Romanticism, Transcendentalism, Gothic, Harlem Renaissance

By

Dr. O. D. Kudalkar

Overview

1. Puritan/Colonial (1650-1750)
2. Revolutionary/Age of Reason (1750-1800)
3. Romanticism (1800-1860)
4. American Renaissance/ Transcendentalism (1840-1860)
5. Realism (1855-1900)
6. The Moderns (1900-1950)
7. Harlem Renaissance (1920s)
8. Post-Modernism (1950 to present)
9. Contemporary (1970s-Present)

Puritan/Colonial Period (1650-1750)

• OVERVIEW OF PURITAN/COLONIAL PERIOD.

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• Genre/Style :Sermons, religious tracts, diaries, personal narratives, religious poems. It was written in plain style.
• Effect/Aspects :Instructive, reinforces authority of the Bible and the church. Very little imaginative literature was produced.
• Historical Context :Puritan settlers fled England where they were being persecuted for their religious beliefs, and came to New England to have religious freedom.

Puritan/Colonial Period (1650-1750) �Famous Authors and their Works

• Anne Bradstreet - Anne Bradstreet was the most prominent of early English poets of North America and first female writer in the British North American colonies to be published.
• Johnathan Edwards – “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”

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Historical Context

• 1620 -  Mayflower, Puritans found Plymouth Plantation �1630 -  Massachusetts Bay Colony founded �1636 -  Harvard University founded near Boston �1662 -  Salem witch trials�1704 -   first newspaper in Boston �1741 -  Johnathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” �

Revolutionary Period/Age of Reason (1750-1800)

• Washington Irving
• Washington Irving became a cultural and diplomatic ambassador to Europe, like Benjamin Franklin and Nathaniel Hawthorne.
• His works – Rip Van Winkle; The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow; The Devil and Tom Walker

Revolutionary Period/Age of Reason (1750-1800)

• Benjamin Franklin
• Benjamin Franklin, “practical yet idealistic, hard-working and enormously successful,” was a second-generation immigrant who lived in Boston Massachusetts. Writer, printer, publisher, scientist, philanthropist, and diplomat, Mr. Franklin was the most famous and respected private figure of his time.

Romanticism

• A European artistic and intellectual movement of the early 19^th century, characterized by an emphasis on individual freedom from social conventions or political restraints, on human imagination, and on nature. The Romantics celebrated spontaneity, imagination, subjectivity, and the purity of nature. Many Romantic writers had an interest in the culture of the Middle Ages, an age noted for its faith, which stood in contrast to the age of the Enlightenment and pure logic. Romantic literature rebelled against the formalism of 18th century reason.
• Romanticism is concerned with emotion rather than rationality. It values the individual over society, nature over city. It questions or attacks rules, conventions and social protocol. It sees humanity living IN nature as morally superior to civilized humanity: glorification of the "noble savage." It conceives of children, essentially innocent by nature, as being corrupted by their surroundings. Many works emphasize the emotional aspects excessively, moving the piece toward Dark Romanticism and the Gothic. Romantic literature places an emphasis on the individual and on the expression of personal emotions.

Romanticism (1800-1860)

• Conditions that influenced American Romanticism:
• 1. Frontier promised opportunity for expansion, growth, freedom; Europe lacked this element.
• 2. Spirit of optimism invoked by the promise of an uncharted frontier.
• 3. Immigration brought new cultures and perspectives.
• 4. Growth of industry in the north that further polarized the north and the agrarian south.
• 5. Search for new spiritual roots.
• Genre/Style :Character Sketches, Slave Narratives, Poetry, and short stories.
• Effect/Aspects :Integrity of nature and freedom of imagination.
• Historical Context :Publishing expands and industrial revolution brings new ideas.

Romanticism

• Explored what it meant to be an American, an American artist
• Looked at American government and political problems
• The problems of war and Black slavery
• Emerging materialism and conformity
• Influence of immigration, new customs and traditions
• Sexuality; relationships between men and women
• The power of nature
• Individualism, emphasis on destructive effect of society on individual
• Idealism
• Spontaneity in thought and action

Literary Themes:

• Emotional intensity
• Escapism
• Common man as hero
• Mature as refuge, source of knowledge and/or spirituality

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Romanticism (1800-1860)

• Herman Melville – Moby Dick
• William Wadsworth
• Nathaniel Hawthorn – Scarlet Letter
• Victor Hugo – Les Miserables; The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
• Alexander Dumas – The Count of Monte Cristo
• Jane Austin – Sense and Sensibility

Gothic Movement

• It was an offshoot of Romantic Literature.
• Gothic Literature was the predecessor of modern horror movies in both theme and style.
• Gothic Literature put a spin on the Romantic idea of nature worship and nature imagery. Along with nature having the power of healing, Gothic writers gave nature the power of destruction. Frankenstein is full of the harsh reality of nature. Many storms arise in the novel, including storms the night the Creature comes to life.
• The most common feature of Gothic Literature is the indication of mood through the weather.

