1. AN AMERICAN RENAISSANCE

2. AN AMERICAN RENAISSANCE
•EXPANSION OF CULTURE TO OTHER CITIES
RATHER THAN NEW ENGLAND.
NEW SPIRITUAL ERA. TRANSCENDENTALISM.
•DETRACTORS: NATANIEL HAWTHORNE.
•CIVILIZATION AND PRIMITIVE LIFE: HERMAN
MELVILLE. MOBY DICK.
•EDGAR ALLAN POE. QUOTATION.
•EDGAR ALLAN POE. BIOGRAPHY.
•EDGAR ALLAN POE. POETRY.
•EDGAR ALLAN POE. LITERARY CRITICISM.
•EDGAR ALLAN POE. HORROR STORIES.

3. EXPANSION OF CULTURE.
 1830 to 1840: The Frontier of
American society quickly moves
toward the west.
 New England (Boston, Harvard and
Cambridge Universities) is no longer
the unique center of culture and
literacy. Culture travels to the west
of the Country.
 At the same time, ideas and culture from
other countries start to gain influence in
Boston.

4. NEW SPIRITUAL ERA.
 Started among the young
intellectuals of Boston, dissatisfied
with the old patriotism.
 Emphasis on philosophy, mainly
from the Greeks, Germans and
Indian philosophers.
 One of the movements was:
 The TRANSCENDENTALISM.

5. TRANSCENDENTALISM.

6. THE TRANSCENDENTALISTS.
 As Romantics in Europe, they saw
Religion as something too
structured and lifeless.
 They respected Christ as a wise
person, along with other respectful
thinkers.
 Recognition of the capacity of MAN
to get to know the truth intuitively.
 Nature was their Bible: Birds, clouds,
trees, are the vessels of God.

7. SOME TRANSCENDENTALISTS.
R.W. Emerson. H.D.Thoreau.

8. SOME TRANSCENDENTALISTS.
 He founded the Transcendental
Club and its magazine, The Dial.
 They had and experimental
community, the Brook Farm Inst.
 Emerson and Thoreau: interested
in social reform/ Others: more
interested in the individual.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803-1882).

9. SOME TRANSCENDENTALISTS.
 “To go into solitude, a man needs to
retire as much from his chamber as
from society. I am not solitary whilst I
read and write, though nobody is with
me. But if a man would be alone, let
him look at the stars. The rays that
come from those heavenly worlds, will
separate between him and what he
touches” (Nature).
RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803-1882).

10. SOME TRANSCENDENTALISTS.
 He was a young man at Harvard.
He read NATURE from Emerson.
 Thoreau and Emerson had similar
ideas and they even lived together
for two years.
 He kept a journal and wrote about
nature with live details about
plants, rivers, wildlife.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

11. TRANSCENDENTALISTS:
DETRACTORS.
 Transcentalism had its detractors
or enemies.
 Some of them: OLIVER HOLMES.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. HERMAN
MELVILLE.

12. NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.
 .
1804-1864

13. NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.
 Criticised Transcendentalism for
ignoring the dark side of life.
 He revisited some Puritan stories,
rewriting some religious versions and
turning them into road/ plight solving
ones. (“CELESTIAL RAILROAD”).
 He used to work with lots of allegories,
darkness, guilt. He wrote Gothic
stories.
 His masterpiece: The Scarlet Letter.

14. HERMAN MELVILLE (1819-1891)
 He criticized Trascendentalism and
Nathaniel Hawthorne´s work.
 He had a tragic view of life: the wild
against civilised people.
 He was a sailor and that influenced the
topics of his works.
 He wrote Typee (the Heroe lived among
canibals), and MOBY DICK, his
masterpiece (a Whale representing
fate, fighting against the heroe).

15. EDGAR ALLAN POE. A QUOTATION.

16. EDGAR ALLAN POE. BIOGRAPHY.

17. EDGAR ALLAN POE. Poetry
 Al Aaraaf.
 Annabel Lee.
 The Bells.
 The City in the Sea.
 Eldorado.
 The Haunted Palace.
 Lenore.

18. EDGAR ALLAN POE.
 LITERARY CRITICISM:
 His reviews for the Southern
Literary Messenger were read all
over America.
 He hated bad books and bad
writing.
 He wrote “THE PHILOSOPHY OF
COMPOSITION.”

19. EDGAR ALLAN POE.
Horror Stories.
 GOTHIC STYLE.
 Romantic in Language and
Imagery.
 Creator of the modern Detective
Story.
 “The murders of Rue Morgue”,
The mistery of Mary Roget”, The
Gold Bug”.

20. RENAISSANCE.
 THE END.
 Thank
you!!