Lesson 14.2: American Art and Literature

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Lesson 14.2 American Art and Literature

• Today we will discuss the art and literature of
  early national America.

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Vocabulary

• celebration the act of praising or giving honor
• civil of citizens
• transcend exceed, go beyond

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What We Already Know

• During the Enlightenment, the human mind and its
  powers of reason were celebrated over
  superstition and religious belief.

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What We Already Know

• During the Industrial Revolution, machines
  and unskilled workers replaced skilled
  craftsmen in the work place, making
  manufacturing much more dull and
  mindless.

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What We Already Know

• In the decades after the War of 1812, a strong
  feeling of national pride swept the United
  States, and increased as the nation expanded
  westward.

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Many American writers were influenced by a
style of European art called romanticism.

• Romanticism was a reaction against the
  Enlightenment, the Scientific Revolution, and
  industrialization.
• It looked back fondly on the past, when life
  seemed simpler.
• In Romanticism, emotions and imagination were
  considered more important than intellect or
  reason.

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Romanticism drew inspiration from nature.

• Nature was a place free from society's judgment
  and restrictions.
• Romanticism stressed the individual, imagination,
  creativity, and emotion.

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An example of the Romantic attitude, expressed by
German author Johann Wolfgang Goethe

• All the knowledge I possess everyone else can
  acquire, but my heart is all my own.

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2a. What was romanticism?

1. Romanticism stressed the individual, imagination,
   creativity, and emotion.
2. Romanticism was a reaction against the
   Enlightenment, the Scientific Revolution, and
   industrialization.
3. It looked back fondly on the past, when life
   seemed simpler.
4. In Romanticism, emotions and imagination were
   considered less important than intellect or
   reason.

Choose the one that is NOT true!
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Romanticism encouraged American writers to create
truly American works.
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1. American writers turned theirinterest in
nature into a celebration of the American
wilderness.

• James Fenimore Cooper wrote five novels about the
  dramatic adventures of wilderness scout ..
  Natty Bumppo.
• Coopers historical romances of frontier and
  Indian life in the early American days created a
  unique form of American literature.
• One that remains popular The Last of
  the Mohicans.

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2. American writers began using a more American
style of writing.

• Noah Webster gave guidelines to that style in his
  American Dictionary of the English Language.
• Websters dictionary replaced British spellings
  with American, and included American slang.

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3. Writers celebrated Americas past.

• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote many poems that
  retold stories from history.
• His most famous, Paul Reveres Ride, depicted
  the Revolutionary War heros ride to warn of a
  British attack.

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Washington Irving also wrote stories about
colonial life.

• One story, Rip Van Winkle, tells of a man who
  falls asleep on the eve of the Revolutionary War
  and wakes up 20 years later.
• In another, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, a
  teacher is chased by the headless ghost of a
  Revolutionary War soldier and is never seen
  again.

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Washington Irvings work helped to win European
respect for American writing for the first time.
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2b. How did American writers adapt
romanticism?

1. They turned its interest in nature into a
   celebration of the American wilderness.
2. They turned its focus on heroic figures into
   stories about legendary figures from tall tales.
3. They replaced its religious themes with Native
   American myths.
4. They transformed its love of nature into stories
   about turning wilderness into civilization.

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1. Why are Washington Irvings Rip Van Winkle
and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow important in
American literature?

1. They were the first to include American slang
   words.
2. They were the first stories ever written about
   life in the United States.
3. They helped win European respect for American
   writing.
4. They helped inspire Americans to rebel against
   British rule.

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European styles also influenced American artists,
but some painters took these styles in new
directions.
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3. What were three ways in which writers helped
create a truly American style of writing?

1. Their works celebrated the American wilderness.
2. They used American English in their writings.
3. They wrote about the American past.
4. They wrote very negative stories and novels about
   the European noble classes.

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1. Some American artists, influenced by
romanticism, painted lush natural landscapes.

• One group of painters was known as the Hudson
  River School.
• They were so named because they painted the
  dramatic beauty of the Hudson River Valley in the
  state of New York.

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Asher Durand was a founder of the Hudson River
School.

• His most famous painting, Kindred Spirits, shows
  two men inspired by a beautiful landscape.
• The men are Durands friends, the Romantic poet
  William Cullen Bryant and Romantic painter Thomas
  Cole.

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Several members of the Hudson River School went
to the West.

• In their paintings, they tried to convey the
  majesty of the American landscape.

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2. Others painted American wildlife.

• John James Audubon came to the United States from
  France at age 18.
• Traveling across the continent, Audubon painted
  the birds and animals of his adopted country.

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3. Enslaved African Americans also contributed to
American art, crafting beautiful baskets, quilts,
and pottery.
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4. What subjects did the early American painters
focus on?

1. the lush landscapes of the Hudson River Valley
2. the majestic mountain ranges of the West
3. the birds and animals of the American wilderness
4. the portraits of European political and military
   leaders.

Choose the one that is NOT true!
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By the 1840s, Americans took new pride in their
emerging culture.

