BEFORE WE LOOK AT WHAT
ROMANTICISM IS, WE HAVE
TO THINK ABOUT WHAT IT IS

NOT!

• Despite the name of the literary period, Romanticism

does not deal with sappy love stories.

THIS IS NOT THE KIND OF
LITERATURE THAT WE ARE
GOING TO STUDY!

AMERICAN

ROMANTICISM

Early 1800’s to 1865

​

Due to the fact that the country was now
established, writers moved their focus
away from political matters and
revolutionary governmental ideas, and
began to focus on other aspects of life
(emotions, possibilities, imagination, etc.).

TYPES OF LITERATURE

PREVALENT IN
ROMANTICISM…

•Short stories

•Novels

•Poetry

•Essays

ROMANTIC SUBJECT

MATTER

• Mysticism- Knowledge of God is attainable through the use

of human faculties, transcends intellect and does not use
normal human perceptions and logical processes

• Individualism - Heightened awareness of moods and mental

potentials as well as personality

• Love of Nature –

• Nature was perfect
• Primitive People closer to God--Native Americans (they thought)
• Human nature prone to good; evil result of self-imposed limitations

on freedom

• Focus on Exoticism and History

  • Romantic-era literature often has a distinct focus on exotic locations and events or items from history.

CHARACTERISTICS

•THE 5 I’s

•Imagination
•Intuition
•Idealism
•Inspiration
•Individuality

• ​Value feeling / emotion / intuition

• Place faith in inner experience and the power of imagination

• Prefer youthful innocence to educated sophistication

• Fight for individual freedom and the worth of the individual

• Contemplate nature's beauty as a path to spiritual and moral development

​

Romantic Values

The Dark Romantics…

-Not all writers and thinkers agreed with Romantic worldview.

-Critics refer to Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Edgar Allan Poe as
Anti-Transcendentalists or Dark Romantics.

-These writers DID have much in common with their contemporary authors.

-They too, value intuition over logic and reason.

-They saw symbols and signs in all events.

The Dark Romantics…

-Believed spiritual facts lie behind nature: those facts weren’t harmless, but
sinister or evil.

-They focus on the wickedness of man, original sin, and predestination.

-Work includes the conflict of good and evil; the psychological effects of guilt and
sin; and madness in the human psyche.

​Next we will be reading a dark romantic short story:
The Devil and Tom Walker
by Washington Irving

​Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He wrote the short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820)

Literary Analysis: Characterization

Characterization is the way a writer reveals and develops characters. With direct characterization, the writer makes explicit statements about a character. With indirect characterization, the writer makes statements that allow the reader to make inferences about

a character.

Examples:
Tom Walker was a miserly fellow. (direct characterization)

Tom Walker fed his horse the bare minimum. (indirect characterization)