Intro to Romanticism

What are the key tenets of Romanticism?

Emotion, individualism, imagination, reverence for nature, critique of society, originality, primitivism, medieval/Gothic influence, revolutionary spirit.

Which authors are associated with English Romanticism?

William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, Emily Brontë.

Which authors are associated with American Romanticism?

Emily Dickinson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman.

What are the dates for the Romantic Period in England?

1798 (publication of Lyrical Ballads) to 1837 (coronation of Queen Victoria).

What are the dates for the Romantic Period in America?

1828 (Andrew Jackson’s presidency) to 1865 (end of the Civil War).

What are the key tenets of Transcendentalism?

Innate divinity, self-reliance, nature as divine, anti-dogma, idealism.

Who are the key figures in Transcendentalism?

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller.

Name key works of Transcendentalism.

Civil Disobedience (Thoreau), Walden (Thoreau), The Transcendentalist (Emerson).

What period is also called the Age of Transcendentalism?

The Romantic Period in American literature.

What are the key characteristics of Gothic literature?

Mood of decay and terror, dramatic/violent action, destructive passions, grotesque elements, isolation/alienation.

Name examples of Gothic literature.

Frankenstein (Mary Shelley), Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë), The Fall of the House of Usher (Edgar Allan Poe).

How does Gothic literature connect to Romanticism?

Shares themes of imagination, individuality, and mystery but focuses on darker, supernatural elements.

When did the Romantic Period begin in England?

1798, with the publication of Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge.

When did the Romantic Period begin in America?

1828, when Andrew Jackson was elected president.

What year marked the end of the Romantic Period in America?

1865, the end of the Civil War.

Who is associated with the concept of 'self-reliance' in Transcendentalism?

Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Who wrote The Scarlet Letter?

Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Who pioneered detective fiction?

Edgar Allan Poe (Murders in the Rue Morgue).

What poet wrote in free verse and challenged poetic conventions?

Walt Whitman (Leaves of Grass).