INTRODUCTION TO THE ROMANTIC PERIOD OF LITERATURE (1820-1860)
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The Romantic movement began in
Germany. From there it spread to England and France. It reached
America around the year 1820. In America, this creativity was aided by
national expansion and the development of an American voice, a
movement away from the belief that European writers were superior.
Having a national identity and accepting the idealism and passion of
Romanticism, American writers and artists created many works that
are still well known and valued today. Because so many positive changes occurred in American life, the Romantic Period is also
known as the "American Renaissance." (Renaissance is a French
word which means rebirth.)
Romantics believed that
humans could understand their place in the universe by looking
inside themselves, into their own hearts and spirits which were part
of nature. They believed
that intuition and art could teach people more than science.
They believed that the individual could reach out and change
society.
Each person was connected to every living thing and so had
to make society fair and prevent suffering. A person who understood
himself or herself could see that the self and nature were
connected. That connection contained the means to understand the
universe. The study of psychology was really the study of the
universe.
The Romantic view fit in well with American democracy. Both depended on individuals, their self-reliance, their creativity, and their honesty.
TRANSCENDENTALISM
Transcendentalism was the
positive (+), inspiring part of Romanticism. It was a reaction against
the 18th century rationalism which had supported the belief that
science and reasoning would lead to a deep understanding of the
universe. Transcendentalism (taken from the root word transcend
meaning to rise above or go beyond) was
based on a basic belief that humans could unite with God and become
one with the universe. In fact, each individual soul was identical
to the universe itself. By studying one's self,
a person could move beyond the ordinary and understand the spirit of
God and the universe. If a perfect world is represented by a full
glass of water, transcendentalists saw their glass as half full with the potential to be
completely filled.
The transcendentalism movement began in Concord, Massachusetts. The city was and still is a peaceful town where learning is important and nature is respected. Concord was the site of the first battle of the American Revolution, and the Romantic writer Ralph Waldo Emerson's poem about the battle has two of the most famous lines in American poetry:
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world.
From "Concord Hymn"
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Symbol to Remember Romanticism =
- American Romanticism Time Period = 1820-1860
- Characteristics = valued individual human spirit, nature, and intuition (not science and reason)
- Two Groups =
Transcendentalists (Light Romantics) =
+
glass 1/2 full
Anti-Transcendentalists (Dark Romantics) = - glass 1/2 empty - Key Authors = Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, William Cullen Bryant, Nathanial Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Edgar Allan Poe
From the beginning people have come to America to find or make their fortune, but in Concord writers looked for a spiritual and cultural alternative to American materialism. It was a place where even the most respected thinkers and writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau lived simply and had their own vegetable gardens. Concord and nearby areas in Massachusetts attracted many of the writers whose beliefs define what an American is. These writers include Nathaniel Hawthorne, Margaret Fuller, Bronson Alcott, and William Ellery Channing. These authors and others were involved in the experimental utopian communities at Brook Farm and Fruitlands. There they tried to live in such a way as to transcend normal life and create perfect, peaceful places.
ANTI-TRANSCENDENTALISM
Because transcendentalists
celebrated individual differences, they accepted into their
discussions authors who did not share their belief in the goodness
of humanity. Anti-transcendentalists or Dark Romantics did
believe that people could learn by studying their own inner spirit,
but they believed that evil was alive and well in both the human
spirit and in the universe. Anti-transcendentalists were
negative (-), warning that evil must be faced. Nathanial Hawthorne, Edgar Allan
Poe, and Herman Melville were all anti-transcendentalists. Hawthorne
noted
(in
The Scarlet Letter) proof of the evil in humanity: two of the
first things that have to be created in any community are a jail and
a graveyard. Anti-transcendentalists can be represented by the same
glass of water as the transcendentalists, but the
anti-transcendentalists would describe the glass as half empty.
Fast Facts
Sources: The Web site from U.S. Department of State's Bureau of International Information Programs at http://www.america.gov/st/arts-english/2008/April/20080429094758eaifas0.1172602.html, the Web site from the U.S. Diplomatic Mission to Germany at http://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/oal/lit3.htm, http://dictionary.reference.com/, and my own many years of teaching experience.
©2010 Gale Sperry, www.mrssperry.com, All rights reserved.