Dark Romanticism

Quick Write: Pg. 14

Horror MoviesWhy are they so popular and what do they have to say about the time/society we live in?

Dark Romanticism NotesThe Darkness within.

The boundaries which divide Lifefrom Death are at best shadowyand vague. Who shall say where

the one ends, and where the other begins?” -Edgar Allan Poe

Origins

💀 Began in the mid 1840s

💀 Direct reaction to Transcendentalism which was thought to be too optimistic

💀 Dark Romantics believed Transcendentalists thought too highly of humans and ignored their dark side.

Characteristics

1. Humans are far from perfect2. Nature=Dark and Scary

3. Human perfectibility? Nah4. Intuition Over Logic

1. Believed Humans were far from perfect and were as evil as they were good.

Characteristics

a. Individuals are prone to sin and self-destruction.

b. Believed humans did not inherently possess wisdom and divinity.

c. Near obsession with evil and the supernatural (materialized in the form of goblins, ghosts, satan, devils, etc.

2. View of nature is much more dark than the Transcendentalists and Romantics.

A.

View the world as dark, decaying, and mysterious.

B.

Reflected the world around them in overcrowded cities and industrialized landscapes.

C.

The Dark romantics saw the truths to be only evil and hellish.

3. Unsure of the individual's ability to follow through with reform.

a. Made this apparent by frequently showing individuals failing in their attempts to change social norms.

Characteristics

4. Values Intuition over logic.

a. Some things in life cannot be dealt with logically and some things are beyond any human control.

Major Authors

Edgar Allan Poe

Tell-Tale Heart

The Raven

Pit and the Pendulum

Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Scarlet Letter

Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment

Herman Melville

Moby Dick

The Gothic Genre

A style, tone, or genre in Western Literature that most people recognize through various names, images, or elements:

Elements of Gothic Literature

HauntedHouses/CastlesWoodsMazes/LabyrinthsClosed DoorsSecret PassagesLight and DarkInterplayShades of GrayBlood-Red colorsHeaven and Hell

Byronic Bad-boyheroes:Cooked up by the "mad,bad, and dangerous toknow" Lord Byron, aByronic hero is an antiheroof the highest order. He (orshe) is typically rebellious,arrogant, anti-social or inexile, and darkly, enticinglyromantic. Did we mentionByronic heroes tend to alsobe kind of hot? Yeah, that too.

Death and DecayBlood as a visualspectacleSpectral orgrotesque figuresCreepy SoundsScreams in theNightGroans fromunknown rooms

Examples?What are some examples of the

Gothic in modern mediums?

Let’s Talk Examples

Books Movies/TV Fashion

Haunted SpacesThese spaces reflect or correspond to a haunted mind.

In European literature the gothic space is typically a haunted castle

or other architectural structure such as a maze or labyrinth.

American literature sometimes features a gothic building, as in

Faulkner’s southern gothic, but American literature and films often

transfer the gothic to a haunted forest or wilderness—from The

Legend of Sleepy Hollow and The Last of the Mohicans to The Blair

Witch Project.

Pg. 16 Bell Ringer: 3/7Prompt: Imagine you are at the end of your life. If you could go back in

time and do your life over again, would you do anything differently?

Write a thesis followed by 2-3 well crafted paragraphs explain why or

why not.

Thesis: A thesis statement focuses your ideas into one or

two sentences. It should present the topic of your paper and also

make a comment about your position in relation to the topic.

Your thesis statement should tell your reader what the paper is

about and also help guide your writing and keep your argument

focused.

Thesis Check1. DOES YOUR THESIS STATEMENT HAVE ONE TOPIC?

Remember the objective is a paper that has a single focus. It can be made up of assorted subpoints, but they must be related and unified to support that central idea.

2. IS YOUR THESIS OF APPROPRIATE SCOPE?Do you have a specific argument or line of thought that you want the reader to follow? Does the thesis suggest that you may be trailing off on some other idea not sufficiently related to your thesis?

3. DOES YOUR THESIS SHOW YOUR POSITION?Even a definitional paper will show the position you are taking or the conclusion that you want readers to draw from your paper. Be careful here that your thesis is not just announcing what you are going to talk about rather than stating your position on that subject

4. IS YOUR THESIS CLEAR AND SPECIFIC?Have a friend look at it who does not know what you are writing about and ask him or her to explain back to you what it sounds like the paper will be about. You may be surprised that your thesis is overly large, uses vague language, does not make your point clear or suggests subject matter that you did not intend to address.

Thesis Check

● Finish Chart● Answer Questions: 2-6 on pg. 17

Finish Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment Questions

pg.17

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8PvymfN2x0