Romanticism

ROmanticism

• Introduced in 1840's
• Describes a philosophical, literary, and artistic movement
• Late 18th century to mid 19th

Wordsworth
Shelley
Keats
Byron

Victor Hugo

Goethe and Hegel

Reason cannot Explain

Deeper Subconscious

Middle Ages - According to the Enlightment

• Dark Ages
• Ignorant
• Irrational

Middle Ages - To the Romantics

• Spiritual
• Depth
• Adventure

Leads to Gothic Revival

• in architecture 1830s
• then novels
• then art

Mary Shelly's
Frankenstein

Romantic/Gothic Idea

• Opposition to ration
• Man masters science through reason
• Monstrous result

American Romanticism

• early 19th century
• moral enthusiasm
• individualism
• natural world is inherently good
• society is corrupting

Appealed To

• Revolutionary spirit
• Those wanting to break free of strict religious traditions

Direct opposition to Calvinists
who believed the destiny of each individual was preordained by God

New England Transcendentalists

• Approachable relationship between God and the universe
• Man could have a more personal relationship with God

Untitled Slide

• Valued feeling over reason
• Freedom of expression over tradition and culture
• Rapturous response to nature

SAVING...

• James Fenimore Cooper Emily Dickinson Frederick Douglass Ralph Waldo Emerson Margaret Fuller Nathaniel Hawthorne Washington Irving Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Herman Melville Edgar Allen Poe Henry David Thoreau Walt Whitman

Resources

• Study Sync
• Library
• McDougall Littell American Literature Text Book
• Online Resources