American Romanticism was a literary movement that emerged in response to industrialization and emphasized emotion, nature, and the individual. Notable authors of the period included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Edgar Allan Poe, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, who wrote about transcendentalism, nationalism vs. sectionalism, and the dark side of human nature. The movement also saw the rise of popular poets like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow who celebrated American culture and heritage.

1. American Romanticism
SANDEEP ARAKALI
MATTHEW CUI
VINCENZO JULIAN
LAUREN GUEST

2. Table of Contents
2
1. Historical Highlights
2. Movements
3. Notable Authors
4. Terms

3. Historical Highlights
3
1. WESTWARD EXPANSION
2. INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
3. SLAVERY
4. SOCIAL REFORM
5. TIMELINE

4. Westward Expansion
4
 “Manifest Destiny” was idea
that America was preordained
to stretch from coast to coast
 Expansion was rapid and often
forced out Indians from their
homes
 Desire for land led to war with
Mexico that was thought to be Pre-war
immoral by Thoreau
 Mexican-American War and
subsequent land cessions along
with Indian Removal Act of
1830 caused Manifest Destiny
to prevail as a philosophy
Post-war

5. Industrial Revolution
5
 Embargo during War of 1812
forced America to start
manufacturing goods, changing
the country from agrarian to
industrial
 Factory system involved many
people working long hours in
filthy conditions for low wages
 Writers reacted negatively by
portraying the
commercialism, hectic pace, and
lack of conscience involved with
industry
 Artists and authors turned to
nature for solace and beauty
forming the basis for romanticism

6. Slavery
6
 Cotton production increased in
the South requiring more slaves
 Life was brutal for slaves as
they were often whipped,
separated from family, and
worked from dawn to dusk
 Slavery was one of the issues
that separated North and South
 Greatest achievement of
romantic poets such as James
Lowell and John Whittier was
to raise awareness about
slavery through abolitionist
poetry and journalism
James Russell Lowell (left) and John
Greenleaf Whittier (right)

7. Social Reform
7
 Two main areas were
abolition of slavery and
women’s rights
 Authors like William Bryant
and James Lowell worked
for both of the above causes
 Women gathered in Seneca
Falls Convention in 1848 to
fight for their rights
 Abolitionists united to work
for emancipation of slaves
up until Civil War in 1864

8. Timeline
1800 1810 1820
Louisiana Purchase is made War of 1812 breaks out and Missouri Compromise creates
(1803) industry booms (1812) tension over slavery (1820)
Noah Webster publishes first Jane Austen writes Pride and Irving’s The Devil and Tom
American dictionary (1806) Prejudice (1813) Walker is published (1824)
Irving publishes A History of “Thanatopsis is published by Cooper writes The Last of the
New York satirizing American William Cullen Bryant (1817) Mohicans (1826)
(1809) First African-American
newspaper, Freedom’s Journal is
founded (1827)
1830 1840 1850
Indian Removal Act relocates Melville’s first novel, Typee is Hawthorne publishes The
many Indian tribes west (1830) published (1846) Scarlet Letter (1850)
The Transcendental Club is Gold is discovered in California Congress passes harsh Fugitive
founded by Thoreau, Emerson, sparking gold rush (1848) Slave Act further increasing
and others (1835) Emily Bronte publishes sectional tensions (1850)
Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Wuthering Heights (1847) Harriet Beecher Stowe
Usher” is published (1839) Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publishes anti-slavery novel
publish The Communist Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
Manifesto (1848)
8

9. Movements
9
1. NATIONALISM VS. SECTIONALISM
2. ROMANTICISM
3. TRANSCENDENTALISM
4. GOTHIC
5. FIRESIDE POET MOVEMENT

10. Nationalism vs. Sectionalism
10
Nationalism Sectionalism
 Belief that national interests  Placing the interests of one’s
should be placed ahead of own region ahead of the
regional ones nation’s as a whole
 Writers created a unique  Ignited by slavery issue which
American style different from Northerners saw as immoral
European literature of writing and Southerners saw as
reflecting national pride essential
 Noah Webster wrote first truly  Balance of free and slave states
“American” dictionary in was also a concern
1806, including 5000 uniquely  South was mainly agrarian
American words not found in while North was industrial
European writing increasing sectional tension

