Romanticism & Transcendentalism

Question 1

Romanticism

Answer 1

Intellectual and cultural movement from late 18th through mid 19th:
Revolt against enlightenment and its values

Question 2

Transcendentalism

Answer 2

Romanticist intellectual movement from late 1820s two 1860s in New England

Question 3

Key elements

Answer 3

1. Inherent goodness of people and nature
2. Society and its institution as corrupting the individual
3. Ideal of self reliant, independent individual as source of personal and societal progress

Question 4

The American Renaissance

Answer 4

• first peak of American literature from 1820 to 1860s;
Literature articulated distinctive character of US culture and national identity

• growing book a newspaper market and social acceptance of fiction active role of literature in society
• literature often commented critically on political, social & economic developments

Question 5

Romanticist/American renaissance poetry

Answer 5

• Regarded as spontaneous expression of personal feelings

- Break with classical poetic convention (e.g. Free verse, writing about ordinary people)

Question 6

Walt Whitman

Answer 6

• 1819 to 1892

* most eminent American poet leading figure of movement

Question 7

The Essay

Answer 7

• and analytic &/or interpretive nonfiction text form, known since antiquity but flourishing particularly since 18th
• political essay was key vehicle for intellectual critique of politics, Society, education, religion etc.
• elevated, often witty elegant style of writing; addresses educated but general audience
• text form marked my flexibility, brevity, and potential for ambiguity, include allusions to current events/conditions

Question 8

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Answer 8

• 1803 to 1882

* American clergyman and leading transcendentalist thinker and writer

Question 9

Antebellum vision of the land

Answer 9

• that was imagined as uninhabited “Virgin land” that could be claimed
• unsettled land was viewed as threatening wildness
• yet, it could become paradisiacal gotten through proper cultivation

> cultivation of soil was seen as basics of civilization and land rights

> only whites were considered to be capable of transforming wildness into garden

> argument used to justify removal of natives and settlements of whites

Question 10

Nature writing

Answer 10

• commonly first person account of personal observation and reflection open nature
• May also draw upon scientific information about the natural World
• has roots natural history writing by explorers and naturalist of the later 18th. c and I’m romanticists concern with nature
• can take different forms, e.g field guides, natural history or philosophical essays, Travel and adventure writing

Question 11

Henry David Thoreau

Answer 11

• 1817 to 1862

* American poet, naturalist, philosopher

Question 12

American literature of the era

Answer 12

• (Transcendentalist) poetry
• The essay
• (Transcendentalist) Nature Writing