Unit 3

The American Within 1800 - 1900

1800 - 1900

Several decades since the Revolutionary War

Many new inventions (Industrial Revolution)Sewing machine – I.M. SingerCotton gin – Eli WhitneyPlow – John Deere (1837)Steam engine – Robert FultonTelegraph – Samuel Morse

1800 – 1900

Americans had more free time and more time for reading for enjoyment

Different ways to view literaturePuritanismRomanticismTranscendentalismPoetry

Literature of the 1800’s

Washington Irving wrote one of America’s first pieces of comic literature, A History of New York, which satirized the founding fathers. He is most famous for Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

William Cullen Bryant wrote reflective poetry that centered on nature and its effect on people

Fenimore Cooper, like Bryant, conveyed the grandeur of America’s landscape.

PuritanismGod was a hateful, vengeful God.Hell was a place too terrible to

even be imagined.Preachers sought to arouse the

conscience of the people – repent and accept Christ or suffer eternal punishment in Hell.

Romanticism

Romanticism was not considered a “movement” at the time, but all writers shared the same themes and concerns.

One aspect was a belief in the goodness of people and the corrupting influence of society.

Belief in the simplicity of childhood

Romanticism

In response to the Industrial Revolution, Romantics sympathized with the common man and believed in the simplicity of the old ways.

Interest in medieval times (Gothic novel) was infused with grotesque and mysterious elements

RomanticismFascination with the

supernaturalEdgar Allan Poe received

distinction as a critic, a poet, and a short story writer. His Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque was written in 1840.

TranscendentalismThis philosophy focused on

going beyond everyday experience and perception

At the level of the human soul, all people had access to divine inspiration, freedom, knowledge, and truth

TranscendentalismA type of rebellion against

the current situation, trying to be different from societal expectations

Nature was seen as a source of goodness, inspiration, and truth, and was alive with spirit.

TranscendentalismDeliberately created literature,

essays, novels, philosophies, poetry, and other writings that were clearly different from anything from France, England, Germany, or any other European nation.

“God in us” – intuition, goodness, inspiration, truth

Nature + people ~ oneness

TranscendentalismTranscendentalists believed

in the power of intuition, rather than logic to reach higher truths or insights

Emily Dickinson’s poetry was intensely personal

Walt Whitman extended the love of nature to include all humanity.

TranscendentalismRalph Waldo Emerson said “We

will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds…A nation of men will for the first time exist because each believes himself inspired by the Divine Soul which also inspires all men.”