THE AMERICAN RENAISSANCE

1. THE AMERICAN RENAISSANCE A Literary Coming of Age 1840 - 1860

2. English Critic – Sydney Smith Literature…the Americans have none…in the four corners of the globe, who reads an American book?!

3. True American Literary Giants Emerge • Herman Melville • Nathaniel Hawthorne • Ralph Waldo Emerson • Henry David Thoreau • Edgar Allan Poe

4. The Rise of Periodicals • The Dial • Harper’s Magazine • The New York Times • The Atlantic Monthly

5. The American Renaissance • American culture came into its own • American literature distanced itself from the conventional forms of European literature • The 1840-1860 period produced more literary masterpieces than any other time in American literature

6. The American Renaissance • New England became known for intellectual inquiry • Lyceums provided knowledge, teaching, discourse, and debate • New England was the center of reform movements in education, abolition, and women’s rights

7. The American Renaissance • Utopian projects grew in popularity • New Englanders sought to create a more perfect society • Ralph Waldo Emerson, through his writing and lectures, helped inspire new ways of thinking

9. American Transcendentalism • Transcendental philosophy has its roots in the German philosopher, Immanuel Kant • Transcendentalism believes that ultimate true is found by transcending, or going beyond/above, normal human experience through use of intuitive thought

10. American Transcendentalism • Emerson introduced the philosophy of transcendentalism to Americans • Emerson saw Plato’s idealism in modern transcendentalism • American transcendentalists believed in human perfectibility

11. American Transcendentalism • Everything, including humans, are part of the Divine Soul • Oneness with the natural world leads one to the spiritual or ideal world • Intuition can lead one to an understanding of self and God • Self-reliance and individualism overrule authority, custom, and tradition • Spontaneous feelings and intuition, not the intellectual or rational mind should be followed

12. American Transcendentalism • Emerson was the Father of American Transcendentalism • He felt the key to transcendentalist thought was the intuition • Intuition is our ability to know things spontaneously through emotions, rather than through an intellectual process

13. American Transcendentalism • Optimism is at the heart of Emerson’s transcendentalism • Emerson felt humans could find God directly in nature • Since God is in all nature, God is within us, too • Emerson called this concept the Divine Soul, or the oversoul

14. The Anti-Transcendentalists • Herman Melville • Nathaniel Hawthorne • Edgar Allan Poe

15. The Anti-Transcendentalists • These three men were also known as the Dark Romantics • Despite their critical approach to transcendentalism, they had much in common with this philosophy • The believed in the symbolism in nature, but did not see nature as necessarily good

16. The Anti-Transcendentalists • They explored the guilt associated with our Puritan ancestry • They explored the conflicts between good and evil in humans • They explored the psychological effects of sin, guilt, madness, derangement