American+Romanticism

-Elements of Literature, Fifth Course
 * Romanticism** is the name given to those schools of thought that value feeling and intuition over reason. The first rumblings of Romanticism were felt in Germany in the second half of the eighteenth century. Romanticism had a strong influence on literature, music, and painting in Europe and England well into the nineteenth century. But Romanticism came relatively late to America.

T he Romantic movement, which originated in Germany but quickly spread to England, France, and beyond, reached America around the year 1820, some 20 years after William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge had revolutionized English poetry by publishing //Lyrical Ballads//. In America as in Europe, fresh new vision electrified artistic and intellectual circles. Yet there was an important difference: Romanticism in America coincided with the period of national expansion and the discovery of a distinctive American voice. The solidification of a national identity and the surging idealism and passion of Romanticism nurtured the masterpieces of "the American Renaissance." "http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/oal/lit3.htm"

Colonists are people who care about their freedom and privacy. They escape the big, bad city for a more peaceful countryside. Valued personal feelings, inner faith and imagination.
 * A Model of the World**

-Came from the city, to the countryside -Adventurers that wanted to go out and explore the countryside -They wanted to be heroes, dying for a good cause in a noble way -Journey: there is probably no pattern so common in all narrative literature -They came to explore and do a good deed an in doing that deed they became known as a hero.  -Rip Van Winkle is an example of all of this because he came from the city and moved to the county -the sacketts are an example of this because they came from the old world to the new world. They wanted to settle in and be succesful, and they would stick up and fight for anyone with the last name sackett!
 * Explanation**
 * "Why is the world the way it is? Where does it all come from? Where do we come from?"**

-Escape from the city to nature -Nature reveals spiritual truths -They wanted to "rise above"
 * Futurology**

-Nature -Poetry, individual feelings -Wanted to be heroes -Feeling and intuition over reason, imagination, natures beauty, spontaneity, poetry, feeling free, and open -Prefers youthful innocence to educated sophistication -Champions individual freedom and the worth of the individual
 * Values**

-Respect nature, poetry, and look into our imagination -To the Romantic mind, poetry was the highest and most sublime embodiment of the imagination -You should be as close to nature as you can. Escape the city life.
 * Action**
 * "How should we act?" Morality, application of values.**

-Contemplates nature's beauty as a path to spiritual and moral development -Finds beauty and truth in exotic locales, the supernatural realm, and the inner world of the imagination -Let the imagination run wild
 * Knowledge**
 * "What is true and what is false?" How do we know?**

-Is young, or possesses youthful qualities -Is innocent and pure of purpose -Has a sense of honor based not on society's rules but on some higher principle -Has a knowledge based on deep, intuitive understanding, not on formal learning -Loves nature and avoids town life -Quests for some higher truth in the natural world
 * Characteristics of the Romantic Hero**

-Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving -William Cullen Bryant -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow -Oliver Wendell Holmes
 * Notable Works and Authors**

[|Wikipedia Entry]

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