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Transcendentalism is an American literary and philosophical movement that was set from the 1830s to the 1850s that started as a reaction to intellectualism and materialism . It was led by Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet. transcendentalists celebrated and changed the American experiment to be one of individualism and self-reliance. They took progressive stands on women's rights, abolition, reform, and education. They criticized government, organized religion, laws, social institutions, and creeping industrialization.

Some of the important figures are:

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Bronson Alcott

Margaret Fuller

Henry David Thoreau

Kelly, Martin. "Transcendentalism in American History." ThoughtCo, Feb. 16, 2021, thoughtco.com/transcendentalism-in-american-history-104287.

https://study.com/academy/lesson/transcendentalism-impact-on-american-literature.html

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1- Self-Reliance", an essay published in 1841 by Ralph Waldo Emerson, has become one of the most famous Transcendentalist texts

2 - Ralph Waldo Emerson

3-Thoreau's Walden, published in 1854,

4-Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. Published in 1855

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Romanticism

✏️Historical background:

The 19th-century European movement known as romanticism emerged in reaction to the Industrial Revolution and the disillusionment with the rational ideas of the Enlightenment. Following the French Revolution of 1789, which significantly altered European society, romanticism began to flourish.

✏️Focused on :

-mindset or intellectual bent

-increased awareness of nature's splendor

-general elevation of the senses over intelligence and of emotion over reason

-a fresh perspective on the artist as a remarkably unique creation

✏️Famous works :

Henry Wadsworth writes "My Lost Youth." Longfellow is a lyric that reflects on the poet's early years. He was as young as dew and as full of energy as the sea tides during that wonderful period of his life.

✏️Prominent figures and poets:

Hannah More English religious writer, best known as a writer of popular tracts and as an educator of the poor.

✏️Sources:

USEUM. (n.d.). History of Romanticism | Romanticism | Exhibitions | USEUM. https://useum.org/Romanticism/History-of-Romanticism

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2024, March 7). Romanticism | Definition, characteristics, artists, history, art, poetry, literature, & music. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/art/Romanticism

Gupta, S. D. (2023, August 28). My Lost Youth by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Poem Analysis. https://poemanalysis.com/henry-wadsworth-longfellow/my-last-youth/

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2024a, February 17). Hannah More | English writer, abolitionist, educator. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hannah-More

Dark romanticism

✏️Historical background:

a prominent American literary trend that gained traction between 1836 and 1840 and remained popular for many years after that.

✏️Focused on :

-subjectivity and creativity to highlight nature's sublimity and the uniqueness of each person.

-It is characterized by a reverence for nature, an appreciation of beauty, and the idea that the imagination is more important than reason and logic.

✏️Famous works :

Horace Walpole wrote a novel titled The Castle of Otranto, which was published in 1764 under a pen name (although the first editions date from the next year). It is regarded as the first Gothic novel written in the English language and is frequently credited with establishing the horror genre as a valid literary genre.

✏️Prominent figures and poets:

Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short-story writer who was a master of the symbolic and allegorical tale. The Scarlet Letter (1850) is the work that made him one of the finest fiction authors in American literature.

✏️Sources:

Dark Romanticism: Definition, fact & Example | StudySmarter. (n.d.). StudySmarter UK. https://www.studysmarter.co.uk/explanations/english-literature/american-literary-movements/dark-romanticism/

Bracken, H. (2011, March 18). The Castle of Otranto | Summary, Characters, analysis, & facts. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Castle-of-Otranto

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2024c, March 12). Nathaniel Hawthorne | Biography, books, short stories, writing style, & facts. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nathaniel-Hawthorne

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The Art of Romanticism and Dark romanticism 

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The Art Of Romanticism & Dark romanticism 

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The Art Of Romanticism & Dark romanticism 

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https://youtu.be/XFnZKjECDKk?si=ao7Hixi6PMvhBPl_

https://youtu.be/CXlGkx58RnY?si=W993zOGg3iC5OKGK

★ These YouTube videos on realism are super helpful and packed with valuable information.★

———————————————

✦ Historical Background ✦ :

In American stories, realism means writing from the Civil War to the early 1900s by authors like William Dean Howells, Rebecca Harding Davis, Henry James, and Mark Twain. They wanted to show real life and different parts of American life. America was growing fast after the Civil War, with more democracy, people learning to read, more factories and cities, more people coming to live here, and more middle-class people getting richer. Realism helped people understand all these big changes. Amy Kaplan said: (realism was like a way to think about and deal with big changes in society).

