american romanticism 1800-1840. city vs. country for age of reason, city was: independence...

AMERICAN ROMANTICISM

1800-1840

CITY VS. COUNTRY

For Age of Reason, city was:• Independence• Adventure• Prosperity• Commerce• Sophisticated society

CITY VS. COUNTRY

For Romantics, city was:• Dangerous• Corruption• Decay and death• Evil• Morally ambiguous

CITY VS. COUNTRY

The countryside became associated with:• Independence• Good health• Straightforward moral certainty

JOURNEY MOTIF

Popular in 19th century literature

Represents the journey away from the town, into

the country

Moves toward the world of nature

Both a flight from something and

A flight to something

COMPARING TWO AGES

Age of Reason ‘character’• Do-gooder• Ambitious• Hard-working• Found energy in “town/city” life

COMPARING TWO AGES

Age of Romanticism character:• Do-nothing• No ambition• Escape responsibility• Flee to the mountains/nature• Escape the limitations of town (domestic) life• Loves nature• Distrusts civilization

THE ROMANTIC SENSIBILITY

• Intuition was favored, with and emphasis on:

• Imagination• Spontaneity• Individual feelings• nature

THE ROMANTIC SENSIBILITY

Rational thinking, was inferior:• Reason• Logic• Planning • Cultivation

THE ROMANTIC SENSIBILITY

Why?• People discovered the limits of reason• People believed you could discover truths that were

accompanied by • Powerful emotion• Associated with beauty

This thinking was essentially for the purposes of ART!

THE ROMANTIC SENSIBILITY

How did they do this?

Two Ways:

Explore settings in a more natural past• Remove thoughts from the industrial age• Remove oneself from the present; go back to a

mythical time

THE ROMANTIC SENSIBILITY

Contemplate Nature until dull reality falls away• View commonplace events • Search for deeper meaning or insight

THE AMERICAN HERO

Youth (or childlike qualities)

Innocence

A love of nature

A distrust of town life

Uneasiness with women

Need to engage in a quest for some higher truth in

the natural world

THE AMERICAN HERO

Novels tended to look at:• the Wilderness• Westward expansion• Growing Nationalist spirit• Rapid growth of cities (seen as negative)

THE AMERICAN HERO

Your quintessential frontiersman• Idealized frontier life• Virtuous• Lives a moral life (follows the code of the forest)• Highly skilled• Seeking a higher good