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Gothic Elements

• 1. Setting in a castle. The action takes place in and around an old castle, sometimes seemingly abandoned, sometimes occupied. The castle often contains secret passages, trap doors, secret rooms, trick panels with hidden levers, dark or hidden staircases, and possibly ruined sections.
• The castle may be near or connected to caves, which lend their own haunting flavor with their darkness, uneven floors, claustrophobia, and mystery. And in horror-gothic, caves are often home to terrifying creatures such as monsters, or deviant forms of humans (e.g., vampires, zombies, wolf men).
• The goal of the dark and mysterious setting is to create a sense of unease and foreboding, contributing toward the atmosphere element.

Gothic Elements

• 2. An atmosphere of mystery and suspense. The work is pervaded by a threatening feeling, a fear enhanced by the unknown. This atmosphere is sometimes advanced when characters see only a glimpse of something (Was that a person rushing out the window or only the wind blowing a curtain?) or hear something (Is that creaking sound coming from someone's step on the squeaky floor, or only the normal sounds of the night?). Often the plot itself is built around a mystery, such as unknown parentage, a disappearance, or some other inexplicable event. People disappear or show up dead inexplicably.

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• 3. An ancient prophecy is connected with the castle or its inhabitants (either former or present). The prophecy is usually obscure, partial, or confusing. "What could it mean?" In more watered down modern examples, this may amount to merely a legend: "It's said that the ghost of old man Krebs still wanders these halls."
• 4. Omens, signs, visions. A character may have a disturbing dream vision, or some phenomenon may be seen as an omen of coming events. For example, if the statue of the lord of the manor falls over, it may foreshadow his death.

• 5. Supernatural or otherwise inexplicable events. Dramatic, amazing events occur, such as ghosts or giants walking, or inanimate objects (such as a suit of armor or painting) coming to life.
• 6. High, even overwrought, emotion. The narration may be highly sentimental, and the characters are often overcome by anger, sorrow, surprise, and especially, terror. Characters suffer from raw nerves and a feeling of impending doom. Crying and emotional speeches are frequent. Breathlessness and panic are common.

7. Women in distress. As an appeal to the pathos and sympathy of the reader, the female characters often face events that leave them fainting, terrified, screaming, and/or sobbing. A lonely, pensive, and oppressed heroine is often the central figure of the novel, so her sufferings are even more pronounced. The women suffer all the more because they are often abandoned, left alone (on purpose or by accident), and have no protector at times.

8. Women threatened by a powerful, impulsive, tyrannical male. One or more male characters has the power, as king, lord of the manor, father, or guardian, to demand that one or more of the female characters do something intolerable. The woman may be commanded to marry someone she does not love (it may even be the powerful male himself), or commit a crime.

• 9. The metonymy of gloom and horror. Metonymy is a subtype of metaphor, in which something (like rain) is used to stand for something else (like sorrow). For example, the film industry likes to use metonymy as a quick shorthand, so we often notice that it is raining in funeral scenes. Note that the following metonymies for "doom and gloom" all suggest some element of mystery, danger, or the supernatural. wind, especially howling rain, especially blowing
• doors grating on rusty hinges sighs, moans, howls, eerie sounds
• footsteps approaching clanking chains
• lights in abandoned rooms gusts of wind blowing out lights
• characters trapped in a room doors suddenly slamming shut
• ruins of buildings baying of distant dogs (or wolves?)
• thunder and lightning crazed laughter

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• 10. The vocabulary of the gothic. The constant use of the appropriate vocabulary set creates the atmosphere of the gothic. Using the right words maintains the dark-and-stimulated feel that defines the gothic. Here are some examples are some of the words (in several categories) that help make up the vocabulary of the gothic story The Castle of Otranto:

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• Mystery: diabolical, enchantment, ghost, goblins, haunted, infernal, magic, miracle, omens, ominous, portent, preternatural, prodigy, prophecy, secret, sorcerer, spirits, strangeness, talisman, vision.
• Fear, Terror, or Sorrow: afflicted, affliction, agony, anguish, apprehensive, commiseration, concern, despair, dismal, dismay, dread, fearing, frantic, fright, grief, hopeless, horrid, horror, lamentable, melancholy, miserable, mournfully, panic, sadly, scared, sorrow, sympathy, tears, terrible, terror, unhappy, wretched.
• Surprise: alarm, amazement, astonished, shocking, staring, surprise, thunderstruck, wonder.
• Haste: anxious, breathless, flight, frantic, hastily, impatient, impetuosity, precipitately, running, sudden.
• Anger: choler, enraged, furious, fury, incense, provoked, rage, raving, resentment, temper, wrath.
• Largeness: enormous, gigantic, tremendous, vast.
• Darkness: dark, dismal, shaded, black, night.