11. Romanticism
11
 Romanticism emerged as a response
to neoclassicism in Europe
 Neoclassicism emphasized classical
forms, while romantics looked at
emotions and imagination
 Romanticism revolted against
Enlightenment rationalization and
reason by celebrating the
supernatural aspects of nature
 William Cullen Bryant established
romanticism with his 1817 poem
“Thanatopsis” which celebrates
nature
 Washington Irving pioneered the
romantic short story while James
Fenimore Cooper wrote novels Kindred Spirits – a classic romantic painting by artist
Asher B. Durand showing the beauty of nature and
Durand’s fellow romanticist William Cullen Bryant

12. Transcendentalism
12
 Emerged from romanticism as a
Henry David
celebration of the simple life, the Thoreau’s
individual, and the traditional cabin in
Walden
American values of Pond, MA
displaying his
optimism, freedom, and self-reliance ideas about
living simply
 Encouraged spiritual well-being over and
wealth and believed people were connecting
with nature
good at heart
 Name “transcendentalist” came from
German philosopher Immanuel Kant
 Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry
David Thoreau were notable
transcendentalist authors
 The essays “Civil Disobedience” and
“Self-Reliance” by Thoreau and
Emerson respectively, emphasized
individual integrity

13. American Gothic
13
 Subset of romanticism that
emphasizes a dark side of humans
and their natural capacity for evil
 Made use of “gothic” elements such
as grotesque characters and bizarre
or violent events
 Still connect to romantics by
continuing to stress
emotion, nature, and the
individual as themes
 Poe, Melville, and Hawthorne were
the biggest gothic writers of the
time
 Mary Shelley also popularized the
macabre with her novel
Frankenstein

14. Fireside Poets
14
 Morally uplifting poetry
movement that brought
American poetry on par with
British poetry
 Longfellow was the most notable
Fireside Poet with poems
celebrating America’s heritage
and culture such as
“Evangeline” and the “Song of
Hiawatha”
 Lowell, Holmes, and Whittier
were also Fireside Poets but they
concentrated on social issues
like slavery and advancing the
common man in society

15. Notable Authors
15
1. RALPH WALDO EMERSON
2. HENRY DAVID THOREAU
3. HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
4. EDGAR ALLAN POE
5. NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
6. HERMAN MELVILLE
7. WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT
8. WASHINGTON IRVING

16. 16
Emerson was a New
England author who led
a practicing group of
Transcendentalists. He
was actually a Unitarian
minister until his wife
died. In 1836 he
published Nature, which
became his group’s (The
Transcendental Club)
unofficial creed, and his
essay “Self-Reliance”
addressed
individualism. He is
considered one of the
most important authors
in American literary
history. Fun Fact: He
was known as the Sage Ralph Waldo Emerson
of Concord because of
his formal demeanor.
(1803-1882)
Transcendentalist

17. 17
Thoreau was a
man that rejected
materialism and
the conformity of
American
culture, but valued
simple life and
nature. He wrote
“Civil
Disobedience”
which emphasized
the principles of
Transcendenta-
lism. Fun Fact:
He was one of the
Henry David Thoreau
first (1817-1862)
environmentalists. Transcendentalist

18. 18
Longfellow grew up in
Portland, Maine and was a
prodigy. He became a
published author at age 13
and went to Bowdoin
College in Maine at 15 years
old. He is the best-known
member of the Fireside
Poets, which were a group of
New England poets that
wrote “morally uplifting and
romantically engaging"
pieces. He emphasized
nature and individualism in
his work and also helped
with the abolitionist
movement by writing
antislavery poems. His
literary works include
“Evangeline” and “The Song
of Hiawatha”. Fun Fact: He
is the only American poet to
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
receive a plaque in Poets’ 1807-1882
Corner of Westminster
Abbey in London. Fireside Poet