• Ralph Waldo Emerson, a New England writer,
  encouraged this pride.
• He urged Americans to cast off European influence
  and develop their own beliefs.
• His advice was to learn about life from
  self-examination and from nature, as well as
  books.

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Emersons student, Henry David Thoreau, followed
that advice.

• In 1845, Thoreau retreated into a simple cabin he
  had built at Walden Pond in Massachusetts, where
  he wrote about the benefits of living a simple
  life.
• Thoreau wrote that people should live by their
  own individual standards, and march to their own
  inner drummer.

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Emerson and Thoreau followed a new philosophy
called transcendentalism.

• It taught that the spiritual world is more
  important than the physical world.
• It also taught that people can find the truth
  within themselves through feeling and intuition.

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• Transcendentalists believed that society and its
  institutionsparticularly organized religion and
  political partiesultimately corrupted the purity
  of the individual.
• They had faith that people are at their best when
  truly "self-reliant" and independent. 

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5. What did transcendentalists like Emerson and
Thoreau believe?

1. People should learn about life through
   self-reflection as well as from books.
2. The spiritual world is less important than the
   physical world.
3. People should learn about life through studying
   nature as well as from books.
4. It is important that people obey all laws, even
   those they consider unjust.

Choose ALL that are true!
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Thoreau and Civil Disobedience

• Because Thoreau believed in the importance of
  individual conscience, he urged people not to
  obey laws they considered unjust.
• Instead of protesting with violence, they should
  peacefully refuse to obey those laws (civil
  disobedience).

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Thoreau and Civil Disobedience

• For example Thoreau did not want to support the
  U.S. government, which allowed slavery and fought
  the War with Mexico.
• Instead of paying taxes that helped to finance
  the war, Thoreau went to jail.

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6. Why did Thoreau commit an act of civil
disobedience by not paying his taxes?

1. His Transcendentalist beliefs required him to be
   poor.
2. He didn't want the tax money to be used to
   support the war with Mexico.
3. As a Transcendentalist, he did not recognize the
   authority of any government.
4. He was living in isolation at Walden Pond and
   didn't know the tax was due.

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Louisa May Alcott began her writing career as a
transcendentalist poet in the 1850s.

• But Alcott achieved her greatest fame in 1868
  with her book Little Women, which became popular
  with children as well as adults.
• Alcott was active in abolition and suffrage
  movements.

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• Little Women was a fiction novel for girls that
  veered from the normal writings for children,
  especially girls, at the time. 
• Little Women has three major themes
  domesticity, work, and true love. All of them are
  interdependent and each is necessary to the
  achievement of a heroines individual identity.

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Another New England transcendentalist, Margaret
Fuller, also called for change.

• In her magazine, The Dial, and in her book, Woman
  in the Nineteenth Century, Fuller argued for
  womens rights.

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Like Thoreau, other writers broke with tradition.

• In 1855, poet Walt Whitman published Leaves of
  Grass, a book that changed American poetry.
• His bold, unrhymed poems praised ordinary people.

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• O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is
  doneThe ship has weather'd every rack, the
  prize we sought is wonThe port is near, the
  bells I hear, the people all exulting,While
  follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and
  daringBut O heart! heart! heart!O the bleeding
  drops of red,Where on the deck my Captain
  lies,Fallen cold and dead.

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Emily Dickinson was another transcendentalist
poet.

• Dickinson lived in her familys home almost her
  entire life.
• She wrote poems about God, nature, love, and
  death.
• Most of her 1,775 poems were published only after
  her death.

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Emily Dickinson

• Part Four Time and EternityEXULTATION is the
  going Of an inland soul to sea, Past the
  houses, past the headlands, Into deep eternity!
  Bred as we, among the mountains, Can the
  sailor understand The divine intoxication Of
  the first league out from land?

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Both Whitman and Dickinson shaped modern poetry
by experimenting with language.
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Fiction writers of the 1800s also shaped American
literature.

• Edgar Allan Poe wrote terrifying tales that
  influence todays horror story writers.
• He also wrote the first detective story, The
  Murders in the Rue Morgue.

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Nathaniel Hawthorne depicted love, guilt, and
revenge during Puritan times in The Scarlet
Letter.

• The novel shows that harsh judgment without mercy
  can lead to tragedy.

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Hawthorne may have learned that lesson from his
family history.

• One of his ancestors condemned people at the
  Salem witchcraft trials.

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Herman Melville won fame by writing thrilling
novels about his experiences as a sailor.

• In 1851, Melville published his master-piece,
  Moby Dick, about a mans destructive desire to
  kill a white whale.
• Although the novel was not popular when it was
  published, it is widely read now.

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While writers portrayed the harmful effects of
cruel actions, other Americans were working to
make their society better.
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7. How did the writers of the mid-1800s shape
modern literature?

1. They wrote stories that portrayed the harmful
   effects of cruel actions.
2. They gave up fictional characters and chose to
   write only about historical figures.
3. Their characters showed that individuals could
   change society for the better.
4. They introduced new forms of writing, such as
   unrhymed poems, horror stories, and detective
   stories.

Choose the one that is NOT true!