✧ Characters ✧ :

Realistic characters are shown in a lot of detail, focusing more on their feelings and tough choices than on exciting stories. Social class is important, showing what the middle class wants. Stories feel real, avoiding anything too crazy. The words used are everyday, and the story tries to be fair. Some stories look into characters' thoughts, and realism sees things differently from sappy stories. Twain and James were liked for their realness, but Howells wasn't as popular later on.

✦ The development of realism in American literature ✦ 🔴“IMPORTANT LINK”🔴 :

https://www.idpublications.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Full-Paper-THE-DEVELOPMENT-OF-REALISM-IN-AMERICAN-LITERATURE.pdf

✧ American Realism ✧ :

(Famous works Novel & Plays)

“Novels” :

William Dean Howells - The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885)

Mark Twain - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)

Stephen Crane - The Red Badge of Courage (1895)

“Plays” :

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry (1959)

Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill (1956)

Our Town by Thornton Wilder (1938)

✦ An important PDF about American literature that includes realism 📚 ✦ :

https://www.chino.k12.ca.us/cms/lib/CA01902308/Centricity/Domain/1769/americanrealismlecturepowerpoint.pdf

✧ Sources ✧ :

https://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/realism.htm

https://www.studysmarter.co.uk/explanations/english-literature/literary-movements/american-realism/

https://americanliterature.com/realism-study-guide/

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This picture is my design, and it's all about the history of realism art. Realism art was a style that became popular in the 19th century. Artists wanted to show everyday life and ordinary people in their paintings, making them look real, just like in a photograph.

—————

Realism Poem by Tom Clark:

The smashed weirdness of the raving cadenzas of God
Takes over all of a sudden
In our time. It speaks through the voices of talk show moderators.

It tells us in a ringing anthem like heavenly hosts uplifted,
That the rhapsody of the pastoral is out to lunch.
We can take it from there.

We can take it to Easy Street.
But when things get tough on Easy Street
What then? Is it time for realism?

And who are these guys on the bus
Who glide in golden hats past us
On their way to Kansas City?

https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/realism-8/

——————

The Oxford Handbook of American Literary Realism:

https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/28066

——————

A list of links can give us a big picture and tell us more about Realism in American literature:

https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSF9jnjMD/

https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSF96d3Jp/

https://www.pdsd.org/cms/lib/PA01000989/Centricity/Domain/169/Intro%20Powerpoint.pptx

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Modernist literature is a complete and conscious break from the traditional methods of writing literature, prose and poetry. The impetus for this literary movement was the desire to completely change traditional methods of expression.

Focus points:

Existentialism.

The disappointment that befell them after the war.

Social norms, morals, art, and religion.

Some of the characteristics:

Individualism. Modernist literature focuses on the subjectivity of the individual, where the thoughts and feelings of one person dominate rather than a group of people or several feelings. The events usually revolve around one character and how this character deals with external changes.

Experimentation. Modernity rejected the old writing style, causing them to deviate from the usual writing context, which led to the emergence of free poetry and non-prose literature.

Absurdity. The world has witnessed great change and many difficulties. World wars and the rise of capitalism. This made them feel the absurdity and chaos of the world. This resulted in the emergence of a new type of literature in which events take an imaginative and unrealistic turn. There was also the emergence of absurd theatre, whose characters and dialogues were illogical.

Key Figures:

- Robert Frost

- Gertrude Stein

- T. S. Eliot

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One of my personal favorite plays to come out of absurdist theater is The Zoo Story. The story seems strange and completely incomprehensible, its dialogues are incomplete, and its ending is open, but overall it is wonderful. It is a clear and brilliant evidence of the feelings of people in that period, how people lost touch with each other, and how the world was a cruel and unjust world. It is truly a wonderful and a very brilliant story!

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The American Regionalism Movement: Shaping the Art of the Nation

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The concept of regionalism has been present throughout history, but its modern manifestations emerged prominently in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a response to globalization and centralization. Specific movements and initiatives varied by region and context.

For example, of regionalism in America is the Appalachian region, which spans across multiple states including parts of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia. This region has distinct cultural, economic, and geographic characteristics, including traditions, dialects, music, and cuisine. Efforts to address the challenges and opportunities specific to the Appalachian region have often involved regional cooperation and development initiatives aimed at improving infrastructure, economic diversification, and educational opportunities for its residents.

Notable authors from Regionalism:

1- Sara Orne Jewett, an American novelist, short story writer, best known for her local color works.

2- Martha Strudwick Young, she is an American regionalist writer, best known for her recounting of Southern folk tales, fables, and songs of black life in the plantation era.

3- Charles Portis an American author, also he was regionalist.

American Regionalism movement and the shape of art nation:

American Regionalists wanted their works to be accessible to the public. They depicted familiar subjects, which yielded mainstream popularity across various audiences. Common subjects in Regionalist lithographs, illustrations, paintings, and other forms of art included delightful scenes of small-town America – particularly in the Midwest or the American heartland.

Regionalism art exhibited various styles, but overall, works of this movement were conservative and traditionalist.

Sources:

https://www.invaluable.com/blog/american-regionalism/

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People of Chilmark (Figure Composition) by Thomas Hart Benson, 1920. 

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Artist of American Regionalist Art: Thomas Hart Benton 

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Artist of American Regionalist Art: Thomas Hart Benton 

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Missouri-born painter, illustrator, and lithographer Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) was most famous for his murals. He painted America’s working-class with social criticism and rejected European modern art. When Regionalism began to decline in popularity, Benton became a teacher at Kansas City Art Insitute, where he went on to teach and mentor artist Jackson Pollock.

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Naturalism in American literature arose in response to the societal transformations of industrialization and urbanization. It focused on lower-class characters whose lives were shaped by external influences beyond their control, examining themes such as determinism, poverty, and social inequality. Often set in urban environments, naturalistic works provided unadorned depictions of American society, employing a clinical and wide-ranging approach. These narratives, often marked by a sense of despair, offered a realistic and occasionally pessimistic outlook on human nature, reflecting the challenging realities of a changing nation.

Its characteristics :

Lower-class characters influenced by heredity, instinct, and passion, whose free will is constrained by uncontrollable forces; social theories explain their fates.

Setting: Urban environments prevalent, such as in Norris's "McTeague."

Techniques and Plots: Naturalistic novels feature clinical, panoramic, slice-of-life storytelling, often portraying a chronicle of despair. The novel of degeneration, exemplified by works like Zola's "L'Assommoir" and Norris's "Vandover and the Brute," is common.

Key themes :

survival

determinism

violence

taboo

Key figures :

Émile Zola

Frank Norris

Stephen Crane

Theodore Dreiser

Jack London.

Sources :

https://historica.fandom.com/wiki/American_Naturalism

https://www.skyminds.net/19th-century-realism-naturalism/

https://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/natural.htm

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Multiculturalism in literature is seen as the attempt to show the ethnic diversity in the American experience and seeks the inclusion of the views and contributions of diverse members of society while maintaining respect for their differences and withholding the demand for their assimilation into the dominant culture.

As a philosophy, multiculturalism began as part of the pragmatism movement at the end of the 19th century. Which began after the world war 2, an outburst of multicultural literature emerged, as African Americans, Native Americans, Chinese Americans, Irish Americans, Indian Americans, and other demographics of writers began to record of their own experiences. This outburst came as a reaction to the unjust image about people of color who are seen as uneducated and ignorant as the text written by white colored people were the overwhelming majority at the time.

Important figures :

Ishmael Reed

Leslie Marmon Silko

Ralph Ellison

N. Scott Momaday

Toni Morrison

Rudolfo Anaya

Sandra Cisneros

Maxine Hong Kingston

Jessica Hagedorn

Source:

"The multiculturalism into which American Literature has developed." IvyPanda, 27 July 2018, ivypanda.com/essays/the-multiculturalism-into-which-american-literature-has-developed/.

What is multiculturalism in American Literature and its relation to themes, problems, and ethnic groups?" eNotes Editorial, 15 Aug. 2019, https://www.enotes.com/topics/multiculturalism-literature-77/questions/what-is-multiculturalism-in-american-literature-293782. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

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UO Center for Applied Second Language Studies

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What Does 'Multicultural' Mean? (InterCom Live: December 12, 2022)

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A Lecture on Multiculturalism in Art, Politics, and Poetry