1800-1860

We will walk with our own feet

We will work with our own hands

We will speak our own minds

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Romanticism

Values feeling and intuition over reason

Finds beauty and truth in exotic locals, the supernatural realm, and the inner world of the imagination

Popular authors of period: Washington Irving, Ralph Emerson, David Thoreau, Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathanial Hawthorne, Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, and others.

Characteristics of American Romanticism

Explored conflicts between good and evil, psychological effects of guilt and sin, and madness

It has been suggested that Dark Romantics present individuals as prone to sin and self-destruction, not as inherently possessing wisdom

Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne are two examples of Dark Romantics.

Dark Romanticism

Overview of Romanticism

Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” and “Tell-Tale Heart”

Selected poems by Walt Whitman and Emily Dickenson

What we will study