AMERICAN ROMATICISM

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WHAT IS AMERICAN ROMATICISM?

HOW DID IT INFLUENCE LITERATURE?

HOW DID IT AFFECT OTHER ASPECTS OF LIFE IN THE UNITED STATES?

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• 1800-1860• LITERARY AND CULTURAL MOVEMENT •REVOLT AGAINST THE ENLIGHTENMENT• PLACED IMPORTANCE ON EMOTIONAL RESPONSE TO NATURE.•RANGED FROM TREPIDATION, HORROR AND TERROR, AND AWE AND WONDER

ROMANTICISM

• IMAGINATION• INTUITION• SPONTANEITY • INDIVIDUALISM• “HEROIC ISOLATION” • PSYCHOLOGY• SUPERNATURAL

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ISM •OPTIMISM AND

INDIVIDUALISM•WORLD IS ALWAYS IMPROVING•ORDINARY PEOPLE CAN BETTER THEMSELVES, THEIR POLITICAL SYSTEM AND SOCIETY

•KINSHIP WITH NATURE•A CLOSE LINK BETWEEN HUMANS AND NATURE• INDUSTRY AND TECHNOLOGY THREATENED THE NATURAL WORLD AND ISOLATED PEOPLE FROM IT

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ISM

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ISM •POWER OF

DARKNESS•FASCINATION WITH DISEASE, MADNESS, DEATH, EVIL, THE SUPERNATURAL•HIGHLIGHTS THE DESTRUCTIVE ASPECTS OF NATURE

WHAT FORCES SHAPED THIS PERIOD?

•ARRIVAL OF EUROPEAN ROMANTICISM•OUTBURST OF REFORM MOVEMENTS•SPREAD OF INDUSTRY•INCREASING SECTIONAL CONFLICT

RALPH WALDO EMERSON• CENTRAL FIGURE OF

AMERICAN ROMANTICISM

• REVOLUTIONARY IDEAS:– INDIVIDUALISM–CLAIMS ABOUT THE

DIVINE–ATTACKS ON SOCIETY

RALPH WALDO EMERSON• 1803-1882• FATHER UNITARIAN

MINISTER AND MOTHER A DEVOUT ANGLICAN

• FATHER DIED WHEN HE WAS 8-YEARS-OLD AND MOTHER OPENED A BOARDING HOUSE TO SUPPORT FAMILY

RALPH WALDO EMERSON• ENTERED

HARVARD AT 14-YEARS-OLD

• STUDIED AT HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL

• ORDAINED MINISTER BY 1829

RALPH WALDO EMERSON• IN 1831, WIFE

ELLEN TUCKER DIED SUDDENLY

• SHOOK HIS ALREADY QUESTIONING FAITH

• LEFT THE CHURCH TO BECOME A WRITER

RALPH WALDO EMERSON• 1833 – MOVED TO

CONCORD, MASS. AND STARTED WRITING NATURE. – IT WOULD BE ONE OF HIS

MOST INFLUENTIAL WORKS.

– PUBLISHED ANONYMOUSLY

• REMARRIED 2 YEARS LATER AND HAD 4 CHILDREN.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON• GAINED FAME ON THE

LECTURE CIRCUIT– THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR– HARVARD DIVINITY

SCHOOL ADDRESS

• BOTH REJECTED ORGANIZED RELIGION AND RESULTED IN A BAN FROM HARVARD FOR 30 YEARS.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON• HIS IDEAS ANGERED

SOME BUT EXCITED OTHERS

• IDEAS HELPED CREATE THE TRANSCENDENTAL MOVEMENT– OPTIMISM, SELF-

RELIANCE, INTUITION, IDEALISM

RALPH WALDO EMERSON• EMERSON’S OPTIMISM

WAS CHALLENGED IN 1842 WHEN SON WALDO DIED OF SCARLET FEVER

• CO-FOUNDED THE DIAL, A TRANSCENDENTAL PUBLICATION

• INFLUENCED MANY WRITERS OF THE TIME AND FOR YEARS LATER

SPIRIT OF THE WEST