Identify the common themes in american

• Identify the common themes in American literature and art in the mid-1800s.. • Describe the flowering of American literature in the mid-1800s.. • Discuss the development of unique Amer

• Identify the common themes in American

literature and art in the mid-1800s

• Describe the flowering of American literature in the mid-1800s

• Discuss the development of unique American styles in art and music

Objectives

Terms and People

• transcendentalism – a movement that sought

to explore the relationship between humans and nature through emotions rather than through reason

• Ralph Waldo Emerson – the leading

transcendentalist who wrote popular speeches and essays

• individualism – the unique importance of each individual

Terms and People (continued)

• Henry David Thoreau – a transcendentalist

who wrote Walden

• civil disobedience – the idea that people

should peacefully disobey unjust laws if their conscience demands it

• Herman Melville – author of Moby-Dick

• Nathaniel Hawthorne – author of The Scarlet Letter

• Louisa May Alcott – author of Little Women

3.What was a major topic of American paintings

during this time period? 435

4.Before this time period, artists and authors were

influenced by where, rather then American history

How did American literature and art have an impact on American life?

Americans were divided by sectionalism and slavery, but they were united by nationalism and an optimistic belief in the

possibility of improving themselves and society

These ideas were expressed in and reinforced by American art and literature

Before 1800, American

writers and artists

modeled their work on

European styles

However, by the

mid-1800s, American writers

and artists had begun to

develop styles that

reflected American

optimism and energy

Their work explored subjects that were uniquely American

They used formal language and

referred to Greek and Roman

myths

Washington Irving

Stories • “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”

• “Rip Van Winkle”

James Fenimore Cooper

Novels • The Deerslayer

• The Last of the Mohicans

Famous

character • Natty Bumppo was a frontiersman who kept moving westward and criticized

the destruction of nature.

Impact • Cooper’s novels helped American

literature gain popularity in Europe.

By the early 1800s, a new artistic movement

A small but influential group of writers and

thinkers in New England developed an American form of Romanticism

Romantics emphasized the importance of nature, emotions, and imagination

This movement was called

transcend human reason.

Transcendentalists argued that humans should pursue a close link with nature and live simply

Nature

Humans seeking beauty, goodness, and truth within their own souls.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the leading

transcendentalist, wrote speeches and essays in which he urged Americans to:

• question the value of material wealth, and pursue higher values instead

• rely on principles of

guide their lives and improve society

The transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau:

• spent two years living

in the woods at Walden Pond,

meditating on nature

• published Walden,

a book in which he urged Americans to live simply.

Like Emerson, Thoreau believed people must

judge right and wrong for themselves

He encouraged civil disobedience and once

spent a night in jail for refusing to pay taxes that

he felt supported slavery

Thoreau’s ideas about civil disobedience and nonviolent protest influenced later leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr.

Two later novelists, who were both fascinated by

change the tone of American literature

Herman Melville’s

1851 novel,

Moby-Dick, told the story

of a sea captain who destroys himself

during an obsessive search for a white whale

Today,

Moby-Dick is

considered one of the greatest American novels

Nathaniel Hawthorne often used historical themes to explore the dark side of the mind.

• In his 1850 novel, The Scarlet Letter, a young Puritan minister is destroyed by secret guilt

• Hawthorne—who was descended from the Massachusetts Puritans—paints a grim

picture of Puritan life

Louisa May Alcott presented a gentler view of New England life in her 1868 novel Little Women,

a story about four sisters growing up together

• The novel’s main character, Jo March, was

one of the first young American heroines portrayed as a real person rather than as

a shining ideal

Poets of Democracy

Henry

Wadsworth

Longfellow

• Longfellow based poems, such as “Paul

first works to honor Native Americans.

Walt Whitman • In books of poetry such as his 1855

the poet who best expresses the democratic American spirit.

The Hudson River

Other American painters were inspired by the daily lives of common Americans.

• George Caleb Bingham painted scenes of

life on the great rivers

• George Catlin captured the ways and dignity of Native Americans

Just as art and literature shifted away from

European themes, American songs also drifted away from English, Irish, or Scottish tunes

Over time, there emerged a wide

variety of new American songs such

as work songs and spirituals

The most popular American songwriter of the 1800s was Stephen Foster, composer of

“Camptown Races.”

Close Questions:

1.What is Civil Disobedience?

2.How did the idea of Civil Disobedience influence Martin Luther King Jr.?

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