The First Harvest: 1800-1840

 

I. A Time of “Firsts”

•       First professional writers

•       First writers whose works are still widely read

•       Development of important fictional forms:

–        The tale

–        The short story

–        The novel

–        The romance

 

II. Romanticism

“What then is the American, this new man?”

                                    -Michel Guillaume Jean de Crθvecouer

•       Developmental time in America

•       Hopes: for political and religious harmony, elimination of oppression

•       Reality: nationalism emerged from War of 1812, industrialization, divisions of and within political parties, improvements in transportation (steamboat & railroad), and frontier expansion (Louisiana Purchase)

•       Cultural Independence – Reflection of Nationalism

–        Especially evident in literature

–        Adapted English literary forms to mirror American experience

 

III. Classicism v. Romanticism

•       Question: “What is the universe like?”

–        Answer before 1800: a ladder – “Great Chain of Being”

•       Order and hierarchy, reason valued

•       God at top, pure matter (ex. Rocks) at bottom

•       Society: King on top, criminal on bottom

•       Family: Husband on top, servants on bottom

•       Self: reason on top, passions on bottom

–        Answer after 1800: a tree – not fixed, but growing

•       Society: don’t have to remain in job, class, etc. you were born into

•       Family: wife equal to husband

•       Self: passion and emotion were as valued as reason

•       Freedom from restrictions of society (inspired by Revolutionary writers

IV. Romanticism in Literature

•       Emphasized:

–        Nature: beauty, strangeness, & mystery v. laws of nature

•       Connection between humans and nature

–        Irving: found nature in folklore

–        Cooper: nature in most primitive form

–        Poe: doesn’t emphasize – external world is product of internal imagination

–        The Past: standard literary material becomes historical events in early America (The Scarlet Letter)

–        Irving: history in folklore – unofficial record, not major events

–        Cooper: deals with important historical events

•       Literature develops a national past & national character

–        Inner World of Human Nature: interest in irrational depths of human nature

•       Poe is the master

–        Poems set in dreams, abandon reason, madness