American Romanticism 18201865: Definition, Culture, and Literature

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American Romanticism (1820-1865) Definition,
Culture, and Literature

• by Brian Lewis

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The Term Romanticism

• Romanticisman emphasis on imagination and
  emotions (Websters)
• British Romanticism preceded American Romanticism
  in 18th century (Shelley, Keats, Byron)
• Romanticisma time of American Renaissance
  (economic, literary, cultural growth)
• Renaisssancerenaissancerebirth

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Features of Romanticism

• Concern with Nature
• Thoreau
• Hawthorne
• Rebellion/Non-conformity
• Religious rebellion (Transcendentalist movt.,
  Dickinson, Whitman)
• Abolitionist movement (Stowe, Douglass)
• Revisioning the Past
• Creating American history (Hawthorne)

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Features of Romanticism (cont.)

• Emphasis on Individual Rights
• Emerson
• Emphasis on Sexuality
• Whitman, Dickinson
• Jacobs
• Hawthorne
• Emphasis on the Gothic
• Poe

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Culture of Romantic Period

• Culture of Writing
• Study of LettersStudy of British Letters
• Acquaintances among Writers
• Hawthorne and Melville
• Emerson and Thoreau
• Economic Culture
• Increasing territory---transportation problems
• Slavery and Economics
• Print Culture
• Emergence of New York as Major Center
• Dissemination of British Texts

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Culture of Romantic Period (cont.)

• Religious Culture
• Greater suspicion of Protestant Christianity
• WhitmanChurches are one vast lie
• Melvilletrue Christianity as impracticable
• Transcendentalist movement
• Immigrant Culture
• Emergence of xenophobia and stereotypes against
  new, non-native Western immigrants
• Persistence of slavery in South
• Workers from other countries given lesser jobs
  (e.g., railroad work)
• Great wave of immigration did not begin until
  1880.

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Key Literary Works

• 1820Irvings Sketch Book
• 1823Coopers The Pioneers
• 1836Emerson, Nature
• 1845Douglass, Narrative of the Life
• 1850Hawthorne, Scarlet Letter
• 1851Melville, Moby-Dick
• 1852Stowe, Uncle Toms Cabin
• 1854Thoreau, Walden
• 1855Whitman, Leaves of Grass
• 1860-1865Dickinsons Poems