American Romanticism: Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, and Nathaniel Hawthorne
American Romanticism: Features and Key Figures
Features of American Romanticism
– Foreign influences with a distinct American identity – Peculiar American experiences (landscape, Native American culture, new nation, democracy) – Puritan heritage
Washington Irving: Father of American Fiction
– Sought to establish American literature as independent – First American fiction writer to gain international fame – The Sketch Book marked the beginning of American Romanticism (collection of tales)
Rip Van Winkle
– Included in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon – Based on German folktales – Irving uses fictional personas in his stories – Story spans pre-revolutionary and post-independence periods – Explores themes of tradition and change, American identity, and the power of nature
Edgar Allan Poe: Romantic Figure and Literary Innovator
– Romantic figure, embodying the archetype of the extravagant genius – Facets: Poet, writer of fiction (horror, mystery, macabre, detective stories), critic, editor, influential figure
Poetry
– Tamerlane and Other Poems – Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems – Poems – The Raven – Eureka
Fiction
– Practitioner of the short story – Known for his mysterious tales of horror – Considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre
Classification of Poe’s Tales
– Gothic tales: Narrated by unreliable or decadent narrators (e.g.,”The Cask of Amontillad”) – Tales of sensation: Victim records their sensations while trapped in a horrific situation – Comic tales – Tales of analysis:“The Murders in the Rue Morgue””The Purloined Lette”
Poe’s Method
– The poetic principle: Poetry should evoke beauty and emotion – Against didacticism and allegory – Brevity: Only relevant elements included – Structural unity of effect: Elements must be interconnected – Stories as products of logic and design, not Romantic outbursts – The philosophy of composition: Description of principles used in writing”The Rave”
Nathaniel Hawthorne: Puritan Background and Literary Aesthetics
– Puritan background, influenced by Salem witch trials – Wrote The Scarlet Letter (1850) and The House of the Seven Gables (1851)
Aesthetics of Hawthorne
– Asserts the independence of fiction but emphasizes its connection to human experience
The Scarlet Letter
– Set between the real world and the realm of imagination – Blends history and fiction, reality and invention – Fiction as a lamp, illuminating the human heart – Romance allows for greater freedom and invention
Other Characteristics
– Preference for distant times or countries – Evasion or escape from the ordinary world as a feature of Hawthorne’s and Melville’s works – Discomfort with contemporary American life and values (e.g.,”The Custom Hous”)
Literary Themes and Styles
: His works are dark meditations on the human condition, often dramatized with a Gothic language loaded with symbolism.// Guilt , hidden sin, evil, individual responsibility and retribution as recurrent topics// Works have often moral messages and deep psychological insights.
In the Scarlet letter: Many people refused to interpret the Scarlet letter by A by its original signification// Her life had turned from passion and feeling to thought… She assumed a freedom of speculation… with our forefathers, had they known, would have held to be a deadlier crime than that stigmatized by the Scarlet letter.