AMERICAN RENAISSANCE

Untitled Slide

HISTORICAL EVENTS

• Bill of Rights 1791
• Louisiana Purchase 1803
• The Star Spangled Banner 1814
• Underground Railroad 1830
• California Gold Rush 1849
• Dred Scott decision 1857

ROMANTICISM VS. RATIONALISM

• Value feelings and intuition over reason.
• Value imagination and powerful emotions.
• Importance of nature and unspoiled beauty.
• Poetry was the highest expression of imagination

GOTHIC NOVELS

• Mary Shelly- Frankenstein
• Bran Stroker- Dracula
• Edgar Allen Poe- The Raven

POETS

• Henry Wordsworth Longfellow- Paul Revere's Ride
• Walt Witman- O Captain! My Captain!
• Emily Dickenson

Novelists-
Washington Irving wrote
Rip Van Wrinkle and
The Legend of Sleepy Hallow.

ARTISTS

CHARACTERISTICS OF ROMANTICISM

Interest in the common man and childhood.
Believed in the natural goodness of humans which is hindered by the urban life of civilization.

Strong senses, emotions, and feelings.
Knowledge is gained through intuition rather than education.

Awe of Nature
Stressed the awe of nature in art and language.

Celebration of the individual.
Elevated the achievements of the misunderstood.

Importance of imagination.
Legitimized the individual imagination as a critical authority.