th 19 Century American Literature 1820 -1865

th 19 Century American Literature 1820 -1865

AKA o ANTEBELLUM LITERATURE n o o (1820 -1860) AMERICAN ROMANTICISM AMERICAN RENAISSANCE n (1830 -50 s)

AMERICAN ROMANTICISM

AMERICAN ROMANTICISM o creative powers of individual mind n o regenerative power of nature, American landscape n o o o “America is a poem in our eyes” (“The Poet”) limits of historical traditions, associations stultifying effects of established institutions mystical glories of pre-socialized infancy n o almost god-like powers infancy of USA self-reliance non-conformity possibility of the miraculous in the here & now

AMERICAN RENAISSANCE

AMERICAN RENAISSANCE o o 1830 -50 s spark in 1830 s n o Emerson peak in 1850 s n Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman

AMERICAN RENAISSANCE o American writing = n o achieves its 1 st significant maturity coming of age

AMERICAN RENAISSANCE o Right Time: n culturally – o o o n time of peace after Revolutionary War after War of 1812 politically – o o o from Enlightenment & Revolution> optimism re: man’s possibilities & man’s perfectibility democracy> value of individual

AMERICAN RENAISSANCE o Right Time: n economically – o o n peace after war growing business, commerce growing leisure class coming depression of mid-century, panic of 1837 religiously – o o o stern Calvinism = replaced by purely logical Deism & its (over)reaction to Great Awakening’s emotionalism unsatisfied & hungry for something new, personal but not traditional reaction to growing materialism

AMERICAN RENAISSANCE o Right Time: n aesthetically – o felt restrained by Neo-Classicism n o o o (form, lack of emotion) less @ form more @ inspiration & emotion heart over rules

AMERICAN RENAISSANCE o anti-American Literature: n not taught in US schools until mid-20 th. C not taken seriously seen as subordinate to British lit

AMERICAN RENAISSANCE o against idea of American Renaissance: n n n n selling idea created in 1941 (we need a “ren. ” as British) critics of the period excluded women, blacks, Indians, …. critics were disinterested in popular writers of the day (not until 1970 s, 1980 s) critics were disinterested in works outside of New York & Massachusetts critics had ignored the period’s social/political contexts: immigration, slavery, … critics had overemphasized the separation of English & American literary traditions *how can it be a “rebirth” when it’s only beginning, still in the process of becoming

AMERICAN RENAISSANCE o centrality: n n building on writings that preceded it & pointing to future possibilities fulfillment of calls for “American” literary tradition o o from 1790 s+ “American” literature:

1820 s

1820 s o o 1 st great culmination of American literary nationalism helped spawn the “Renaissance” to come next n n Irving, WC Bryant, JF Cooper, CM Sedgwick (bigger readership than 1830 s, 1850 s)

1820 s o LITERARY NATIONALISM (#1): n n end of Revolutionary War (1790 s) sign of a great nation = great national literature felt new country had raw materials for it different moral themes from Europe

1820 s o BUT n n vulnerability, uncertainty, fragility not sure if US would last o o o French Revolution’s Reign of Terror Napoleonic Wars War of 1812/2 nd War w/England n o British burned Capital & White House delay of national literature

1820 s o 1815: n n n defeat of British at New Orleans by Andrew Jackson national identity ANDREW JACKSON = America o national mythology n n n o o republican hero incarnation of the democratic spirit of the age anti-aristocratic anti-monarchical average person (obscure background) added w/fighting Indians in Florida became US president 1828

1820 s o Andrew Jackson & Effect on Literature: n n celebration of ordinary people & their abilities hostility to unearned social distinction & inherited wealth (common man) (anti-aristocracy)

1820 s o LITERARY NATIONALISM (#2): n n n optimistic nationalism calls for a new American literature North American Review, Boston journal o o o “literature of our own” “American” images, allusions, metaphorical language true freedom = “complete emancipation from literary enthrallment”

1820 s o 1820 s: n answered call o o o Irving’s Sketches Bryant’s Poems Cooper’s Spy & Pioneers

