American Literary Movements: Transcendentalism, Romanticism, Realism, and Naturalism
Transcendentalism
- American version of Romanticism.
- Individualism: self-esteem -> pantheistic love (denial of God’s personality and identification of God and nature).
- Humanization of God
- Nature: Every particle of the universe contains the universe.
- Equality.
- Ecological thinking: Native American beliefs “sacred nature”/holistic perspective/ mother Earth (main protagonist, personification of Nature).
- Elogy of love: Passion. /Love is freedom
- No separation of body and spirit: Fusion or union between them.
- American literature comprises tradition. It is the representation of American identity. This way of literature leads to the refuse of European tradition.
- Form: it reflects the context. Free verses (idea of expansionism).
- Carpe diem: they look at the present and the future.
- Conflictive feelings toward democracy (predecessor of hippies).
- Conflictive feelings: Involvement of impositions. Celebration of love and happiness.
Romanticism
(The Scarlet Letter)
- Rejection against the Enlightenment, against reason.
- Individualism and imagination.
- Nationalism: American identity.
- Romantic values throughout American landscape.
- States of altered consciousness
- Primitivism: peasant, children, exotic cultures.
- Escape through time and space.
- Artist: special sensibility, individual, outcast from society, rebel without a cause.
1. Romanticism educes strong emotions and exemplifies significant events. Romanticism is not about soft music, candlelit dinners, or fine dining. It is about a strong motivational force that focuses on patriotism, loyalty, and allegiance. Transcendentalism is the power of knowledge to transcend intellectual growth and spirituality. It also highlights the power of divinity, nature, and individualism.
2. Romanticism exemplifies the importance of emotions and freedom over intellectual growth. They believe that everyone should follow what they’re feeling. Transcendentalism draws inspiration from the beyond or external to the human perspective even beyond reasoning and normal traditions.
3. Romanticism doesn’t heavily emphasize the power of God as the center of the universe; however, transcendentalism strongly believes in God, divination, and the truth of miracles.
4. As a literary movement, romanticism initiates a positive voice on their works. Take heed to the literary masterpieces of Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Transcendentalism literature is very sensible and creates an exaggeration on good vs. evil. Ralph Waldo Emerson is one the famous transcendentalists up to now.
Realism and Naturalism
Industrial revolution /The gilded age (era of corruption)
Reaction against Romanticism and Transcendentalism. Realism (after civil war): art as mimetic: the faithful representation of reality, ordinary life, verisimilitude.
- Author’s role: neutral observer/authorial objectivity.
- Character is more important than action and plot: they control destiny.
- Emphasis on responsible morality: complex ethical choices.
- Importance of class: middle class characters.
Naturalism
Important discoveries (Darwin and origin of species).
Determinism (theory of heredity), influence of environment. Emile Zola (father of naturalism). (Novel : MAGGIE)
- Objective depiction of reality.
- Application of scientific methods
- Belief in determinism (character dominated by their circumstances, especially heredity and environment)
- Content is more important than form.
- Novels of thesis: scientific laws applied to characters