This presentation can be used to introduce main idea and themes of the Romantic movement in American literature

1. 1800 - 1860

2. 
 Optimism and Individualism
 Kinship with Nature
 The Power of Darkness
 You will not see the world LOVE in this presentation
The history stuff will come as
needed-in the mean time . . .

3. 
Optimism and
Individualism
 Begins in England with
Coleridge, Wordsworth,
Shelley, an Keats
 Value the imagination
and feeling over
intellect and reason
(age of Reason
precedes this)

4. 
Optimism and
Individualism
 Rise of the Common
People – think Andrew
Jackson
 Transcendentalism-
Emerson and Thoreau
 Intuition is a more
valuable guide than
than sensory
experience

5. 
Optimism and
Individualism
 The universe exists for
humanity’s benefit
 Look inside yourself to
awaken a sense of
wonder
 Ordinary humans have
limitless potential
 Every person is infinite

6. 
Kinship with Nature
 Thoreau is the main
thrust of this movement
 The natural world is as
important as the
material world
“Heaven is under our feet as
well as over our heads.”

7. 
Power of Darkness
 Sometimes called anti-
transcendentalism:
Hawthorne, Melville, Poe
 Influenced by European
Gothic tales –
Frankenstein
 atmosphere of horror
 mysterious happenings,
tragic events, hideous
outcomes
 Characters are often mad,
half mad, or frightened to
death and exhibit strange
behavior and physical
traits
 Stories deal with loss,
sorrow, ruin, revenge,
disease, death
 Emphasizes the dark
impulses of human nature
– opposite of
transcendentalists

8. 
The Short Story
 Poe (and the others)
were masters of the
short story
 Invented the detective
story (Murders in the
Rue Morgue)
 Believed stories had to
have a single, unique
effect