TheRomantics

(They’re not just lovers anymore!)

Romanticism is this…

not this!

The “Ws” of RomanticismWhen: 1805 to 1865Where: Western Europe, AmericaWhy: Reaction to the excesses of the Enlightenment and …

What?

Rather than Reason as

the only sure path to

knowledge…Intuition and reflection are surer guides

to uncovering TRUTH

Rather than art that illustrates the common values of the society

Art is the imaginative expression of

the inner essence of

the individual

With Romanticism,

Individual expression replaces social and political reform as

the pre-eminent ideal.

ReasonRomanticis

m

Reason is more important than imagination.

Imagination kicks reason’s backside!

In the Age of Reason, Nature is seen as a self-contained machine.

Romanticism sees Nature as an organic process through which we see the mind of God

Past is the source of tradition, a proving ground for rational laws of human existence.

Past is a source of stories that may be fantasized.

Social Reform Humanitarian Reform

Interested in Science, Ethics, and Government

Interested in spirituality and the supernatural

Literature, music and art demonstrate the social ideals of the time period.

Literature, music, and art express the imagination and emotions of the artists

Actually, American

Romanticism comes in two “flavors”…

Transcendentalismand…

DarkRomanticism

(Neither of them is really this: :

)

TranscendentalismThe spark of divinity lies within everyone

everywhereThe world is a microcosm of existenceThe individual soul is identical to the world soul

(Over-Soul, as Emerson calls it)Nature holds the key to understanding the benign

God of the universe (so they are the original hippies!)

By meditation, by communing with nature, through work and art, man can transcend his senses and attain an understanding of beauty and goodness and truth

We are spirits in a material world, connected by our humanity; therefore, we must help one another achieve the transcended state (so slavery and the subjugation of women is really NOT COOl! )

Dark RomanticismNot so sure all people are so

innately filled with goodness and perfection

Individuals/Characters prone to sin and self-destruction, not inherently possessing wisdom and/or divinity; many seem to have a propensity for the perverse

The deeply spiritual force of nature can be sinister, dark, decaying, and mysterious

Nature’s revelations are frequently evil and hellish

Rather than achieving reform, characters often incapable of making changes for the better

Transcendentalism v. Dark Romantics all people some people

Transcendentalism v Dark Romantics We’re interconnected and a

part of the Over-Soul of the goodness of the universal

God

We’re prone to sin and self-destruction

Transcendentalism v Dark RomanticismGod is found in Nature. WOW! God is found in nature. Yikes!

Transcendentalism v Dark Romanticism

We can transcend! We can descend.

Transcendentalist authors write mostly essays and poetry. Many are poets.Ralph Waldo Henry DavidEmerson Thoreau

Emily DickinsonWalt Whitman

Dark Romanticist authors write mostly fiction with some poetry, but are not poets only.

Edgar Allan Poe

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Herman Melville

Both are marked by similar literary styles:

• Complexity of language – it tends to be flowery and polysyllabic with generous use of metaphors and symbolism and other literary devices

• Complexity of syntax – frequent use of long, compound/complex structures, artful use of parallelism, use of many adjectival and adverbial phrases and clauses, use of inverted sentences

• Complexity of ideas – the goal of both is to incite reflection and thought in its audience, to broaden our view of ourselves and the world

Cultural and Historical LegaciesTranscendentalism Shift from belief in

the evil of wilderness to the goodness of wild places and moral necessity to protect them

The Civil War and the Abolition of slavery

The significant growth of the Women’s Rights and Suffrage Movements

American free verse poetry

Dark Romanticism• The development of

an American kind of fiction

• A counterbalance to the ideal of human transcendence with the ideal of human fallibility

• The Scarlet Letter• Moby Dick

But good or bad,godly or devilish

blissful or torturedabove all

it’s all about the…INDIVIDUAL!

POP QUIZ!1. Transcendentalists and Dark Romanticists lived and

worked in America at the same time.

2. While the Enlightenment valued the imagination, Romanticism valued reason.

3. Romanticist period reform movements focused on the value of the individual while the Enlightenment focused on the individual’s role within society.

4. Transcendentalists believed that human beings are capable of great evil while Dark Romantics believed that human evil was the result of the influence of a flawed society.

MORE POP QUIZ!!!5. Transcendentalists are the backbone of the

abolitionist movement, the women’s rights’ movement, and the conservationist movement in the 19th Century.

6. The Transcendentalists and the Enlightenment both view mankind as basically and fundamentally good.

7. The end of the Romantic era in America coincides with the Civil War.

8. Romanticists are tree huggers and predecessors to hippies.

even more POP QUIZ9. The Romanticists are easier to read than the

writers of the Age of Reason.

10. In Transcendentalist thought, we are all a part of the great god of the universe, the Over-Soul.

11.While the Age of Reason mistrusted mixing politics and religion, Romantics thought it was a good idea.

12. Romantics were intrigued with the supernatural and included supernatural elements in their story lines.

You have GOT to be kidding! Still more POP QUIZ!

13. Would you be more likely to find a murder the topic in a work by a Transcendentalist or a Dark Romantic?

14.Is the Bill of Rights more like the Enlightenment view of government or the Transcendental view?

15.Which is more likely to uplift and inspire: Transcendentalist writing or Dark Romantic writing?

16.Match the writer to his/her school of thought:a. Edgar Allan Poe b. Walt Whitman c. Thomas Jefferson d. Ralph Waldo Emersone. Patrick Henry f. Henry David Thoreau