lit movments

Romanticism

city and civilization viewed as places of immorality and death

Occasionally journey ventures into the mind

Valued feelings over reason: and imagination

European movement

Grew in response to rationalism

Valued poetry most highly

Explored exotic or supernatural settings. focused on Natural world

Youthful and innocent hero, close to nature, possibly uncomfortable around women

Transcendentalism

Individualism, idealism, love of nature

• Emerson: key transcendentalist author

Viewed world out of intuition instead of fact

Power of God and his work in nature

Appealed to people full of worry

World as a reflection of the divine

Every person is their own best authority

Dark Romanticism

Edgar Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne

Gloomy view of the world: seen as “anti-trancendentalists”

Humanity attached to fear pain and death

Nature as dark and mysterious

Hero with dark hidden past, charismatic, cunning

Sin and guilt

Realism

Everyday characters and settings

non-dramatic

emphasize character development

Reaction against Romantisism

Response to civil war

Regionalism

detailed depiction of specific areas

use of local customs and dialect

influence of environment on characters

uniqueness of specific cultures, and specific social issues

Response to civil war: increased national identity

Preserving local tradition and rapid modernization

Naturalism

facet of realism with focus on environment

characters struggle against forces outside of their control

determinism and power of nature

darker aspects of life

reaction to industrial and social conditions of late 19th century

Modernism

broke traditional structure and practices

experimentation

themes of alienation and fragmentation

inner self and consciousness

reaction to WW1 and rapid technological change

influenced by existential philosophy