Germanic
Fairy tales
The monsters in the stories move from Classical Greek (centaurs, Gorgans) to the Germanic/centra, European creatures of the dark(trolls, werewolves, vampires)
Castles
Romantics knew the Romans didn’t build them so the goths must have
~ architecture isn’t square, but irregular
~ stories are set in these buildings bc they are weird, old, scary, barbaric—inspires feelings of fear and unease
Romantics used these gothic settings as ..?
Artistic representation of the mind and what goes on in the individual
Components of the gothic story
- Movement is vertical (top of the structure represents the mind, the basement or dungeon is the subconscious where the real dead is)
- The four characters (metaphorically, each is part of a total person)
The four (metaphoric) characters in the gothic story
- The dangerous man
- The safe man
- The wise old man
- The questing woman
The dangerous man (in the gothic story)
- often scarred but beautiful
- had knowledge, often of the dark side
- they often come from underground
- titled
- often masked
- can be female (often in Poe’s work)
- represents the dark and dangerous side of ourselves
The safe man (in the gothic story)
(The dumb boyfriend in horror movies)
- not helpful, quite useless
- the boring hero who wants the same girl as the dangerous man
- represents the non adventurous side
The wise old man (in the gothic story)
- offers the answers that society knows
- know so where the dragons scales are weak
- represents conventional thinking, what the community knows
The questing woman (in the gothic story)
- going out into the world, looking
- goes out into the dark, the world of death
- pulled between the dangerous man and the safe man
- that part that wants to fix things
- the soul, the self, the ego
- the adventurous side of ourselfsm
Final element in gothic literature is n
New life (marriage, birth)
- getting all the voices to work together allows for creativity for something new
- we have to be aware of and control the dark side of it takes us over
- in the end the safe man takes on some parts of the dangerous man
Background on Poe
- wanted to be a poet more than a story writer
- wrote poems to his potential patrons trying to pay the rent
Fall of the house of usher
- haunted palace (representation of the mind)
- characters not necessarily meant to be individuals, but voices in the head
- mental movement as opposed to physical
In literature, the forest is often a symbol of ..?
The subconscious, the mind
Goth
Post-roman, medieval
History of American romanticism
- Last of the founding fathers have died off
- Country has been revolted but is now stable
- Nation building—what the US would look like
- Mass market for popular literature made possible by the rise un literacy and technology of printing
- Heavily influenced by British romantic movement which corresponded with the French rev
Characteristics of Romantic Philosophy and Art
~ universe is mysterious, incomprehensible (a change from the enlightenment view)
~ individuality (what is special in a man is more valuable than the whole)
~ imagination (if god created world by imagining it, then we can)
~ nature as a source of inspiration and wisdom
~ democracy and individual freedom are valued
~ interest In the past (Greek and roman, Celtic myth, gothic..)
~ belief in the perfectability of man (but not society)
~ spiritual force in nature and mind (over soul)
~ fascination with youth and innocence and trusting ones emotions
Gothic and romanticism
Gothic combines horror and romance
The supernatural
Art: the grotesque, picturesque, the beautiful
Major figures in the romanticism era
Poe Melville Irving Whitman Emerson Thoreau Hawthorne whitman
Romanticism
- Emotional
- individualistic
- revolutionary
- loving solitude and nature
- fantasy and introspection
- organic
- exotic
- idealist philosophy
- “Nobel savage”
Romanticism literary characteristics
- Characters and setting set apart from society
- static characters (no development)
- characterization
- universe is mysterious, irrational, incomprehensible
- formal language
- good receives justice
- nature can punish or reward
- plot arranged around crisis moments
Plot in romanticism demonstrates
- romantic love
- honor and integrity
- idealism of self
- supernatural foreshadowing (dreams, visions)
- ## description provides a “feeling” of the scene
Conditions that influenced American romanticism
- frontier promised opportunity for expansion, growth, freedom (Europe lacked those elements)
- spirit of optimism invoked by the promise of an uncharted frontier
- immigration brought new cultures and perspectives
What is romanticism?
A Movement from one mode of thinking to another
enlightenment–> romanticism
The big “I”s of romanticism
Imagination
Intuition
Individual
Idealism
