Romanticism was an international philosophical and artistic movement that emerged in the late 18th century. It valued emotion, nature, and the individual spirit over reason and social conformity. American Romanticism shared many traits with British Romanticism but differed in its emphasis on the common man as hero and on nature as a source of spirituality. Major American Romantic authors included Emerson, Thoreau, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, Dickinson, and Whitman. Their works explored themes of the frontier, immigration, industrialization, and a search for new spiritual roots.

1. Megan Casilla
Jyzette Alex Hermitanio
Nam Seo Hui
Lovely Pamela Serran
Faith Obinarrio

2. Romanticism Defined
• Romanticism does not refer to ‘love’ as a
subject matter, rather it is an international
and philosophical movement that redefined
the fundamental ways of how man thought
about themselves and their surroundings.
• F.O Matthiessen termed the American
Romanticism as ‘American Renaissance’

3. • British Romanticism is similar to American
Romanticism. British Romanticism is the
parent of the American literary movement
but differences between the two is easily
distinguished.

4. British Contrast
American

5. British
American

6. • Father of American Romanticism
• The importance of expressive art for the
individual and the society:
“For all men live by truth, and stand in need
of expression the man is only half of himself,
the other half is his expression.”

7. • Romanticism was introduced by German artists.
• There is nothing romantic about romanticism
• They are artistic movement that gave way to the
opening of literary history for new movements
• Romanticism is a movement that revolts against
Neoclassicism
• Romanticism dwells on man and nature; they
celebrate the function of the intuition and the
imagination, the metaphysical, revolutionary,
individualism and the spontaneous rather than
reason and morals, objectivity, traditional, social
conformity and control.

8. • Emotional Intensity. The heart and the mind
lead the writer into writing a good piece of
literature.
• Common Man as the hero. Literary pieces of
this time concentrate more on putting the
real flawed man into an extraordinary— if
not out of the ordinary— situation.

9. • Nature as a source of spirituality and
knowledge. American romanticism sees
nature as the source of intellect and
knowledge.
• Self-idealism, honor and integrity. This gave
way to the first-person poetry. The poetic
speaker became less of a character but more
of a direct observation of the poet. In some
occasions, the artist became the hero of the
piece.

10. • Macabre, irrational, Mysterious Universe. It
is through intense emotions from the
unknown that human nature is emphasized.

11. • American frontier expansion allowed for
expansion and freedom. It is in the
expansion of British colonials to the west.
• Uncharted land invoked spirit of optimism.
This seemingly vast and limitless land owned
my colonials gave them the opportunity to
expand more across the horizon.
• New cultures and perspectives brought by
immigration. Britons, Irish, Danish, etc. also
moved to America.

12. • Industrial growth in the north separates
agrarian south. Industrial Revolution that
left the rest of Latin American in economic
progress.
• Search for new spiritual roots . The culture
of the Natives began to play an impact on
the literature of the time.

13. • Industrial growth in the north separates
agrarian south. Industrial Revolution that
left the rest of Latin American in economic
progress.
• Search for new spiritual roots . The culture
of the Natives began to play an impact on
the literature of the time.

14. • James Fenimore Cooper - Last
of the Mohicans, Red Rover
• Emily Dickinson - Because I
Could Not Stop for Death,
Wild Nights! Wild Nights!
• Ralph Waldo Emerson Nature, The Conduct of Life
• Margaret Fuller - Woman in
the Nineteenth Century,
Papers on Literature and Art

15. • Nathaniel Hawthorne - The Scarlet
Letter, House of Seven Gables
• Washington Irving - Rip Van Winkle,
Legend of Sleepy Hollow
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Song of Hiawatha, Midnight Ride of
Paul Revere
• Herman Melville - Moby Dick
• Edgar Allan Poe - The Raven, A
Dream Within a Dream, Fall of the
House of Usher
• Henry David Thoreau - Walden, Civil
Disobedience
• Walt Whitman - Leaves of Grass,
Song of Myself

16. • Herman Melville - Moby Dick
• Edgar Allan Poe - The Raven, A
Dream Within a Dream, Fall of the
House of Usher
• Henry David Thoreau - Walden,
Civil Disobedience
• Walt Whitman - Leaves of Grass,
Song of Myself

17. Source
Unpublished material copyright © 1997 by Dr.
Brad Strickland, Department of
English, Gainesville College, Gainesville, GA 305
03 (USA).
Permission is granted to reproduce, distribute,
or alter this material for educational purposes.