The document discusses American Romanticism, highlighting its impact on writers and the individual amid historical events like the Louisiana Purchase and the Mexican-American War. It covers key movements such as the Transcendentalists, who believed in individualism and the spiritual connection to nature, and the Dark Romantics, who explored the complexities of human nature and the supernatural. Prominent figures mentioned include Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Edgar Allan Poe, and Nathaniel Hawthorne.

1. American Romanticism
Society’s Impact on the Individual Writer

2. Changes in America
Louisiana Purchase
Manifest Destiny
Mexican-American War

4. Conflicts in Emotion
Patriotism vs. individualism
Should we support our nation no matter what?
Urban vs. untamed
Contrast between settled cities and new wilderness
Wealthy vs. enslaved
Expansion and industrialization led to financial gains,
but slavery for African Americans

5. Writers reacted by turning to
nature and to the self for
simplicity, truth, and beauty

6. Early Romantics
William Cullen Bryant, Washington Irving
Reacted to Puritanism
Aimed to capture the energy and character of their
growing country
Saw limits to reason and celebrated human nature
Optimistic

7. Fireside Poets
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes
Uplifting and romantically engaging
Family custom: reading poetry around a fire
Celebrated individualism, nature, social reform

8. The Transcendentalists

9. What does
“transcendentalism” mean?
There is an ideal spiritual state which “transcends” the physical
and empirical.
It is a loose collection of eclectic ideas about literature, philosophy,
religion, social reform, and the general state of American culture.
Had different meanings for each person involved in the
movement.

10. What did transcendentalists
believe?
There is an ideal spiritual state, which “transcends” the physical and
empirical (gained by experience).

11. Basic Premise #1
An individual is the spiritual center of the universe, and in
an individual can be found the clue to nature, history and,
ultimately, the world itself. It is not a rejection of the
existence of God, but a preference to explain an individual
and the world in terms of an individual.

12. Basic Premise #2
The structure of the universe literally duplicates the
structure of the individual self—all knowledge, therefore,
begins with self-knowledge. This is similar to Aristotle's
dictum "know thyself."

13. Basic Premise #3
Transcendentalists accepted the concept of nature as a
living mystery, full of signs; nature is symbolic.

14. Basic Premise #4
The belief that individual virtue and happiness depend upon self-
realization—this depends upon the reconciliation of two universal
psychological tendencies:
The desire to embrace the whole world—to know and become one
with the world.
The desire to withdraw, remain unique and separate—an egotistical
existence.

15. Who were the
Transcendentalists?
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Henry David Thoreau

16. The Dark Romantics
Does every individual have a dark side?

17. The Dark Romantics
Inspired by nature
Fascinated with the supernatural
Didn’t have the same faith in the goodness of
humankind
Aware of human capacity for evil

18. Freedom of imagination led them to:
Explore inner life and motivation of characters
Include fantastic or supernatural elements in their
writing
You may recognize them as…
Edgar Allan Poe
Nathaniel Hawthorne