Hi there.
. .it’s Dr. Bernstein.
This video is the first installment of a two-part series designed to introduce you to the Romantic
Period in American literature.
The Romantic period began in 1836, with the publication of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s short
book called Nature, and drew to a close in 1865, the same year that the
Civil War ended.
Within this
30-year time span, there were two important movements.
So let me tell you a little bit about them.
1.
The Transcendentalist Movement = 1836-1844
The Transcendentalists placed a great deal of emphasis on the intuition, on Reason, and
the individual conscience.
As one scholar points out, Transcendentalists believed “man can intuitively transcend
the limits of the senses and of logic and receive directly higher truths and greater
knowledge denied to these mundane methods of knowing” (537).
When you read Emerson’s “Self-Reliance,” which was published in 1841, you’ll be able
to see these core Transcendentalist beliefs at work.
2.
The American Renaissance = 1850-1855
Many important literary works were written and published during these five years.
1850 Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter 1851 Melville’s Moby-Dick
1852 Hawthorne’s The Blithedale Romance Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin
1854 Thoreau’s Walden & “Slavery in Massachusetts” 1855 Whitman’s Leaves of Grass (first edition)
It wasn’t until sixty years after declaring independence that American writers began to
really self-consciously concern themselves with developing distinctly American forms
of literary expression.
It’s almost as if the country needed time to cultivate a cultural identity before developing
its own literature.
The issue of a distinctively American literature became especially pronounced during the American
Renaissance, so I encourage you to contemplate what—if anything—makes them distinctly
American.
Think about what makes these works “American” to you.
Creating a national language is about politics and power.
During the 19th century, Webster’s dictionary came out.
Samuel Johnson’s dictionary was the official dictionary of England at the time.
But the people needed a dictionary of the American language.
These are the issues I would like you to explore.
My next installment I will tell you more about Romanticism.
If you have any questions feel free to get in touch.