OPPapers.com Essay Index >> American History >> Introduction To Romanticism
We have many free term papers and essays on Introduction To Romanticism. We also have a wide variety of research papers and book reports available to you for free. You can browse our collection of term papers or use our search engine.
Introduction to Romanticism. For many years, this period and these writers
were known as the American Renaissance, a coin termed ...
... (Introduction 54) Romanticism explores the idea that passions can be destructive
and Poe believed that true beauty always had some sadness. ...
... Romanticism and Transcendentalism James Li The cold winter descended once again
ever so ... Emerson: As an introduction to Hinduism and its deals, we should start ...
... Shorter 6th edition. Ed. Baym et al. New York: Norton, 2003. 473-475. Morner, Kathleen
and Rausch, Ralph. Introduction to Romanticism. 07 Mar. 2006 .
... This invariably led to a re-introduction into religion and mysticism; people ... Romanticism
began to show the people that the Enlightenment had overstayed its ...
Submitted by jennaveeve_84 on March 16, 2005
Category: American History
Words: 1645 | Pages: 7
Views: 225
Popularity Rank: 50,225
Average Member Grade: N/A (Add a Comment / Grade this Paper)
For many years, this period and these writers were known as the American Renaissance, a coin termed by F.O. Matthiessen in his book of that name in 1941. This book set the parameters of how to read and connect these writers until relatively recently, when its limitations, especially in terms of defining the "canon" of literary giants and what made them (all male) "giants" have been recognized and challenged. However, the term is still useful to some degree. It is a misnomer, if one thinks of the period as a time of rebirth of some earlier literary greatness, as the European Renaissance, because there was nothing to be "reborn." The great writers of this period, roughly 1840-1865 although more particularly 1850-1855, marked the first maturing of American letters. It was a Renaissance in the sense of a flowering, excitement over human possibilities, and a high regard for individual ego. It was definitely and even defiantly American, as these writers struggled to understand what "American" could possibly mean, especially in terms of a literature which was distinctively American and not British. Their inability to resolve this struggle--and it was even more a personal one than a nationalistic one, for it questioned their identity and place in society--did much to fire them creatively.
However, we will call this American romanticism, though it shares many characteristics with British romanticism. It flourished in the glow of Wordsworth's poetic encounter with nature and himself in The Prelude, Coleridge's literary theories about the reconciliation of opposites, the romantic posturings and irony of Byron, the lush imagery of Keats, and the transcendental lyricism of Shelley, even the Gothicism of Mary Shelley and the Bronte sisters. Growing from the rhetoric of salvation, guilt, and providential visions of Puritanism, the wilderness reaches of this continent, and the fiery rhetoric of freedom and equality, though, the American brand of romanticism developed its...
You must Login to view the entire paper.
If you are not a member yet, Sign Up for free!