[PDF] American Romanticism - AFSA High School

7903_1PRESENTATION_Romanticismfornotes.pdf

American Romanticism

Periods in American Literature yPre-19th century

yPre-settlement (before 1620) Native American literature yPuritanism (1620s Ȃ mid-1700s)

yEnlightenment, also known as The Age of Reason (second half of the 18th century; 1750s-early 1800s)

yRomanticism (1820s-1861) yRealism (1860s-1920s) yModernism (1914-1945) yPost-World War II (1945- )

What We͛ll Learn

yWhen American Romanticism flourished yCharacteristics of the American Romantic period ySome American Romantic authors yA bit about Transcendentalism and Dark Romanticism

Romanticism/Renaissance

ySome call the Romantic period the Renaissance yDz- was a Renaissance in the sense of a flowering, excitement over human possibilities, and a high regard for individual ego. It was definitely and even defiantly American, as these writers struggled to understand what ǮA‡"‹...ƒǯ could possibly mean, especially in terms of a literature which was distinctively A‡"‹...ƒǥdz (Ann Woodlief, Virginia Commonwealth University)

Why American Romanticism?

yAmerican Romanticism was a reaction to the aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of

Reason

yIt also was a response against the scientific rationalization of nature yThe pendulum swings the other way yCoincided with national expansion and the discovery of a distinctive American voice

Romantic Period Timeframes

yPrimarily from 1820-1865 ySome put its start to late 1700s yGlory years were 1850-1855

Reading Break

yTake out a sheet of paper. Turn it sideways and make three columns.

y2‡ƒ† "ƒ†•-"‡‡-ǯ• Dz4‘ › ‡ƒ" ƒ† ‘˜‹‰ —•"ƒ†Ǥdz

y‹•- -Š"‡‡ ...Šƒ"ƒ...-‡"‹•-‹...• ‘ˆ -Š‹• 0—"‹-ƒ ™‘" ȋDz‹- ‹• ƒ "‘‡dz

does not count). Think about tone, language, style, etc.

y7Šƒ- †‘‡• •Š‡ •ƒ› •Š‡ ˜ƒŽ—‡• Š‡" Š—•"ƒ†ǯ• Ž‘˜‡ ‘"‡ -Šƒǫ

y7Šƒ- ‹• •Š‡ •ƒ›‹‰ ‹ Ž‹‡• ͝͝ ƒ† ͝͞ǫ ȋ0—- ‹- ‹ -‘†ƒ›ǯ• ™‘"†•Ȍ

y

‘ -‘ "ƒ‰‡ ͤ" ‹ -‡š-Ǥ 2‡ƒ† DzA ‡--‡"dz "› "ƒŽ‹Ǥ

yList at least three characteristics of this Enlightenment work. yGo to page 139-140 in text. Read To a Waterfowl by William

Cullen Bryant.

yList at least three characteristics of this Romantic work.

Bradstreet Bryant Franklini

Outside Influences on Authors

yThe frontier and its promises for expansion, growth and freedom yThis led to a spirit of optimism yImmigration yNew cultures and perspectives yIndustry starts to grow in the northern states while the southern states remain agrarian yThe end of Romanticism coincides with the Civil War and the beginning of Realism

American Romantic Characteristics

yFormal language yEmotional: lots of metaphors! yLove solitude and nature, which were written about emotionally yTried to find a connection with the new and the spontaneous in nature and in self yHad a lot of creative energy and power

y4Š‡ DzB‘"Ž‡ 3ƒ˜ƒ‰‡dz ƒ""‡ƒ"•ǡ ƒ• †‘ C—-...ƒ•-•

y ƒ‡• ‡‹‘"‡ ‘‘"‡"ǯ• Deerslayer and

Last of the Mohicans, part of the

Natty Bumpo (Leatherstocking) tales

American Romantic Characteristics

yIdealism

yWriters rejected rationalism because they believed that scientific reasoning discouraged intuition and spontaneity

yExamines human frailty, weakness, limitation yExamined the self yStories of pilgrimages or journeys yBest characterized as leaving civilization and entering the world of nature

yNovelists particularly were inspired by wilderness, westward expansion, and the rise of a nationalist spirit

American Romantic Characteristics

yPlots demonstrate: romantic love, honor and integrity, idealism of the self ySome very non-romantic problems enter literature: yWar ySlavery yMaterialism yInterest in the supernatural yLots of metaphors

Reading/Listening Break

y‹•-‡ ƒ† "‡ƒ† -Š‡ ‘"‡‹‰ ‘ˆ Dz4Š‡ ƒ•- ‘ˆ -Š‡

‘Š‹...ƒ•dz "› ƒ‡• ‡‹‘"‡ ‘‘"‡" yOn the handout of what you just read/listened to,

‡†‹-Ȁ"‡™"‹-‡ ‘‘"‡"ǯ• ˆ‹"•- "ƒ"ƒ‰"ƒ"Š -‘ ...—- ‘—- ‘"

change all the unnecessary and overly emotional language. Follow the directions. yDo the first sentence now. yWhat do you have left? yTurn in your edited paragraph tomorrow.

Reading Break: Dickenson

yHope is the Thing with

Feathers

yHope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune without the words,

And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little bird

That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land

And on the strangest sea;

Yet, never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.

yI'm Nobody! Who are you? yI'm Nobody! Who are you?

Are you Ȃ Nobody Ȃ too?

Then there's a pair of us!

Don't tell! they'd advertise Ȃ you

know!

How dreary Ȃ to be Ȃ Somebody!

How public Ȃ like a Frog Ȃ

To tell one's name Ȃ the livelong

June Ȃ

To an admiring Bog!

American Romantic Heroes

yHeroes in American Romantic literature tended to be: yChildlike yInnocent yDistrustful of women yFond of nature yIn search of a higher truth

Reading Break

y4—" -‘ "ƒ‰‡ ͝͞͡ ƒ† "‡ƒ† Dz2‹" 6ƒ 7‹Ž‡Ǥdz

yAnswer the following: y1. How does RVW illustrate the following: yChildlike yStory of a journey yIdealism yInterest in the supernatural yDistrust of women yIn search of a higher truth ySupernatural

Romanticism Sub Genres

ySlave narratives yProtest; struggle for identity, self-realization yDomestic ySentimental; social visits; women as secondary to men yComing of age novels yTranscendentalism yDark romanticism

Transcendentalism

yDescription: An American literary, political, and philosophical movement of the early 1800s, centered around Ralph Waldo Emerson yCritical of society for its unthinking conformity yUrged that each person find, in Emerson's words,

Dzƒ ‘"‹‰‹ƒŽ "‡Žƒ-‹‘ -‘ -Š‡