Understanding Literature through
Schools of Thought

SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT

• Inspiration
• Attitudes
• Interests
• Social Concerns

SOURCES OF INSPIRATION

ATTITUDES AND INTERESTS

SOCIAL CONCERNS

NEOCLASSICISM

• "There is but one way for the moderns to become great, and perhaps unequalled... by imitating the ancients."

NEOCLASSICISM

• 18th & 19th century
• Close ties to England
• Classics: Ancient Greek/Roman
• Order, Simplicity, Reason
• Detailed, Precise, Elegant
• Historical clues to greatness

SOURCES OF INSPIRATION

• Logic
• Symmetry
• Greek & Roman mythology and literature

ATTITUDES & INTERESTS

• Practical outlook
• Science & Tech
• Universal experiences
• Following tradition
• Optimistic about present
• Restraint & elegance

SOCIAL CONCERNS

• Social hierarchy
• Society as a whole
• Understand & control nature

Phillis Wheatley
"An Hymn to the Evening" & "To Captain H.D. of the 65th Regiment"

ROMANTICISM

ROMANTICISM

• Celebration of the individual
• Turn inward for a sense of truth
• Beauty of nature & the imagination

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

• Westward Expansion / Manifest Destiny
• Industrial Revolution

CULTURAL INFLUENCES

• Slavery & abolition
• Social reform: workers & women

SOURCES OF INSPIRATION

• Intuition
• Emotions
• Imagination
• Folklore &'Superstitions

ATTITUDES & INTERESTS

• Idealistic outlook
• Mysterious &'Supernatural
• Unique, individual experiences
• New forms of expression
• Romanticized the past
• Excess & Spontaneity

SOCIAL CONCENRS

• Desire for radical change
• In favor of democracy
• Concerned with common people & the individual
• Nature is mysterious, powerful, untamed

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

• "A Psalm of Life"
• "The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls"

Think About It...

• . What does it mean to be "spiritual"?
• When is it ok to believe something without evidence?
• Is following the crowd always a bad choice?

Transcendentalism

"Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." Ralph Waldo Emerson

dissatisfaction with society

• the treatment of Native Americans
• the war with Mexico
• the expansion of slavery

Sources of inspiration

• Intuition
• Emotions
• Imagination
• Nature

Attitudes & Interests

• Optimistic
• Spiritual & Natural
• Individualism & Confidence
• Simplicity - disapproved of material wealth

Social Concerns

• nonconformity
• self-reliance & free thought
• people are inherently good
• nature connects man & God