Romanticism

And the primary transcendental motif of the primacy of spirituality over flesh is an understated plot device in Poe's story. Though clearly featuring Poe's scorn towards several defining facets of the transcendental movement, “The Fall of the House of Usher” simultaneously bears the mark of one of the most overarching themes of transcendental thinking. Works Cited Poe, Edgar A. "The Fall of the House of Usher." The Heath Anthology of American Literature.

Alan Kaufman, Neil Ortenberg, and Barney Rosset. New York: Thunder's Mouth, 2004. Print Plath, Sylvia. The Bell Jar. The Outlaw Bible of American Literature.

In the “Black Cat” Poe’s use of self-reliance is unique as he challenges it through the narrator’s rational explanation of irrational events. Emerson’s “Self Reliance” is extremely indicative of its title as it emphasizes the reliance in one’s self as essential in the transcendentalist journey to find truth. The romantic literary principle, self-reliance, is present in both works, however, the authors’ representation and use of it differs in both texts according to style, subject matter, and genre. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay, “Self Reliance” is a rational argument attempting to persuade readers to rely on oneself for guidance rather than external influences such as religion, philosophy, books and society. Due to Emerson’s belief that God created everyone unique and with a specific purpose, Emerson argues by trusting in one’s intuition, individuals will be rightfully serving God and developing a closer spiritual relationship with him.

The Romantic literary genre favored “parts” over “whole” and “content” over “form”. The writer argues that though both the Romantic literary genre and the Gothic art mode were medieval in nature, they came to clash with what was called classical conventions. That’s why, preoccupations with such things as the supernatural, the awful, the dreadful, the repulsive and the grotesque were the exclusive focus of the nineteenth century Gothic novel. While some critics perceived the Gothic as a sub-genre of Romanticism, some others saw it as a genre in its own right (Prendergast). Kathy Prendergast, further contends, that it is this convergence of the Gothic art style and Romantic genre which was quintessential of the nineteenth century era.

Authors like Ambrose Bierce, an innovator of experimental fiction, are highly criticized for taking on projects using this writing style. In one of his most famous works, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," Bierce developed a trademark for comparison in the metafiction genre. In the words of literary critic, Cathy Davidson, "Bierce has staked his claim as `the precursor of postmodern fiction.'" Bierce's short story creates intense drama in a small amount of space, leaving readers with many questions, and strongly placing itself into the metafiction genre. Often compared to the likes of Edgar Allen Poe, the close examination of time, the attention giving to mental fiction to avoid real life, and the blending of reality and fiction allow Bierce's work of fiction to be marked as timeless.

(Abrams,M.H. Pg. 261) The romance was a tale or ballad of chivalric adventure whose emphasis on individual heroism and on the exotic and mysterious was in clear contrast to the elegant formality and artificiality of widespread Classical forms of literature, such as French Neoclassical tragedy. This new interest in relatively unsophisticated but emotional literary expressions of the past was to be a dominant note in Romanticism. (Frenz, Horst and Stallknecht, Newton P. pgs 70-73) Romanticism in English literature began in the 1790’s was the publication of Lyrical Ballads written by William Wordsworth an... ... middle of paper ... ...nse de Lamartine, Alfred de Musset, Stendhal, Prosper Mérimée, Alexandre Dumas (Dumas Père), and Théophile Gautier in France.

Their inability to resolve this struggle--and it was even more a personal one than a nationalistic one, for it questioned their identity and place in society--did much to fire them creatively. However, we will call this American romanticism, though it shares many characteristics with British romanticism. It flourished in the glow of Wordsworth's poetic encounter with nature and himself in The Prelude, Coleridge's literary theories about the reconciliation of opposites, the romantic posturings and irony of Byron, the lush imagery of Keats, and the transcendental lyricism of Shelley, even the Gothicism of Mary Shelley and the Bronte sisters. Growing from the rhetoric of salvation, guilt, and providential visions of Puritanism, the wilderness reaches of this continent, and the fiery rhetoric of freedom and equality, though, the American brand of romanticism developed its own character, especially as these writers tried self-consciously to be new and original. The glory years were 1850-1855.

A nation of ideals, America has also been, not surprisingly, a nation of disillusionment, and we often find some sort of sympathetic resonance in tales of the dark and unholy. And the first prominent American exponent of the Gothic was Edgar Allen Poe. So what characterizes a Gothic... ... middle of paper ... ...debts to the classic Gothic tradition. According to Edmunson, this is largely because, at this century’s end, we are again simultaneously cynical and insecure. “For we now find ourselves in a culture where the Gothic idiom has slipped over from fiction and begun to shape and regulate our perception of reality, thrusting us into a world in which serial killers, bizarre molesters and the like constitute actuality.

While some literature participated in the ideological implications of this conflict, much writing retreated into a longer-term contextualisation of the confrontation as futile and resting on debased values. The stylistic plurality of twentieth-century art - a plurality that Andre Malraux calls the ‘imaginary museum’ of stylistic heterodoxy in The Voices of Silence, leaves it open to various interpretations by writers as well as commentators. However, disposed to the apocalyptic view of history, the most remarkable feature of the age is its pessimism and despair. The modernist writer occupied a worl... ... middle of paper ... ... of Virginia Woolf. Best American Plays.

Romantic Orientalism brought together two concepts and among the two concepts, theorists and literary historians were dispute. Romanticism saw a movement from faith in reason to faith in senses, feelings, and imagination. Literary generations accomplish to one another. There is a trend for the realism of one she to look like romance to the readers and writers. One of the problems the plagues critics and writers of romantic fiction is it's main popularity as a genre.