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Romanticism

Romanticism. Also called American Renaissance 1850-1855. What is Romanticism?. A movement that considers the rational inferior to the intuitive. What are Romanticism’s roots?. Romanticism roots. Reaction against Age of Reason (Jefferson, Paine, Henry)

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Romanticism

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  1. Romanticism Also called American Renaissance 1850-1855

  2. What is Romanticism? • A movement that considers the rational inferior to the intuitive.

  3. What are Romanticism’s roots?

  4. Romanticism roots • Reaction against Age of Reason (Jefferson, Paine, Henry) `Reliance on science, logic to explain the mysteries of the world • People realized the limits of reason

  5. Beliefs of Romantics • Imagination is able to discover truths that reason cannot reach • The truths are accompanied by powerful emotions which are associated with beauty • Did not totally reject logical thought but had more faith in emotional experiences

  6. Qualities of Romanticism 1. Exploring exotic settings in a world far removed from the sooty and noisy industrial age

  7. Qualities of Romanticism 2. Contemplating nature until dull reality falls away to reveal underlying beauty and truth Nature as source for the knowledge of the primitive. Nature as refuge. Nature as revelation of God to the individual.

  8. Qualities of Romantic heroes • Innocence • Love of nature • Distrust of town life • Uneasiness with women • Need to engage in a search for some highter truth in natural life

  9. Techniques of Romantic writers • Remoteness of settings in time and space. • Improbable plots. • Inadequate or unlikely characterization. • Socially "harmful morality;" a world of "lies." • Experimentation in new forms: picking up and using obsolete patterns. • Cultivation of the individualized, subjective , non-formal form of writing.

  10. Attitudes of Romantics • Appeals to imagination; use of the "willing suspension of disbelief." • Stress on emotion rather than reason; optimism, geniality. • Subjectivity: in form and meaning.

  11. Romantic subject matter • 1. The quest for beauty: non-didactic, "pure beauty.“ • 2. The use of the far-away and non-normal - antique and fanciful • .

  12. Romantic subject matter 3. In historical perspective: a. Interest in the past, all that is old. b. Characterization and mood: grotesque, Gothicism, sense of terror, fear; use of the odd and queer. (Poe, Hawthorne, Melville) 4. Escapism - from American problems. (Thoreau, Emerson)

  13. Romantic subject matter 5. Interest in external nature - for itself, for beauty: • Nature as source for the knowledge of the primitive. • Nature as refuge. c. Nature as revelation of God to the individual.

  14. Gothicism Qualities of Gothic novels As it pertains to Scarlet Letter Lurid quality of the letter Meteor in the sky Adulterous relationship Prison door, woods • Supernatural • Crime against society • Gloomy mood set

  15. Fireside poets • Last great popular poets in America • Appealed to ordinary, literate man and woman • Subjects: patriotism, nature, family, God, relligion

  16. Contemplation of the natural world“To a Waterfowl” He who, from zone to zone, Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight In the log way that I must tread alone Will lead my steps aright

  17. American Romantic poets • Wanted to prove that Americans were not unsophisticated but polished as Europeans • “Thantopsis” William Cullen Bryant To him who in the love of Nature holds Communion with her visible forms she speaks A various language.

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