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American Romanticism:
1800-1860
Light Romanticism, Dark Romanticism,
Transcendentalism
Romanticism as a Journey
Away from
Corruption of
civilization
Limits of rational
thought
Romanticism as a Journey
Toward
Integrity of nature
Freedom of
imagination
Source The Deerslayer N. C. Wyeth
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Which are you?
Romantic
• Intuitive
• Nature-loving
Rational
• Practical
• Worldly
Imagination
Truth
Beauty
Big Ideas of Romanticism
Intuition
Experience
Individual
Nature
Ideal
source: Skipp, Francis in American Literature
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Characteristics of American
Romanticism
Values feeling over reason
Places faith in inner experience and
imagination
Shuns artificiality of civilization; seeks
unspoiled nature
Prefers youthful innocence to educated
sophistication
Emphasizes individual freedom and worth
Believes nature’s beauty can lead to
spiritual and moral development
Elements of Literature (145)
Characteristics of American
Romanticism
Looks backward to the wisdom of past
and distrusts progress
Finds beauty and truth in
Exotic locales
Supernatural realm
Inner world of the imagination
Sees poetry as the highest expression of
the imagination
Finds inspiration in myth, legend, and folk
culture
Elements of Literature (145)
A New Hero
Young or youthful
Innocent and pure of purpose
Sense of honor based on principle higher
than society’s rules
Understanding of the world is intuitive, not
based on formal learning
Loves nature
Quests for higher truth in the natural world
Elements of Literature 149
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Legacy
Lasting Effects of American Romanticism
Humanitarian reform
Liberal religious movements
Abolitionism
Feminism
Unitariansim
Universalism
Economic experiments
Communal living (Brook Farm, New Harmony)
James D. Hart, The Oxford Companion to American Literature, 6th ed. (572).
Dark Romanticism
Nathaniel Hawthorne
“The Birthmark” (packet 131)
“Dr. Heidegger's Experiment” (packet 124)
Washington Irving
“Devil and Tom Walker” (packet 93)
Focus on the inherent inner darkness of
humans, the perverseness of spirit, and
the destructive aspects of the universe.
Light Romanticism
Emily Dickinson
“Some Keep the Sabbath Going to Church”
Walt Whitman
“Learn'd Astronomer”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Each & All”
Focus on the inherent inner
light of humans, the beauty of
nature, and the benevolence
of the universe.
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Transcendentalism
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Self Reliance” (packet 67)
“Each and All” (packet 66)
Henry David Thoreau
“Civil Disobedience” (packet 69)
Walden
Solitude (packet 80)
Conclusion (packet 84)
Built on the idea of the inner
light, but believed that this
was the divine spark, that
humans carry God inside us.
And because we all carry the
divine, we are all capable of
perfection.
Transcendentalism
Immanuel Kant
“…concerned not with objects but with our
mode of knowing objects."
source
Transcendental Beliefs
the spark of divinity lies within man;
everything in the world is a microcosm of
existence
the individual soul is identical to the world soul
(Emerson’s Over-Soul)
By meditation, by communing with nature,
through work and art, man could transcend his
senses and attain an understanding of beauty
and goodness and truth.
source
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Transcendentalists
Belief in the Inner Light Authority of Self
I
Walt Whitman's
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s doctrine of SelfReliance
Henry David Thoreau's civil disobedience,
Utopian communities at Brook Farm
source
Hudson River Painters
Art as an agent of
moral and spiritual
transformation
Kindred Spirits, Asher B. Durand, 1849
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