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American Romanticism Research Paper

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American Romanticism was the first literary movement in the U.S. between 1820 and 1860. This rapid growth of intuition, imagination, and individualism influenced many now famous authors to have the literature we know today. Romanticism is typically defined as a "literary and philosophical theory that tends to see the individual at the center of all life, and it places the individual, therefore, at the center of art, making literature valuable as an expression of unique feelings and particular attitudes and valuing its fidelity in portraying experiences, however fragmentary and incomplete, more than its adherence to completeness, unity, or the demands of the genre. Although romanticism tends at times to regard nature as alien, it more often sees in nature a revelation of Truth . . . and a more suitable subject for art than those aspects of the world sullied by artifice. Romanticism seeks to find the Absolute, the Ideal, by transcending the actual" (A Handbook to Literature). Romanticism is a movement wherein artists reacted to the constraints of Realism and moved toward the individual as a creative being. The language of this period is less formalized than previous periods, nature is a reflection of man, and simplicity is prized over the conventions of the past. A movement within this movement is Transcendentalism which emphasized the importance of nature and the "dignity of manual labor.” Romanticism was a literary …show more content…

Poe experienced many losses in his early childhood and throughout his life. Many believe that he fell into a lifestyle of drinking and gambling, because of this. Throughout all of Poe’s poems and short stories he typically tells tales of mysteries. Darkness appears a lot throughout his works. I was in the ninth grade when I first read Poe and I have loved his works ever since. I like the mystery in his writing and how he uses literary devices like

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