American Romanticism

1. Characteristics

1.1. Formal Language

1.2. Plot demonstrates

1.2.1. Romantic Love

1.2.2. Honor and Iintegrity

1.2.3. Idealism of self

1.3. Values feelings and Intuitions over reason.

1.4. Places faith in "inner experience" and the value of imagination.

1.5. Values individual freedom

1.6. Contemplates nature´s beauty as a path to spiritual and moral development.

2. Emily Dickinson

3. Literary Themes:

3.1. Highly Imaginative

3.2. Emotional Intensity

3.3. Escapism

3.4. Common man as hero

3.5. Nature as refuge, source of knowledge and/or spirituality

4. Historical Background

4.1. Sectional power arose to challenge the political dominance of the East and the South.

4.2. The United States had begun to change into an industrial and urban society.

4.3. The rise of Nationalism

5. Values/ Traits

5.1. Emotional

5.2. Individualistic

5.3. Revolutionary

5.4. Creative

6. American Romanticists

6.1. Ralph Waldo Emerson

6.2. Edgar Allan Poe

6.3. Nathaniel Hawthorne

7. Cultural Influences

7.1. Slavery

7.2. Social Reforms

7.3. Abolition

7.4. Nationalism vs. Sectionalism

8. The Romantic Movement was the first major literary movement in a very young America, spanning from 1820-1860.

8.1. The Romantic Movement was seen as a golden age, an American renaissance where literature flourished and became truly "American".

8.2. The glory years were 1850-1855.

9. Works

9.1. Lyric

9.2. Sentimental Novel

9.3. Sentimental Comedy

9.4. Ballad

9.5. Gothic Romance

9.6. Sonnet