American Romanticism:

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American Romanticism

• Imagination and the Individual
• 1800-1860

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When you think of American romanticism, think of
this

• Where the Wild Things Are

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Romanticism is

• A journey away
• from the corruption of civilization
• and the limits of rational thought
• and toward the integrity of nature
• and the freedom of the
• imagination.

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Origins of Romanticism

• Reaction against the Enlightenment
• and Rationalism (Age of Reason)
• View of the city progress as corrupt. Too
  systematic and fake.
• Renouncement of materialism

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Characteristics of the romantic journey

• to the countryside or to adventure
• associated with
• independence
• moral clarity
• healthful living
• flight away from something or
• to something or
• emphasis on something better

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Romantic hero is

• Youthful
• Innocent and pure of purpose
• Idealistic with a sense of honor based on some
  higher principle not on societys rules
• Possesses singular (unique, remarkable) skills
• Quests for some higher truth in the natural world
• Has a knowledge of people and of life based on
  deep, intuitive understanding not on formal
  learning
• Rejects conformity
• Loves nature and avoids the masses

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Celebrating the imagination

• Romanticism
• values feeling and intuition over reason
• apprehends powerful truths that the rational mind
  cannot reach
• associates strong emotions with natural,
  unspoiled beauty

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Elements of Romanticism

• NEED

• SIN

• Nature inspiring wisdom
• Exotic setting
• Emotion and feeling over reason
• Distrust of civilization and progress

• Supernatural
• Intuition, individualism, imagination, innocence,
  independence
• Nostalgia for the past

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Nature (Elements of romanticism)

• Path to moral and spiritual development
• Preferable to civilization and progress
• Doorway to ideal world
• Romantics would say, GO OUT AND EXPERIENCE
  NATURE!
• Learn from nature, not society

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Exotic settings (Elements of romanticism)

• Sources of truth and beauty
• Examination of personality, moods, and mental
  potentialities
• Focus on passion and inner struggles

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Emotion (Elements of romanticism)

• Trust of feelings is important
• Literary themes emphasize emotion, not morality
• Feelings over reason
• Senses over intellect

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Distrust (Elements of romanticism)

• Avoids society/city life
• Shuns artificiality of civilization
• Questions progress

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Supernatural (Elements of romanticism)

• Supernatural realm
• Exotic locales
• Gothic
• Wild, haunted landscapes
• Strange events
• Mysterious settings
• Psychological exploration of the human mind

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The five Is (Elements of romanticism)

• Intuition
• Individual
• Imagination
• Innocence
• Independence

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Nostalgia (Elements of romanticism)

• Concern for and focus on the past
• Myths
• Legends
• Folk culture

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Additional romantic characteristics

• American settings
• An attempt to establish authenticity
• Sense of optimism

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Americas Romantic writers(preview no need to
write these down today)

• James Fenimore Cooper (Last of the Mohicans)
• 1789-1851
• Washington Irving (Rip Van Winkle)
• 1783-1859
• William Cullen Bryant (Thanatopsis)
• 1794-1878
• Nathaniel Hawthorne (The Scarlet Letter)
• 1804-1864
• Edgar Allan Poe (The Telltale Heart, etc)
• 1809-1849
• Herman Melville (Moby Dick)
• 1819-1891

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The Dark Romantics

• focused on the grotesque, the gloomy, the
  morbid, the fantastic
• valued intuition emotion over logic and reason
• saw symbols, spiritual truths, signs in nature
  and everyday events
• acknowledged the evil of man the horror of
  evil.

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Dark romantics include (mph)

• Herman Melville author of Moby Dick, the
  classic tale of good v. evil man v. nature.
• Edgar Allan Poe master of the psychological
  thriller founder of modern detective story.
• Nathaniel Hawthorne examiner of the human mind
  the effects of sin evil.

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Remember Elements of Romanticism NEED SIN

• Nature inspiring wisdom
• Exotic setting
• Emotion and feeling over reason
• Distrust of civilization and progress

• Supernatural
• Intuition, individualism, imagination, innocence,
  independence
• Nostalgia for the past

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Remember, when thinking of romanticism

• "Where the Wild Things Are"
• or
• Planet Earth Trailer Earth Trailer

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(N.E.E.D. S.I.N.)

• DREAMS
• by Mary Oliver
• All nightthe dark buds of dreamsopenrichly.I
  n the centerof every petalis a letter,and you
  imagineif you could only rememberand string
  them all togetherthey would spell the answer.It
  is a long night,

• and not an easy oneyou have so many
  branches,and there are diversionsbirds that
  come and go,the black fox that lies downto
  sleep beneath you,the moon staringwith her
  bone-white eye.Finally you have spentall the
  energy you canand you drag from the groundthe
  muddy skirt of your roots.

• and leap awakewith two or three syllableslike
  water in your mouthand a sense
• of lossa memorynot yet of a word,certainly not
  yet the answeronly how it feelswhen deep in
  the treeall the locks click open,and the fire
  surges through the wood,and the blossoms blossom.

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Elements of Romanticism Nature

• The Romantics valued the beauty and existence of
  nature. The Romantics wanted to go against
  societys norms of work and routine.
• What are we doing to show this?
• An Inconvenient Truth Trailer
• (video trailer) http//www.imdb.com/title/tt049711
  6/trailers-screenplay-E30439-314

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billboard examples
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Nature/environment billboard
Gore made a film to encourage Americans to care
about what happens to our world. What could we
do?
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Nature/environment billboard

• Compose a short slogan that reminds Americans of
  one of the following
• The value of nature
• (or)
• The importance of taking care of Earth
• Draw the slogan billboard
• Answer these questions on the back of the slogan
  billboard
• Where should your billboard be placed?
• Who needs to see your slogan?
• What affect would you hope it would have?