ROMANTICISM (1800-1855)
Historical context
- Expansion of book publishing, magazines, newspapers
- Industrial Revolution
- Abolitionist movement
- Lessons
- 1800s, 1810s, 1820s, 1830s, 1840s, 1850s
Genre/Style
- Short stories, novels, poetry
- Imagination over reason; intuition over fact
- The law of the universe was not static but dynamic with change, growth, and development
- Focused on the fantastic of human experience
- Writing that can be interpreted two ways: surface and in depth
- Focus on inner feelings
"Anti"-Transcendentalism
Transcendentalism stressed individualism, intuition, nature, self-reliance.
Anti-Transcendentalism was a literary movement that essentially consisted of only Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville.
They focused on the limitations and potential destructiveness of the human spirit rather than on the possibilities.
Genre/Style
Short stories, novels, and poetry
Major Writers
- Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)
Wrote about sin and guilt; consequences of pride, selfishness
The Scarlet Letter
Short stories ("The Minister's Black Veil")
Anti-transcendentalist
- Herman Melville (1819-1891)
Ranked as one of America's top novelists, but recognized by few in his own time
Anti-transcendentalist: Billy Budd
Moby Dick: did not sell – only his friend Hawthorne liked it - now considered America's greatest prose epic