1820 s o NOT separate from British lit. traditions n n n BUT alongside shared language shared love of Brit. It greats o o o Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton, Addison & Steele, Pope Wordsworth, Byron, Walter Scott

1820 s o CRITICAL of early national culture: n n n reverential to European historical & cultural past & skeptical about boastful US culture w/little interest in art & history (or w/a cultural past of its own) demythologizing of past (Revol. War) tempered by awareness of rise & fall of great nations o o o “ENLIGHTENMENT notion evidenced in American & French Revolutions ** impermanency, mutability **

1820 s o uncertainty: n change in US geography o o o n Louisiana Purchase 1803 (doubled size BUT also caused more problems ) free states vs. slave states Missouri Compromises 1820/21 lack of national consensus o states’ rights, slavery, internal improvements, national tariffs

1820 s o nature: n n n part of our national character great landscapes comprehend God’s spirit in it

LITERARY MARKETPLACE

LITERARY MARKETPLACE o British lit in US: n easy access o n o ocean port rivers within months of original publication tough for US writers to publish in US n “subscription system”: o had to arrange committed purchasers prior to publishing

LITERARY MARKETPLACE o geography’s importance: n big cities – big ports = big publishing businesses o n New York o n n ocean port rivers Erie Canal (1825) Ohio territory Philadelphia (not Boston until R/R)

LITERARY MARKETPLACE o copyright laws: n n no international copyrights most British works = pirated copies o no royalties paid to authors n o o (DVDs, CDs todays) cheaper than publishing American lit b/c of national copyright American writers & “day jobs” n no professional US writers (except Irving)

LITERARY MARKETPLACE o 1820 -65: changes in US that helped US publication n population growth o o n n 4 million (1790) 30 million (1860) Irish immigration of 40 s, 50 s territorial expansion technological developments in publishing increased urbanization transportation developments o canals, railroads

LITERARY MARKETPLACE o mid-19 th C: n n n Irish immigration economic depression migration to cities Mexican War that brought 1. 2 m sq. miles (now = 3 msm) gold rush o o travel literature newspapers & magazine boom

LITERARY MARKETPLACE o newspapers & magazines: n n newspapers: 400 thousands magazines: 100 600 o n Graham’s & Godey’s Lady’s Book = new medium for publication o o o poetry fiction personal essays travel writing political reportage women writers

LITERARY MARKETPLACE o WOMEN: n n n writers editors successful, prosperous o argument against women writers: n n n o inflaming their imaginations & undermining their moral place in the privacy of home (domesticity) SUBVERSION: n n often challenging the notions of domesticity from within cultural power of domesticity

“RENAISSANCE, ” REFORM, CONFLICT

RENAISSANCE, REFORM, CONFLICT o Renaissance in the sense of n n n a flowering excitement re: human possibilities a high regard for individual a defiance of British lit. traditions, for American a struggle to understand what "American" could possibly mean **rebirth of founding ideals o o o Revolutionary ideals Enlightenment principles of Declaration of Independence, Common Sense, Federalist

RENAISSANCE, REFORM, CONFLICT o REFORM: n n conviction that American literature & culture = not living up to their Revolutionary or democratic promises (Enlightenment ideals) reform movements – o o o women’s rights temperance abolition, anti-slavery plight of the urban poor anti-Catholicism (Protestant evangelical reform) n n a “protest” against Catholicism *doctrine of reform = central to American Renaissance period

RENAISSANCE, REFORM, CONFLICT o RW EMERSON & Reform: n personal: o n society: o n Transcendentalism abolition, temperance, women’s suffrage literature: o rejects American literary nationalism as timid, imitative

RENAISSANCE, REFORM, CONFLICT o LITERARY NATIONALISM (#3): n n n in RWE’s “American Scholar” speech – exhortation to break dependence on “courtly muses of Europe” a new call for “American” literature

