Puritans
What are two Puritan themes evident in early American Literature?
Idealistic leader and the Christian attitude toward the world "we are in it not of it".
What is the time span for the period known as American Romanticism?
1820-1865
Two Transcendental Optimists
Emerson and Thoreau
What did the romantics believe was of primary importance in literary creation?
Imagination
What did Emerson had to say about why the world exists?
The world exists for each of us personally
What contributions from the Puritan view of life still remain in our culture today?
Work ethic, goal-centeredness, and subservience of pleasure to duty.
What was the school of thought followed by the major romantic writers?
Universality in themes and forms
Two Transcendental Pessimists
Hawthorne and Poe
What did they believe replaced reason in the creative process?
Intuition
What did Thoreau see as superior to the government?
Personal intellect
Why did the Puritans emphasize nature in their poetry?
God the Creator
What did the romantics believe was the way to improve man?
To remove negative influences from their lives
Who/what the transcendental true god is
The Over-soul that connects us all
What are the basic ideas central to Unitarianism?
Fatherhood of God and Brotherhood of man, Salvation of character, and leadership of Jesus
Be able to summarize the differences between the Romantics and the Puritans’ views of nature. Think of some examples of how these views were evidenced in the writings we read.
A. Puritans believed they could find God through nature. (Nature plays a crucial role in The Scarlet Letter...It was a healing and empowering force for Hester and by living on the outskirts of town, it may have restored her soul.)
B. Romantics believed it was a means of knowing truth and literal subject matter.
Rip Van Winkle (contains all four corners of romanticism:Nature, The Distant, Individualism, and Imagination
What Puritan stereotype is dispelled in Anne Bradstreet’s “To My Dear and Loving Husband”?
Puritans were thought to have no feelings but she showed that they did have emotions in relations
What did the romantics see as the only way to understand God?
Through Nature
What German philosopher influenced the transcendentalists?
Immanuel Kant
Irving is known for creating the _____________form of narrative writing.
Short story
Who/what the literary circle called the Knickerbockers was.
Writers centered in NYC formed a group named after Diedrich Knickerbocker the fictional historian of Washington Irving. Its members strive to create and promote American literature.
List the characteristics of Puritan Theology
Total Depravity - Man is sinful
Unconditional election - God chooses believers through no merit of their own.
Limited Atonement - Christ’s death atones only for the sins of the elect.
Irresistible Grace - None of the elect will refuse God’s grace.
Perseverance of the saints - The elect cannot fall from God’s grace.
Sufficiency of Scripture - Scripture sets forth a total plan for man’s existence on earth.
What are the four cornerstones of American Romanticism?
1. Nature
2. The Distant
3. Individualism
4. Imagination
Thoreau’s time in jail--why was he there?
He refused to pay his taxes which inspired, "Civil Disobedience".
What were the three major literary groups of the period?
1. Knickerbockers
2. Transcendentalist
3. New England School
Define transcendentalism
*man and nature contain a divine spark
*the over-soul
*man receives knowledge through nature
*man is guided to truth by intuition
*man is inherently good