Romanticism HighlightsHistorical and Literary Eras Overview,

Romanticism Slideshow, and Huckleberry Finn Questions

Francisco de Goya

The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters

1797

“Monsters” represent the Irrational or A-rational forces in us.(from the picture… think “imagination” OR “heart,” “gut,” and “bowels”—above or below the head)

“The Sleep of Reason” represents the inability of our Reason to operate all the time and account for everything we experience.(from the picture… think “mind” and “intellect” OR “brain”—the head)

Enlightenment:• Man-centered; but

men are just men

• Emphasis on reason and logic

• Intellect is most important

Counter-Enlightenment:• Man-centered; but

men often play God and become either famous or infamous for it

• Emphasis on feeling

• Imagination is most important

In Conclusion:Puritans:

Man is inherently corrupt. He seeks faith. His purpose is to give glory to his Creator through commitment, sacrifice, and hard work.

Age of Reason:

Man is inherently imperfect, but he can always improve. He seeks knowledge. His purpose is to explore and understand the created world using his rational mind.

Romantics:Man possesses both a good and an evil side. Oftentimes, trying to be terrific, he cannot help but be terrible. He seeks intuition. His purpose is to explore and appreciate the created world using his imagination.

Romantic History (1828-1865)

• 1828 Andrew Jackson, “People’s President,” elected• 1830 Cooper’s locomotive• 1844 Morse’s telegraph• 1846 Oregon Treaty, U.S. and England divide Oregon territory• 1846 U.S. annexes Texas from Mexico• 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, Mexico gives up Alta California and Nuevo

Mexico• 1848 Seneca Falls, Women’s Rights Convention• 1861 American Civil War begins• 1862 Homestead Acts encourage Americans to settle the west• 1863 Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation

Meanwhile, in Europe…First Industrial RevolutionImmigration Wave begins

Marx and Engels publish The Communist Manifesto, 1848

Revolution sweeps continent, 1848

Romantic Literature

• Supernatural elements• Meaning is uncovered/discovered• Setting, external nature, is beautiful or sublime, inspires consideration or awe,

and stimulates reflection on the nature of God and man• Main character goes on an adventure to find self-knowledge—wanders, rebels,

tests his limits• About representative man > men• Enchanted• Original impulse (resists the notion that man is defined by his time or place)• Genres include: short story, novel, poetry, etc.

What the Romantics Gave America:the Original impulse

• “artifice” or “artificial,” which means conventional

• primacy of exterior realties, e.g. time, place, circumstance or convention upon men

• pragmatic or disenchanted, all about cold, hard facts

• here-and-now

• “nature” or “natural”

• primacy of interior realities, e.g. man’s spirit or heart upon itself

• idealistic or enchanted, all about possibility

• both mythically old (think “origin story”) and magically new (think “how original!”)

REALIS

M

Huckleberry Finn as Romantic (2 Romanticism Slides Combined)

• “nature” or “natural”

• primacy of interior realities, e.g. man’s spirit or heart upon itself

• idealistic or enchanted, all about possibility

• both mythically old (think “origin story”) and magically new (think “how original!”)

• Supernatural (natural+) elements

• Meaning is uncovered/discovered• Setting, external nature, is beautiful or

sublime, inspires consideration or awe, and stimulates reflection on the nature of God and man

• Main character goes on an adventure to find self-knowledge—wanders, rebels, tests his limits

• About representative man > men

• Enchanted

• Original impulse (resists the notion that man is defined by his time or place)

HF, Three Part Story

Part 1:• Boy’s Adventure Tale, genuine

Part 2: • Bildungsroman—tale in which Boy becomes Man, developing morally

and spiritually• Romanticism of River (“raft”=“home,” “free and easy and comfortable” vs.

“other places”=“cramped up and smothery”)

Part 3: • Boy’s Adventure Tale, again, this time as satire• Romanticism of River FAILS as Romanticism of Shore (“romantical”

becomes “style,” the “right,” the “regular,” “romantical” becomes, in other words, conventional)

Huckleberry Finn as Romantic (A Complex Issue)

o How does life with the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson represent “Convention”?

o How does the River represent the opposite of Convention, a “Romantic” safe-haven for Huck and Jim?

o How does the Town/Shore infect or haunt the River? In what persons, places, and events?

o How is Tom’s plan to free Jim, which Tom calls “romantical,” really a parody, or caricature, of the Romantic that ends up revealing Romanticism’s tragic failure?