19. 19
Poe is called one of
literature’s “most brilliant,
but erratic” authors. At age
3, he lost his mother and
went to live with a wealthy
Virginia businessman John
Allan. At age 18, he was
thrown out of college for
gambling debts. His wife
Virginia Clemm, died 11
years into their marriage.
Poe’s life has not been a cake
walk, which aided in his
distinctive literature. He
used many gothic elements
(i.e. grotesque characters,
violence, and abnormal
events) and touched on
human psychology in his
work. “The Raven” is
considered the best-known
American poem. Fun Fact:
Edgar Allen Poe
His wife, Virginia, was
around 13 years old at the
(1809-1849)
time of their wedding. Gothic

20. 20
Hawthorne was a very
private person, born in
Salem. He believed in
the Puritan ideology, but
was very pessimistic and
was skeptical of the
salvation of society. He
was very skilled in his
use of symbols in his
literature. One of his
most famous works is
The Scarlet Letter, in
which he explored the
The Scarlet Letter – one of
effects of sin and guilt on Hawthorne’s greatest
the human soul. Fun works published in 1850
Fact: His great-great
grandfather was a judge
at the Salem witch trials
and the only one who Nathaniel Hawthorne
refused to apologize for
his wrongdoings.
(1804-1864)
Gothic

21. 21
Melville lived a secluded
life with the
cannibalistic Typee
people in the Marquesas
Islands for a while. His
experiences here
provided material for his
later works. One of his
most famous
works, Moby Dick, was
different from his Artist’s rendering of Moby Dick
adventure stories in the the great white whale
South Pacific. In this
novel, Melville explores
the subjects of madness
and the conflict of good
vs. evil. Fun Fact: After
the publication of Moby
Dick, his popularity Herman Melville
plummeted and he never
fully regained it back.
(1819-1891)
Gothic

22. 22
Bryant was born in 1794 in
Cunningham, Massachuset
ts. At a young age, he was
inspired to write poetry
about nature, but he
attended law school due to
his father’s request. He left
the law
practice, however, to focus
on literature. He became a
prominent abolitionist. His
poem “Thanatopsis” was
written in 1817 and helped
establish romanticism as a
major literary movement in
mid-19th century America.
He also is acknowledged
for his skills in portraying
American landscape. Fun
Fact: He walked up to 40
miles a day, in which he William Cullen Bryant
gained knowledge of
America’s landscapes.
(1794-1878)
Romantic

23. 23
Irving is well-known for
his story on the Headless
Horseman in “The
Legend of Sleepy
Hollow”. He also studied
law at a young age, but
felt no passion for it. His
short stories helped
establish the short story
as a literary form and
helped put America on
the “literary map”. He
was also the fist
American writer that
was praised for his work
in Europe. Fun Fact:
He is buried near New
York’s Sleepy Hollow
Cemetery, which is the Washington Irving
setting of his short story
“The Legend of Sleepy
(1783-1859)
Hollow”. Romantic

24. Terms
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1. “SYMBOL”
2. “ALLEGORY”
3. “SATIRE”
4. “BLANK VERSE”

25. Symbol
25
 Words, places, objects, or characters in a literary
work that mean something beyond what they are on
a literal level
 Can be cultural, contextual, or personal
 Used in romanticism to hint at the usual themes of
the power of nature and the integrity of the
individual

26. Allegory
26
 Loosely describes writing in prose that has a double
meaning
 Contains the use of multiple symbolic events and
characters to illustrate a broader concept or an
extended metaphor where characters and settings
have a meaning beyond the literal level
 Interpreting and analyzing an allegory is called
“allogoresis”

27. Satire
27
 An attack on any stupidity or vice using scathing
humor
 Also could critique political, religious, or social edicts
that the author sees as dangerous
 Satirists believed that if they magnified people’s
faults humorously, the people would be more likely
to correct themselves
 The most popular category of satire in the romantic
era was indirect satire where the humor and message
is buried in a fictional narrative

28. Blank Verse
28
 Refers to unrhymed iambic pentameter or unrhymed
lines of ten syllables with the even-numbered
syllables bearing the accents
 Commonly used both in Shakespearean and classic
literature as well as romantic and post-romantic era
 Lauded as the meter that most closely resembles
natural human speech

29. THE END
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