American Romanticism

Historians like to call the era starting 1812... (the era we're talking about today)

• Antebellum Era

• Prebellum Era

• American Renaissance

• Neo-classical Period

This period was characterised by democratisation that came with …

• A singular cultural narrative that was built upon the motif of the frontier hero.

• The pluralisation of social hierarchies based on aristocracy.

• Only one cultural narrative based on the idea of the individual as part of a tight-knit social network.

• The pluralisation of culture, including religion, in which an increasing number of voices were set free to pursue their own cultural interests.

If one wanted to characterise the culture of the period with a few words, one could say there was...

(tick the correct answers)

• literature sensationalism (e.g. gruesome human interest stories)

• weak reform movements, such as the temperance movement, abolitionism and utopianism

• the emergence of mass-culture (beginnings of popular culture)

• the popularisation of public constructs such as the frontier hero

• a diminishing reading public

“In response to the intense pluralisation of culture, the gentry and its intellectual leaders tried to assert their cultural dominance by propagating the need for a cultural nationalism."(Fluck, 2021) They were searching for cultural devices that could be regarded as representative of the new nation and its achievements.”

For this project, they considered…as helpful.

• European Enlightenment

• European Gothic-Horror

• European Trade -Philosophy

• European Romanticism

The cultural exchange with the European 'version' resulted in American Romanticism being characterised by…

• subjective and aesthetic experiences

• American authors exclusively copying Europeans

• objective and naturalistic writing

• unexpected new cultural development

The cultural exchange with Europe led to cultural phenomena in America, such as…

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  Discovery of nature in literature

• The (re-)discovery of the historical novel

• Landscape painting

• Radically individualised self-culture

The cultural developments, e.g. beginning of mass-culture, were made possible by technical revolutions in these fields …

• Improvements in print & paper-making

• Schools received governmental funding for better heating

• Distribution-channels (e.g. postal service)

• Men doing household chores