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American Renaissance (1876–1917)
In the late eighteenth century in Europe produces a series of revolutionary events that mark the beginning of the new social order. The Industrial Revolution rested liberal bourgeois ideals and meant booming, creating the American individual rights and the French proclaimed liberty, equality and fraternity.
As regards the world of ideas , it is a time when thinkers begin to undermine the rules and the concept of reason, as used for years. Kant is who is responsible for demonstrating , through " Critique of Pure Reason ," which illustrated the engine was no good.
The period is generally defined as the mid-19th century, characterized by renewed national self-confidence and a feeling that the United States was the heir to Greek democracy, Roman law, and Renaissance humanism.
Romanticism
Between 1800 and 1850 the movement called Romanticism, originated in Europe in the late 18th century, reached its highest point.
England was, with Germany, the cradle of Romanticism. England was characterized by great poets and the beginning of the Gothic novel. Authors like Mery Shelley, John Keats William Wordsworth and William Blake.
Romanticism is a reaction against the rational and critical spirit of the Enlightenment, the ideal of nature through reason, the rigid forms of classicism and neo-classicism of the eighteenth century. It seeks freedom in the images, the ideas, feelings, expression and issues, seeking the human, national, heroic , divine and extraordinary.
It moves away from the cold rationalism, opening apparently to supernatural. Contrary to the assertion of the rational, Romanticism broke the exaltation of the instinctive and emotional. It also represented the desire for freedom of the individual, the passions and instincts which presents the 'self'.Beneath all the variety represented by the Romantics lies a common theme: Passion.
It was the valuation of intensely felt emotion, the importance of creative expression, and the possibility of transcending an ordinary experience. There were no rules and styles. Typically, the Romantic hero would often be portrayed as a rebel against social conventions and political tyranny.
The main characteristics of Romanticism are:
- Emotion and intuition over reason.
- The experience of sublimity through connection with the nature.
- Exoticism and the depiction of far off, mysterious places.
- Portrayal of nationalism.
- The belief in the supernatural.
- Romanticism does not imitate the classics, there is total freedom to create.
- The ugly or abstract is accepted as art, not just the perfection and beauty.
- All experience is subjective as well as objective.
- Nature is not idealized as it was in the Enlightment, it has imperfections.
- Tragic and unfinished endings, against the perfect and closed endings.
- Liberalism versus enlightened despotism. Romanticism despised bourgeois materialism and advocated free love and liberalism in politics.
- God does not exist outside of the world and man. There is no set rule, but there is an inner feeling and essential intuition of the divine that leads to a mystical union with God. Exchange or communication between the individual and the universe denotes a higher life, and the first condition of moral life. The awareness of belonging to a whole, to be part of it from the individuality entails a moral responsibility.
The Romantics insisted then on a conception which made the human being the originator of activity. Unlike the Enlightenment, the man is not considered good by nature and perfect. Humans have flaws and have a good side and a bad side.
Transcendetalists
One of the most important influences in the period was that of the Transcendentalists. It developed as a reaction against 18th century rationalism. The Transcendentalists contributed to the founding of a new national culture based on native elements. They advocate reforms in church, state, and society, contributing to the rise of free religion and the abolition movement. For the transcendentalists, the soul of each individual is identical to the soul of the world and contains what the world contains. American Transcendentalism is the foundation transcendetal of Immanuel Kant: Objects are not knowable in themselves, only through spatial, temporal and categorial structure that the subject projected onto the world. Following the skepticism of David Hume, the transcendentalists took the stance that empirical proofs of religion were not possible. Among the transcendentalists' core beliefs was the inherent goodness of both people and nature. Most of the Transcendentalists became involved as well in social reform movements, especially anti-slavery and women's rights.
“The over soul”
Authors
Ralph Waldo Emmerson
Born in Boston in 1803. He was a ensayist, poet and philosopher and the Leader of the AmericanTranscendental movement. Died in Concord, in 1882.
He belong to the literary movement called Transcendentalism. Among their beliefs was the inherent goodness of both people and nature.
“Self-Reliance”
First published in his 1841 collection, Essays: First Series. The first edition of the essay bore three epigraphs. All three epigraphs stress the necessity of relying on oneself for knowledge and guidance. Main Topics: The value of self-worth,spontaneity, strength and effort to succeed, individualism and freedom vs. society…
Trust your inner voice quote:
“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.” (p. 1164)
Individualism and freedom vs. society quote:
“Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood..”
- Emerson argues, society conspires to rob us of our "manhood" by making us conformists.
No intermediaries between human beings and God quote:
“The relations of the soul to the divine spirit are so pure, that it is profane to seek to interpose helps.” (p. 1171)
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. He changed the spelling of his name His father dies in Dutch Guinea. In 1828 he published "Fanshawe" in 1837 a collection of stories entitled Twice-Told Tales. And in 1839 he worked at Boston Custom House. 1846, Mosses from an Old Manse and quits writing for a time. 1850, The Scarlet Letter. 1851, The House of the Seven Gables. 1852, The Blithedale Romance. 1860, The Marble Faun He died in 1864 in New Hampshire.