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Gothic Movement

• Edgar Allan Poe
• Edgar Allan Poe was a southerner with a darkly metaphysical vision mixed with elements of realism, parody, and burlesque. He refined the short story genre and created detective fiction. Many of his stories foreshadow the genres of science fiction, horror, and fantasy so popular today.
• Despite a lousy childhood and some serious substance abuse problems, Poe wrote landmark criticism and memorable poetry
• Perfectedthe modern short story, with its unity of character, detail, and mood Created the detective story.
• His psychotic murder stories paved the way for such pop-culture icons as Norman Bates and Freddy Kruger.
• Famous works include “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Black Cat,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” “The Raven,” “The Gold Bug,” and “Murders in the Rue Morgue”

Transcendentalism �c. 1835-1860

• An American philosophical and spiritual movement, based in New England, that focused on the primary of the individual conscience and rejected materialism in favor of closer communion with nature. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” and Henry David Thoreau’s Walden are famous transcendentalist works.

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• Transcendentalism: circa 1840 An intellectual movement that thought we used something more than our 5 physical senses to understand life and our place in it. • “Trans” – to go across • Not a religion or philosophy, but has elements of both
• A view held by a group of people during the Romantic Period. Members of the Transcendentalist movement have greatly influenced literature, even today.

• Elements:
• 1. Nonconformity: Individualism (Non-conformity is good and allows us to fine what is important for each of us. With non-conformity we look at the importance of individualism, especially that of the common man. The value of an individual’s needs over those of the society).
• 2. Self Reliance: Trust yourself/intuition (Intuition will help us go beyond physical understanding of ourselves and our world).
• 3. Optimism: All men have equal possibilities/Man is inherently good (A sense of optimism, that there is always hope for the future. The belief that man is basically good, therefore he will make good choices).
• 4. Nature: Appreciation of the simple life and the natural surroundings (A return to the appreciation of nature).
• 5. Oversoul: Connects all to God, Nature, and Man (We are all part of something larger than each part. This belief draws the line between celebrating the self and being selfish).
• 6. Carpe Diem: Seize the day

• Many elements of the transcendental theory were evident again in the 1960s and 1970s. • Nonconformity • Civil Disobedience • Goodness of man • Respect for the simple/nature life and nature • Brotherhood of man • Seizing the day
• Transcendentalism is an intellectual movement that was concerned with the attitudes and thoughts that man could transcend our physical being and understand life by going beyond the five senses to understand life and our place in it. Man determines much of what we understand about the world and life through our five senses. The transcendentalists believed that we use something like what we might call our sixth sense, or intuition to figure out those things about life that can’t always be understood through the five physical senses.

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American Renaissance/ Transcendentalism (1840-1860)

• Overview of American Renaissance/Transcendentalism

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• Genre/Style :Poetry, Short Stories, and Novels.
• Effect/Aspects :Idealists, individualism, and symbolism.
• Historical Context :People still see stories of persecuted young girls forced apart from their true love.

American Renaissance/ Transcendentalism (1835-1860)

• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• Walt Whitman - His Leaves of Grass
• Louisa May Alcott – Little Women
• Harriet Beecher Stowe – Uncle Tom’s Cabin
• Walt Whitman - “O Captain, My Captain” – a tribute to the fallen Lincoln

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Realism 1830-1900

• A loose term that can refer to any work that aims at honest portrayal over sensationalism, exaggeration, or melodrama. Technically, realism refers to a late-19th-century literary movement—primarily French, English, and American—that aimed at accurate detailed portrayal of ordinary, contemporary life. Many of the 19th century’s greatest novelists, such as Honoré de Balzac, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Gustave Flaubert, and Leo Tolstoy, are classified as realists.

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Naturalism 1865-1900

• A literary movement that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character.

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Harlem Renaissance (1920s)

• Overview of Harlem Renaissance

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• Genre/Style :Blues Song in Poetry and African American Spirituals.
• Effect/Aspects :Brought about Gospel Music.
• Historical Context :Mass African American Migration to Northern Urban Centers. African Americans are given more access to media and publishing.

Harlem Renaissance (1920s)

• Ralph Waldo Ellison - Invisible Man
• Jessie Redmon Fauset - The Brownies Book
•  Lorraine Hansberry – A Raisin in the

Sun

Langston Hughes – “Dreams Deferred”; “Thank You Ma’m”

Maya Angelo – I Know Why Caged Birds Sing

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Works Cited

• "American Passages." Learner.Org. 2005. 3 Apr. 2006 <http://www.learner.org/resources/series164.html>.
• Beck, Mr. "American Literary Movements." 2006. Perry Public Schools. 3 Apr. 2006 <http://www.perry.k12.mi.us/beckweb/litmove.htm>.
• Garbis, Michelle. "Literary Periods and Their Characteristics." Mrs. Garbis English Page. 2006. 3 Apr. 2006 <http://www.teachnlearn.org/LITERARY%20PERIODS%20AND%20THEIR%20CHARACTERISTICS.htm>.
• "Literary Movements." WSU. 3 Apr. 2006 <http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/litfram.html>.
• Vanspanckeren, Kathryn. "Outline of American Literature." USinfo. Nov. 1998. US Department of State. 2 Apr. 2006 <http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/oal/oaltoc.htm>.