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American Romanticism 1800-1860

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Transcendentalism: Transcendentalism Elements of Transcendentalism: ****Many elements of the transcendental theory were evident again in the 1960 s-70 s.**** ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: American Romanticism 1800-1860


1
American Romanticism1800-1860
2
Introduction
  • Fiction
  • Washington Irving
  • Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • Non-Fiction
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • Henry David Thoreau
  • Politics
  • Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
  • Mohandas Gandhi
  • Literary Elements
  • Figures of speech
  • Symbolic meaning
  • Making Predictions/Foreshadowing

3
Quick Write
  • We will walk on our own fee
  • We will work with our own hands
  • We will speak our own minds
  • Does this describe an American ideal that is
    alive and well today? Explain your answer!

4
Major National Events of the Romantic Period
  • 1803 The Louisiana Purchase is made in a threat
    made by the United States on Napoleon and his
    army.
  • 1814 Francis Scott Key wrote The Star-Spangled
    Banner as a poem. The song officially became the
    national anthem by an act of Congress in 1931
  • 1830 The underground railroad is established as
    a secret system for helping fugitive slaves reach
    safety.

5
Important Events Continued..
  • 1845 Edgar Allan Poe publishes The Raven and
    Other Poems
  • 1849 California Gold Rush begins as thousands of
    gold miners travel to the Sacramento area.
  • 1854 Modern Republic party is organized to
    oppose the extension of slavery

6
Romanticism
  • A set of loosely connected attitudes toward
    nature and human kind, not to romantic love.

7
Causes
  • Sprang up as a reaction to everything that came
    before it
  • 1. The Age of Reason which stressed
  • a. reason
  • b. logic
  • c. scientific observation
  • 2. Puritanism and its rigid religious beliefs
  • a. Humans are inherently evil and must struggle
    to overcome their sinful nature.
  • b. Personal salvation depends solely on the
    grace of God, not on individual effort.
  • c. The Bible is the supreme authority of earth.

8
Features
  • 1. Nature -Nature over fear of God as source of
    inspiration
  • 2. Individualism -Mans possibilities over his
    limitations
  • -Individual over society
  • 3. Emotions -Imagination, sentiment, and
    feelings over reason
  • -Intuition over facts
  • 4. Mystery -Supernatural and unexplained over
    explainable
  • 5. Optimism -Life is good
  • -Man controls his life, not fate

9
Features cont
  • 6. Imagery -Focused on landscapes, natural
    backdrops, even details of a room setting to
    give as much sensory information as possible
  • 7. Awareness
  • of Past -A focus on where we came from
  • -An appreciation of folklore
  • 8. Adventure -The characters were entering
    unknown territory or
  • experiences.
  • -They looked upon it as an opportunity and
    challenge, not something to fear.
  • 9. Rebellion -Broke the rules of classic
    formsboth short story and unrhymed poetry were
    new
  • 10. Simplicity -Simple pleasures/ways over
    impersonal technology
  •  
  • 11. The celebration of the common man

10
Transcendentalism
  • 1840-1870

11
Transcendentalism
  • An intellectual movement that thought we used
    something more than our 5 physical senses to
    understand life and our place in it.
  • -Trans to go across
  • -Not a religion or philosophy but has elements
    of both
  • A view held by a group of people during the
    Romantic Period
  • Members of the Transcendentalist movement have
    greatly influenced literature, even today. We
    will be studying some of the most important
    authors of this movement, including
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • Henry David Thoreau

12
Elements of Transcendentalism
  • 1. Nonconformity -Individualism
  • 2. Self Reliance -Trust yourself/intuition
  • 3. Optimism -All men have equal possibilities.
  • -Man is inherently good.
  • 4. Nature -Appreciation of the simple life and
    the natural surroundings
  • 5. Oversoul -Connects all to God, Nature, Man
  • -We are all part of something larger than
    each part. This belief draws the line between
    celebrating the self and being selfish.
  • 6. Carpe Diem -Seize the day

13
Many elements of the transcendental theory
were evident again in the 1960s-70s.
  • Nonconformity
  • Civil Disobedience
  • Goodness of man
  • Respect for the simple way of life and nature
  • Brotherhood of man
  • Seizing the day
  • Keep the above ideas in mind as we discuss this
    period!!!
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