ROMANTICISM

TIME PERIOD

• Know as the American Renaissance
• Between 1820's- 1870's
• American culture with British influences
• Most incredible masterpieces were...
• Emerson's Representative Men

AUTHORS

• Hawthore's The Scarelett letter and The House of Seven Gables
• Melville's Moby Dick and Pierre
• Whittmens Leaves of Grass

WHAT IS ROMANTISM?

• a movement in the arts and literature
• originated in the late 18th century
• emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual

CONDITIONS THAT INFLUENCED ROMANTICISM

• Search for new spiritual roots
• Growth of industry in the north
• Immigration brought new cultures and perspectives
• Frontier promised opportunity for expansion, growth, freedom

PRINCIPLES OF ROMANTICISM

• Belief in natural goodness of man
• that man in a state of nature would behave well but is hindered by civilization
• Sincerity, spontaneity, and faith in emotion as markers of truth.
• Belief that what is special in a man is to be valued over what is representative; delight in self-analysis.
• Affirmation of the values of democracy and the freedom of the individual. (Jacksonian Democracy)

PRINCIPLES CON.

• Aspiration after the sublime and the wonderful, that which transcends mundane limits.
• The grotesque, the picturesque, and the beautiful all valued above the Neoclassical principles
• Interest in the “antique”: medieval tales and forms, ballads, Norse and Celtic mythology; the Gothic.
• Belief in organicism rather than Neoclassical rules; development of a unique form in each work.

http://youtu.be/KAA0d1lmz-M

MLA CITATION

• Harvey, Bruce. " AMERICAN ROMANTICISM OVERVIEW."
• AMERICAN ROMANTICISM OVERVIEW. Dr. Brad Strickland, n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2013.
• "Intro to American Romanticism." Intro to American Romanticism. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2013.