“The Birthmark”
Is a novel subjetivity nd moralist..The characters symbolize; Georgiana is the heroine and represents the nature and self- confidence. Aylmer symbolizes the intellect nd science. The Main Theme: Quest for Perfection. Aylmer's obssession in the quest for perfection on his wife's face is both tragical and allegorical. It leads him into destruction.
Perfection quote: "Much as he had accomplished, she could not but observe that his most splendid successes were almost invariably failures, if compared with the ideal at which he aimed" (p. 1328)
Science vs. Nature quote : "Here is a powerful cosmetic. With a few drops of this, in a vase of water, freckles may be washed away as easily as the hands are cleansed." (p. 1327)
Color quote : White: " If any shifting emotion caused her to turn pale, there was the mark again, a crimson stain upon the snow (...) (p. 1321) Lirical Ballads or Moby-Dick white is used as purity and unnatural.
“Rappaccini's Daughter” 3rd person, omniscent narrator .Subjectivity. Uncertainty and confusion. Moralist.Main Theme: Human Corruption: He corrupts his soul, committing the sin of pride. He tries to defy God and nature in order to gain fame with a large amount of experiments.
Human corruption quote: "( ...) for the man's demeanor was that of one walking among malignant influences such as savage beast, or deadly snakes, or evil spirits, which, should be allow them one moment of license, would wreak upon him some terrible fatality" (p. 1335)
Evil vs. Good quote: guilty of intellectual pride. He is not in harmony with Nature. “He cares infinitely more for science than for mankind. His patients are interesting to him only as subjects for some new experiment. He would sacrifice human life, his own among the rest, or whatever else was dearest to him, for the sake of adding so much as a grain of mustard-seed to the great heap pf his accumulated knowledge" (p. 1337)
Fate quote :
Clevernerss vs Romanticism method quote :
Oh, good heavens! who ever heard of such an idea?"A little too self- evident." ( p.1599)
“The cask of Amontillado”
The motto is revenge: Montresor wants to kill Fortunato because he has insulted him. The story is written in first person. This tale also includes: murder, torture, and addiction. It is set in a vast underground Italian catacomb.It’s also a journey into the dark and mysterious recesses of the human psyche. There are several elements related to death: The coat of arms motto is: “ Nemo me impune lacessit” , this means “No one insults me with impunity. There are catacombs, buried corpses, skeletons….
Punishment quote:
“He had a weak point --this Fortunato – […] he prided himself on his connoisseurship in wine”. (p.1612)
Judgement and Ambiguity quote:
“You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that gave
utterance to a threat.” (p.1612)
Herman Melville
Herman Melville was an American writer of novels, published “Moby Dick” in
- He died in 1891 and was almost forgotten. His work Moby Dick was acclaimed as one of the literary masterpieces of both American and world literature. Herman Melville belongs to the literature movement called “Dark Romanticism”.
“Moby Dick”
This epic sea story is told from the perspective of a first-person narrator.
Inside, includes references to subjects as diverse as obsession, racism, religion and revenge. Moby-Dick is, fundamentally, a revenge tragedy. It’s about one man’s maniacal obsession with vengeance. Each character has a different way of understanding the natural world.
Summary: Ishmael, a sailor, decides to travel on a whaler. He meets Queequeg, a cannibal Polynesian and they both decide to start this new adventure. Both mounted on board the Pequod , with several sailors of different nationalities, led by a mysterious captain named Ahab, obsessed with chasing and killing Moby Dick, a great white whale that tore his leg, famous among sailors for causing damage to all the vessels.
Main Characters: Ishmael: Narrator, the only survivor of this adventure. His name is a biblical allegory to the exiled Abraham’s son (Genesis 16). As in the Bible, Ishmael wanders through the sea. Ahab: Captain of the Pequod. Obsessed with Moby Dick, he wants to kill it for revenge. He thinks that nature is dangerous. He represents the idea of the Romanticism of individual, putting first his feelings, not the reason. He is ready to kill because he perceives the evil, contradicting the Illustrate idea of order. Queequeg : chief harpooner aboard the Pequod. He strikes a good friendship with Ismael. Queequeg indirectly saves Ishmael's life. He’s a cannibal. Moby Dick : He is a giant, WHITE, bull sperm whale. Main antagonist of the novel. The symbolism of the White Whale is deliberately enigmatic.
Revenge quotes: “[...]and recklessness in Stubb, and the pervading mediocrity in Flask. Such a crew, so officered, seemed specially picked and packed by some infernal fatality to help him to his monomaniac revenge”. (Ch 41, pg 2349)
Religion quote: “It cannot be much matter of surprise that some whalemen should go still further in their superstitions; declaring Moby Dick not only ubiquitous, but immortal (for immortality is but ubiquity in time)"(Ch 41, pg 2345): The description of the whale is defined as an immortal and omnipresent being, which can be read that the white whale is an allegorical sustitute of God.
Men and natural word quote: “But not yet have we solved the incantation of this whiteness, and learned why it appeals with such power to the soul; and more strange and far more portentous
- why, as we have seen, it is at once the most meaning symbol of spiritual things, nay, the very veil of the Christian’s Deity; and yet should be as it is, the intensifying agent in things the most appalling to mankind.” (Ch 42, pg 2354):
