American renaissance ppnt

1. American Renaissance Shirley Middleton University of Phoenix January 13, 2013

2. American Renaissance introduction The American Renaissance is a period in American history from the 1830’s through the end of the American Civil War. This movement was characterized by a revitalization of a national identity and self-confidence. It was the burgeoning of artistic creativity of all time. Impacted by great, European literary works, many American authors forged their writings through poems, novellas, and novels.

3. American Literature Freedom from British rule Creation of American philosophy, poetry, and other writing Freedom from European literature

4. American literature Transcendentalism Creation of American literature in the form of new philosophy, poetry, essays, and novels, uniquely different from European literature .

5. History of american literature Transcendentalists Attempt to define spirituality and religion Romantic way of thinking Using the senses and nature

6. Transcendental authors Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) “We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds…A nation of of men will for the first time exist because each believes himself inspired by the Divine Soul which also inspires all men.”

7. Emerson (cont’d) Nature published in 1836 The Dial magazine began its publication in 1840 Essays First and Second Series, 1841 & 1844 Self-Reliance - Relationship with Nature and God Poems (1847) The Conduct of Life (1860)

8. Transcendental authors Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) “I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that i f one advances confidently in the direction o f his dreams, and endeavors to live the life w hich he has imagined, he will meet with a s uccess unexpected in common hours.”

9. Thoreau (cont’d) A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849) Walden (1854) Civil Disobedience (1849)

10. Transcendental authors Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) “What woman needs is not as a women to act or rule, but as a nature to grow, as an intellect to discern, as a soul to live freely, and unimpeded to unfold such powers as were given her when we left our common home.”

11. Fuller (cont’d) Conversations (1839) The Great Lawsuit: Man versus Men, Woman versus Women ( 1843) Renamed Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845 ) Papers on Literature and Art (1846)

12. conclusion There were many writers during the American Renaissance Period that paved the way of our literature. The authors discussed earlier shaped the way literature was henceforth written. Free from European influence, American writers created a new identity so desperately sought after. It was this time that Americans felt their voice could be heard. The American nation expressed itself with a uniqueness that Americans could finally identify with.

13. references Baym , N., Franklin, W., Gura , P., Klinkowitz , J., Krupat , A., Levine, R.S., Loeffelholz , M., Reesman , J.C., Wallace, P. B., (2008). The Norton Anthology of American Literature : Shorter ( 7th ed.). W. W. Norton & Company: New York . Margaret fuller.biography . (2012). Retrieved from http:// www.biography.com /people/margaret-fuller-9303889 Woodlief , A. (2004). American transcendentalism web . Retrieved from http:// transcendentalism.tamu.edu /authors/ emerson /