Arrival of the American Culture
I. In Search of a New Culture
A. Young Americans and Manifest Destiny.
1. New era commerce, technology(RR),expansion
2. Celebrate growth-aggressive foreign policy
3. Praise American virtues not ancient Rome
4. Need new National literature free from Europe
a. Express unique American values
b. Democracy, individuality, freedom
B. Young Americans were our part of Romantic" View
1. Romanticism resists reason- (Jackson)
a. Subordinate thought to feelings
b. Worship individual-Praise folk culture & country
c. Glorify nature
2. Transcendentalism
a. Fullest expression of romanticism
1. Mystical intuitive look at life
2. Self is part of Nature and Nature is God
3. Transcend reason with faith in the self
4. Institutions-Parties and Churches unimportant
b. Ralph Waldo Emerson
1. Emphasis on self-reliance in new indust soc
2. But trapped by the Past, Society,& Reason
a. Alienation comes from the past
b. Escape the past-not be bound by it.
c. Escape the chains of the Enlightenment
3. Solution: Need ³whim²
4. But especially we need Solitude and Nature
c. Henry David Thoreau
1. Man's relation to nature-Walden
2. Alarmed by scramble for wealth
d. E. A. Poe and J. F. Cooper
e. Walt Whitman follows in steps of Emerson
C. On the other hand
1. Alexis de Tocqueville
a. Democracy in America--Middle class
b. no institutions of inequality
2. Thomas Cole-the artist in between
3. Nathaniel Hawthorne,
4. Herman Melville vs Whitman
a. ³Course of Empire . . .²
b. ³Dark side² of humanity
c. Dangers facing a nation:
1. Over-reaches because of pride
2. Excessive exalted sense of destiny