Romantic Impulse

Question 1

Romantic Impulse

Answer 1

Brinkley Chapter 12: Antebellum Culture and Reform. Pages 320-326
The Romantic Impulse was a movement in the nineteenth and eighteenth centuries in which Americans attempted to work towards an elevation and liberation of their nation’s culture–an artistic sphere separate from that of Europe’s. This impulse captured the spirit of romanticism, which was applied to literature, art, philosophy, and even politics and economics. This romantic impulse was fueled by American intellectuals’ desire to liberate the human spirit.
Significant because of the transformation in American culture–literature, art, philosophy, and religion.

Question 2

Literature

Answer 2

Brinkley pg. 320-322
Emphasis on American wilderness--James Fenimore Cooper
Liberation of individual--Walt Whitman
Tragedy-- Herman Melville "Moby Dick"
Human spirit--Edgar Allen Poe

Question 3

Art

Answer 3

Brinkley pg. 320
Evoked the nation’s landscape
Hudson River School–Frederic Church, Thomas Cole, Thomas Doughty, and Asher Durand.
Significance of the new style of painting exemplified that America, unlike Europe, still had “wild nature”.
Set America aside from the Old World by portraying the ruggedness and extraordinary landscapes of the US.

Question 4

Philosophy

Answer 4

Brinkley pgs. 322-324
Transcendentalists– Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Emphasized the repression of instinct and victory of externally exposed learning. Every person should reach the liberation of the confines of “understanding”.

Utopia–communal living in attempts to create a perfect society.
Brook Farm, Massachusetts 1841
New Harmony, Indiana 1825