American Romanticism

Some people (Like Benjamin Franklin) were offended by the European image of Americans and fought to prove it was untrue.
The American Romantics turned the insult on its head
They implied that there was more virtue in American innocence than in European sophistication, and more truths to be discovered in the American wilderness than in libraries or cities.
A New Kind of Hero

Characteristics of the American Romantic Hero

• Is young, or possesses youthful qualities
• Is innocent and pure of purpose
• Has a sense of honor based not on the rules of society, but on some higher principle
• Has a knowledge of people and of life based deep, intuitive understanding, not on formal learning
• Loves nature and avoids town life
• Quests for some higher truth in the natural world

Romantic Hero

• Can you think of a character that meets these characteristics?
• Think about the books you have read, the TV shows you have watched and the movies you have seen.
• What characters have you seen that fit three or four of the bullets above?

While novelists were ignoring (or embracing) European criticisms of Americans, the Romantic poets were attempting to prove that Americans were not unsophisticated hicks.
They did this by embracing classical European literary traditions and poetic forms.
American Romantic Poetry: Read at every fireside

Fireside Poets

• American poetry at this time was so popular that “The Fireside Poets*” of this time are still among the most famous (and successful) American poets.

* The Fireside Poets are Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and James Russell Lowell

• They were called The Fireside Poets because families often read their poetry around the fire as a form of entertainment.