+Monday, April 4

Welcome back! Hope everyone had a nice spring break

Grab handouts

Today: American Romanticism in literature and the visual arts

Homework: Read Emerson’s “American Scholar” essay and complete Transcendentalism Thought Chart.

Tomorrow: Transcendentalism discussion

+American Romanticism 1830-1865 The American Renaissance – in the sense

of a flowering excitement over human possibilities, and a high regard for individual ego.

Why was the time ripe for such a literary explosion? CulturePoliticsEconomyReligion

+ American Romanticism

Shares many characteristics with British Romanticism.

Specifically American components: Awe of wild aspects of

nature Recapturing ecstasy of

exploration and discovery

Confronting American pressures for conformity

Independence

+Edgar Allen Poe 1809-1849

First well-known author to try and earn a living through writing alone.

One of earliest American short story writers and considered the inventor of the detective-fiction genre.

Best know for his Gothic fiction works and tales of mystery.

His most recurring themes deal with questions of death.

“The Raven”, “Annabelle Lee”, “The Telltale Heart”

+Emily Dickinson 1830-1886 Lived a mostly introverted and

reclusive life.

Poems were in letters to her friends. Published after her death and heavily edited.

Themes of death and immortality.

Slant rhyme, unconventional capitalization and punctuation.

Ballad stanzas, which were four line stanzas alternating in iambic tetrameter and trimeter. 1 of 2 known

photographs

+ Walt Whitman 1819-1892

Steel engraving of Walt Whitman. Published in 1855 edition of

en:Leaves of Grass

Among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse.

America's first "poet of democracy”

Deeply influenced by Deism.

His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described as obscene for its overt sexuality.

Unique structure – there was no set length for his poems, stanzas, or even lines.

+ “I Sing the Body Electric”

One of the 12 poems from the first edition of Leaves of Grass (1855)

Praise of the wonders of the sensual body and a response to those who doubt the body.

“Electric” wasn’t a commonly used word during this time.

FormFree versePoem of lists gives structure Stanzas used as organization

+ “I Sing the Body Electric”

What aspects of Romanticism are most prevalent in the poem?

How does the poem reflect American Romanticism specifically? Look for commentary on: Identity Freedom ReligionPolitics

Read Stanza 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 (skip 3 and 9)

+

Homework: Read Emerson’s “American Scholar”

essayComplete Transcendentalism Thought

Chart

Tomorrow: Transcendentalism discussion