American Renaissance

American Renaissance
or New England Renaissance

Period from the 1830s roughly until the end of the American Civil War in which U.S. literature came of age as an expression of a national spirit.

The literary scene was dominated by New England Brahmin writers, notably Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and James Russell Lowell. Also influential were the Transcendentalists (see Transcendentalism), including Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, as well as the great imaginative writers Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, and Edgar Allan Poe.

* * *

also called  New England Renaissance  

      period from the 1830s roughly until the end of the American Civil War in which American literature, in the wake of the Romantic movement, came of age as an expression of a national spirit.

      The literary scene of the period was dominated by a group of New England writers, the “Brahmins (Brahmin),” notably Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth), Oliver Wendell Holmes (Holmes, Oliver Wendell), and James Russell Lowell (Lowell, James Russell). They were aristocrats, steeped in foreign culture, active as professors at Harvard College, and interested in creating a genteel American literature based on foreign models. Longfellow adapted European methods of storytelling and versifying to narrative poems dealing with American history. Holmes, in his occasional poems and his “Breakfast-Table” series (1858–91), brought touches of urbanity and jocosity to polite literature. Lowell put much of his homeland's outlook and values into verse, especially in his satirical Biglow Papers (1848–67).

 One of the most important influences in the period was that of the Transcendentalists (see Transcendentalism), centred in the village of Concord, Massachusetts, and including Ralph Waldo Emerson (Emerson, Ralph Waldo), Henry David Thoreau (Thoreau, Henry David), Bronson Alcott (Alcott, Bronson), George Ripley (Ripley, George), and Margaret Fuller (Fuller, Margaret). The Transcendentalists contributed to the founding of a new national culture based on native elements. They advocated reforms in church, state, and society, contributing to the rise of free religion and the abolition movement (abolitionism) and to the formation of various utopian communities, such as Brook Farm. The abolition movement was also bolstered by other New England writers, including the Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier (Whittier, John Greenleaf) and the novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe (Stowe, