure of a pure maiden in some ways endangered by evil forces Dark ruins, castles, or mansions that seem haunted by supernatural forces Spoke to the masses Universal brotherhood, democracy Obscure homebody In nature, found metaphors for the spirit Meticulous word choice and precise language 5