TRANSCENDENTALISM

TRANSCENDENTALISM o Emerson’s “the Transcendentalists” (1842 lecture) n “The Transcendentalist adopts the whole connection of spiritual doctrine. He believes in miracle, in the perpetual openness of the human mind to new influx of light and power; he believes in inspiration, and in ecstasy. ”

TRANSCENDENTALISM o o o Kantian, through his anti-Lockean (only known through experience) Fuller, Thoreau, Whitman the existence of an ideal spiritual reality n n o o o that transcends the empirical & scientific is knowable through intuition (intuition as means to knowledge) (intuition vs. empirical/scientific) power of the creative imagination possibility of the miraculous divinity of the self

RENAISSANCE, REFORM, CONFLICT o WOMEN & Reform: n n n involved in the plight of the urban poor & w/women’s rights Fuller’s “Great Lawsuit” Seneca Falls Convention 1848 E. Cady Stanton’s “Declaration of Sentiments” o o n n ANALOGY: men = Britain social institutions & legal codes serve male interests New York’s married women’s property act Power: o o o domestic power (property rights) public power (voting) check patriarchal power (slavery, temperance)

RENAISSANCE, REFORM, CONFLICT o TEMPERANCE: n n n n drinking = male activity lured men away from home, wives, children money drunkenness social unrest domestic abuse, rape, prostitution “animal passions” addiction

RENAISSANCE, REFORM, CONFLICT o HYPOCRISIES: n n n disillusionment *** boasted US = bastion of freedom & equality Yet…….

RENAISSANCE, REFORM, CONFLICT o HYPOCRISIES: n genocide of Indians o o o n slavery of Africans o o o n Indian Removal Act 1830 few protests by white writers mostly Indian writers @ bad-faith treaties & land-grabbing schemes anti-slavery literature by whites & former slaves Melville: “man’s foulest crime”; America as “intrepid, unprincipled, reckless, predatory, w/boundless ambition, civilized in external but a savage at heart” Thoreau: against Mexican war, anti-slavery Civil War = holy war against slavery to redeem the millennial promise of a nation, Emersonian reform, DOI principles expansionism that ignored sovereignties (Mexico) o o o MANIFEST DESTINY War w/Mexico (1846 -48) Thoreau: against war for expansion of slavery

RENAISSANCE, REFORM, CONFLICT o CIVIL WAR: n n n April 12, 1860 (Fort Sumter, SC) April 9, 1865 (Appomattox, VA) 600, 000+ dead most writers supported the anti-slavery angle = holy war against slavery to redeem the millennial promise of a nation, o o n Emersonian reform Declaration of Independence principles critical of American’s under-estimation of costs of war

RENAISSANCE, REFORM, CONFLICT o CIVIL WAR: n afterward: o reconciliation n o o Melville, Whitman o (opposite of Thomas Paine) death of Lincoln failure of Reconstruction n n to educate former slaves to follow through on reform at heart of CW political corruption materialism anti-black violence (lynching)

RENAISSANCE, REFORM, CONFLICT o DISILLUSIONMENT n n to live up to founding ideals principles in the DOI @ liberty & equality before Civil War o n re: women, Indians, slaves, Mexico after Civil War o re: lynchings, carpetbaggers, scalawags

SMALL & LARGE WORLD of AMERICAN WRITERS 1820 -65

SMALL & LARGE WORLD o small world: n conversations w/each other o o n direct & indirect influences counterinfluences productive friendships rejections of friendships & influences …. wrote responses to each other’s works o o literal literary

SMALL & LARGE WORLD o large world: n n n beyond the US borders travelled, lived, worked abroad interests in literatures south of the border world literature: ancient, contemporary looked to the American past (colonial) for literary inheritance influenced & read, better appreciated in the future (20 th C)

“AMERICAN” LITERATURE

“AMERICAN” LITERATURE o o images allusions metaphorical language themes n n n n o o common man anti-aristocracy critical of US (Subversion) social reform disillusionment w/Rev. promise fear of impermanency alongside European lit. traditions media of newspapers & magazines women writers