UNIT 3:

Romanticism: 1800 to 1865

UNIT OVERVIEW
Essential Questions for Class Discussion:
How does American Romanticism mark a radical rejection of the American Enlightenment?
What were the values of the Romantics, and how did these values affect the American imagination?
How does Dark Romantic literature reflect the limitations and potential destructiveness of the human spirit?
Who were the Transcendentalists, and how do their beliefs still influence American life?
Unit Literature
Year

Author

Text

Genre

Pages

2005

----

A Growing Nation

Non-Fiction

1819

Washington Irving

Rip Van Winkle

Short Story

5.5

1819

Washington Irving

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Short Story

11.5

1824

Washington Irving

The Devil And Tom Walker

Short Story

1838; 1879

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

A Psalm of Life; The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls

Poetry

1817

William Cullen Bryant

Thanatopsis

Poetry

1830; 1858

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Old Ironsides; The Chambered Nautilus

Poetry

1847

James Russell Lowell

Auspex; The First Snowfall

Poetry

1866

John Greenleaf Whittier

Snowbound: A Winter Idyll

Poetry

1839

Edgar Allan Poe

The Fall of the House of Usher

Short Story

1845

Edgar Allan Poe

The Raven

Poem

1843

Edgar Allan Poe

The Tell-Tale Heart

Short Story

1842

Edgar Allan Poe

The Masque of the Red Death

Short Story

2.5

1846

Edgar Allan Poe

The Cask of Amontillado

Short Story

2.5

1842

Edgar Allan Poe

The Pit And The Pendulum

Short Story

5.5

1836

Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Minister's Black Veil

Short Story

1835

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Young Goodman Brown

Short Story

1851

Herman Melville

Moby Dick (excerpt)

Novel

8.5

1837

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The American Scholar

Speech

4.5

1836

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nature

Essay

5.5

1841

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Self-Reliance

Essay

3.5

1836; 35

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Concord Hymn; The Snow-Storm

Poetry

1854

Henry David Thoreau

Walden; or, Life in the Woods (excerpt)

Non-Fiction

1849

Henry David Thoreau

Civil Disobedience

Essay

c. 1860

Emily Dickinson

Select Poems

Poetry

1.5

1892

Walt Whitman

Leaves of Grass: Select Poems

Poetry

American Literature with Mr. Brennan: Unit 3

ELEMENTS of ROMANTICISM

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Imagination, Imagery, and Escapism: as a result of the

industrial revolution and urbanization, turned to the
imagination and supernatural, as well as the mystery and
beauty of nature, to escape the harsh realities of life.

Industrial Revolution: the developments in technology and

machinery led to a rapid development of industry during the
late 18th and 19th centuries; characterized by the use of
steam power, the growth of factories, and the mass
production of manufactured goods. (e.g. steamboats,
railroads, spinning mills, cotton gin, clipper ship, telegraph)

Individuality and Intuition: stressed subjectivity, feeling, and

emotion over reason as a source for meaning; optimistic
approach against European Enlightenment, or Age of Reason.
Americans journeying into the frontier vast expanse, freedom,
no geographic limitations and immigrants arriving on
Americas shores sought to create a unique identity; America
as a country also sought to culturally distance themselves from
Europe and establish a unique American identify.
Reverence for Nature (as a source of spirituality): nature is
respected as supremely beautiful, immensely mysterious, and
all-powerful; something that can be looked to for spiritual
insight, knowledge of the primitive, and a way to become
closer to God; goes against machine-driven industrial world.
Looking to the Past (for wisdom): many Romantic writers
took inspiration from great European writers (i.e. form,
technique), but aimed at making the content purely American.
Many Romantic texts are also set in times past (i.e. escapism)
Common Man as the Hero: European heroes were educated
and sophisticated (i.e. Franklin), Romantics embraced the
everyday man as a hero while embracing Romantic values.
ELEMENTS of DARK ROMANTISISM
* Combines fiction, horror and Romanticism.
* Setting is threatening, rundown, isolated; away from civilization.
* Protagonist is physically/emotionally alone; may be self-imposed
or the result of circumstances beyond his/her control.
* Characters are in psychological and/or physical torment
* Plot involves macabre or violent incidents.
* Decay, process of decline, conveyed in community or individual.
* Supernatural or otherworldly elements are often present.
* Characterized by elements of fear, terror, supernatural, darkness.
* Unique characters (vampires, demons, heroes, heroines, villains).
Transcendentalism is an optimistic offshoot of Romanticism.
Promoted the essential unity of all creation, the innate
goodness of man, and the supremacy of insight over logic
and experience for the revelation of the deepest truths.
They also stress non-conformity, the importance of nature,
and that all forms of being (God, nature, and humanity) are
spiritually united through a shared universal soul. The
Dark Romanticism, also known as Anti-Transcendentalism or
Gothicism, is a pessimistic offshoot of Romanticism.
Focused on the limitations and potential destructiveness of
the human spirit rather than its possibilities. Believed
essential truths about life were found in extreme situations
or the darker side of human nature (e.g. greed, fear).
Believing that people have the potential to do bad things in
their life, God should be on a higher level than society.

Urbanization: the increasing number of people that migrate

from rural to urban areas. This applies to the growth of US
cities as a result of both rural America, and rural Europe, as
immigrants in large numbers arrive to the US.
Social and Political Changes: (rise of the common man)
Andrew Jackson's unsuccessful bid for presidency in 1824,
when he won the plurality of votes but lost to John Quincy
Adams when the election was decided in the House of
Representatives. Jackson, a man of common beginnings,
was the first candidate of the new states. In 1828 election,
Jackson convincingly defeated Adams bringing to an end
the domination of the eastern establishment.
Polarized America: The industrial revolution resulted in the
division of north and south; north becomes industrialized,
south remains agricultural. The success of northern industry
made slavery appear unusual, and to the free labor of the
North slavery became revolting.
Social Reform Movements: abolition of slavery, the rights of
women, improvement of working conditions; reformism
was, according to Whittier, "moral steam-enginery" and it
was fed by two impulses - the idea of evolution even before
Darwin and the idea of the "perfection of the social order."
Utopian Experiments: to counter the negative effects of the
industrial revolution, communities were created to reflect
social perfectibility (rather than religious purity); founded on
notions of self-reliance, optimism, individualism and a
disregard for external authority and tradition.
Frontier: the uncultivated wilderness of the western US before
Pacific settlement; many saw the vast expanse of unsettled
land with no geographic limitations as a symbol of freedom,
opportunity, and optimism.
LITERARY TERMS
Allegory: a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a
hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one
Allusion: a reference designed to call something to mind without
mentioning it explicitly
Objective: judgment not influenced by personal feelings or opinions
Personification: attributing human qualities to something nonhuman
Style: the ways that the author describes events, objects, and ideas
(e.g. use of word choice, sentence structure, figurative language,
sentence arrangement to establish mood, images, and meaning)
Subjective: judgment influenced by personal feelings or opinions
Symbolism: a person, place, thing, event, or pattern in a literary work
that figuratively represents or stands for something else.

American Literature with Mr. Brennan: Unit 3