American Romanticism

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American Romanticism

• A journey away from the corruption of
  civilization
• A journey toward the honesty of nature and
  freedom of imagination

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ROMANTICISM 1800-1860
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LIVING CONDITIONS

• POPULATION MORE THAN DOUBLED
• TENEMENTS BUILT
• ONE TUB PER 400 PEOPLE

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Pollution Disease

• HORSE DROPPINGS FACTORIES HORSES LEFT TO DIE ON
  STREET DISEASE RAMPANT

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Crime and Violence

• CRIMES, MURDERS, THEFTS INCREASE
• GANGS FORM THE PIRATES

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CENTRAL PARK

• 1840S POET WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT PUSHES TO
  CONSTRUCT A PARK IN THE MIDDLE OF NYC
• BRING NATURE TO CORRUPTION

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Children

• 20,000 HOMELESS KIDS STREETS OF NYC
• FEW LIVE TO 20

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Romanticism values

• Nature, individual, feelings, spontaneity,
  imagination, and emotion more important than
  reason, logic, and planning

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Characteristics of Romant.

• a profound love of nature
• a focus on the self and the individual
• a fascination with the supernatural, the
  mysterious, the gothic
• a yearning for the past
• a deep-rooted idealism
• a passionate nationalism, or love of a country

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NATURE

• Romantic writers have a deep feeling for nature.
• Close observation of the natural world gives a
  Romantic writer an insight into all life.
• Shown through poetry

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YEARNING FOR THE PAST

• Interested in times and places other than their
  own, especially the past.
• The past offers an escape from an oppressive or
  unromantic present.
• Coopers hero, Natty Bumppo, lived in America
  that was already a legendary past for Coopers
  readers.
• Tales of Legend, Rumor, folktales

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Idealsim

• The belief in a hero

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Approach 1 Value of the Past

• Venture to a time away from grimy and noisy
  industrial age
• Found it in legends, folk tales, supernatural
  tales of past

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Gothic and Supernatural Stories

• Intrigued by psychological exploration of the mind

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Approach 2 Contemplation of Nature

• Writers take an ordinary flower and bring more
  meaning to itmore insight
• Contemplates that in a poem

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Question of time period

• Would Americans continue to imitate English and
  European writing?

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1st American Literary Hero

• Natty Bumppo
• Last of The Mohicans

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Traits of American Romantic Hero

• HONEST
• SIMPLE LIFESTYLE
• LOVE OF NATURE
• DISTRUST OF TOWN LIFE
• YOUTHFUL
• INNOCENT

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