American
Romanticism &
Renaissance
1800-1860
“I unsettle all things. No facts are to me sacred.”
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Authors and Poets
• Three separate movements
– The Transcendentalists
– The Dark Romantics
– The Fireside Poets
– Different styles, same goal:
• to capture the human
experience
Purpose of Writing:
• As a reaction against rationalism
• To explore imagination and emotion
– Emphasized feelings and intuition over reason
– Central importance placed upon the emotions
and individual
• Emphasized dignity and worth of the common
individual
• To practice Escapism
Romantic Escapism
• Romantics wanted to rise above the current
times, which they called “dull realities” to a
world of higher truth.
– The natural escape – the Romantic who views
the modern world as inherently ugly and
lifeless, attempts to escape into the perfect
world. Often, this other world can be seen as
an escape into human imagination, or an
exploration of the human mind.
Romantic Escapism
• The contemplation of the natural world
– the Romantic sees a commonplace
object or event, such as a flower, tree or
rock in a pastoral (rural, idyllic) setting;
the literal sight brings contemplation,
which leads to deeper “vision”; (this is an
“insight” into the human soul, and
awakening of the mental landscape.
Types of Literature
• Poems
• Novels
– featuring the new Romantic Hero
• Essays
Creating a Literature
of our Own
• America provided a sense of limitless
frontiers that Europe, so long settled,
simply did not possess.
• Thus, the development of the American
novel and American hero coincided with
westward expansion.
View of Man/Self
The Romantic Hero
• This new hero defined American
virtue(an undomesticated rugged,
individual who thrives in the wild),
not European sophistication(life in
crowded cities amidst glittering court life and dusty
libraries), as the answer to the ideal protagonist.
• A heroic, virtuous, skillful frontiersman whose simple
morality, love of nature, distrust of city life, and
resourcefulness in the wild characterize a true
Romantic hero.
• The hero of American Romantic fiction was youthful,
innocent, intuitive, and close to nature.
Views of Life, Work, and Money
• Self-reliance
– This is an extension of the ideas of the selfmade man
• A “Know thyself” mentality
– Each person has his own self-contained genius,
– Society and worldly influences must be resisted
in favor of one's own individuality, and
– Self-worth has great importance and value
View of Nature
• Nature is a teacher
– Embraced nature as a model to follow—
• for itself, for beauty
• As a source of knowledge
• As a refuge
• As a revelation of God to the
individual
View of Nature
• Reactions against the city—Escapism
– Industrialization resulted in a migration to
cities which resulted in overpopulation, dirty
living conditions, and disease. As a result,
people wanted to escape.
– City = society = bad example of living
View of Nature
• Nature’s components viewed as
symbols of spontaneous growth
• For example:
– Leaves in autumn
– Waves on the ocean
– Breeze through a forest
– Storms against the earth
Opposing Opinions
Transcendentalists
Dark Romantics
• Contemplation of the natural
world
• Everything in this world is
fueled by imagination
• Imagination leads to the
Divine Soul
• Exploration of the past and
the exotic, even
supernatural realms
• Imagination does NOT lead
to the Divine Soul, but to
the punishment of the
troubled soul.
Transcendentalism
• Two leading authors:
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
– Henry David Thoreau
One must go beyond
(transcend) the everyday
human experience in order to
determine the ultimate reality
of God.
Transcendental Themes
• Considered Weird (Free-thinking)
• Intuition over logic
• Self reliance & individualism
over conformity & tradition
• Spontaneity over rationality
• Natural world leads to spiritual
world, so it must be observed
• Everything in this world is a
reflection of the Divine Soul
The Dark Romantics
• Three leading authors:
– Nathaniel Hawthorne
– Herman Melville
– Edgar Allan Poe
Dark Romantic Themes
• Known as the anti-transcendentalists
• Agreed that spiritual facts do lie behind the
natural world, but they are not inherently
good
• Examined the darker facets of
humanity such as greed, vanity,
and guilt.
– Focus on original sin & innate
wickedness and its consequences
– Examined the psychological effects
of evil, terror, and grief on the
human soul.
The Fireside Poets
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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
John Greenleaf Whittier
Oliver Wendell Holmes
James Russell Lowell
William Cullen Bryant
Fireside Poet Facts
• All five poets based in Boston
• They got their nickname because of their very wide
success with poems during their lifetimes
• Wrote the type of poems people would read at the
fireside for entertainment.
• Modeled their style on European themes
• Preferred conventional forms over
experimentation
• Warm and comforting