Romanticism Washington Irving and His Works Romanticism Romanticism is the opposite of what Americas literature HAS been It is a reaction to classicism or the age or reason Instead of reason and control the literature focuses on emotion imagination and selfrevelation ID: 444106
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Slide1
“Rip Van Winkle”
Romanticism, Washington Irving, and His WorksSlide2
Romanticism
Romanticism is the opposite of what America’s literature HAS been
It is a reaction to
classicism
or the “age or reason”
Instead of reason and control, the literature focuses on emotion, imagination, and self-revelation
NATURE is a huge influence and it is viewed as “wild,” “beautiful,” and “uncorrupt.”
Nature is where the individual goes to get away from a corrupt society
Nature’s wild beauty sparks imagination
Nature cannot be controlled and is thus our refugeSlide3
A turning from the “Age of Reason”
Romanticism begins in Germany in 1770 after the publishing of Goethe’s
Sorrows of Young
Werther
The ideals of Romanticism then spread to England and do not make their way to the U.S. until around 1830
Transcendentalism is a movement within Romanticism.
N
ot all Romantics are transcendentalists.
Transcendentalists believe we can commune with the divine only when we become “self-reliant” and independent from the ways of society.Slide4
Let’s Compare…
Romanticism
“Age
of Reason”
Emotional Reasonable & Practical
Individualism Social Conformity
Revolutionary Conservative
Loves Solitude & Nature Loves Public, Urban Life
Fantasy/Introspection External Reality
The Particular The Universal
Individual
Thought/Musings
Objective Fact
Satisfaction of Desire
Desire Repressed
Organic Mechanical
Creative Energy/Power Form
Exotic Mundane
Imagination/Intuition
Reason/Calculation
Spontaneity Control
Slide5
Aspects of Romantic Literature
Shift from urban focus to a rural one: country life
Shift from scientific and formal to personal
Emphasis on imagination, intuition, and the individual
Emotions over Reason
Love of nature
Respect/focus on the common Man
Includes Supernatural, Gothic, Mystical elements
Rebellion and Revolution (esp. regarding human rights, oppression, etc…)
Focus on introspection, melancholy, and sadnessSlide6
Washington Irving
An early romantic – he experiments with romantic ideas
First American writer to be lauded outside of the US
Wrote some of the earliest forms of modern short stories: Wrote the 1
st
American Short Story
Short stories have elements of a novelSlide7
Washington Irving,
cont…
Wrote both “Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle
.”
Both are part of a larger “sketchbook” of his works
Creates a persona (
Deidrich
Knickerbocker) in his writing to allow for a “suspension of disbelief,” and thus gives credibility to the tale
Geoffrey Crayon adds satirical humor as the narrator of the story
Slide8
The Romantic Hero
Usually the protagonist
Rejected by society/non-conventional in their ideas and ways of life
On a quest (usually for himself, but he ends up doing something even more grand).
Innocent, intuitive – could even be alienated or disillusioned
Introspective
Fond of nature
Sometimes distrustful of women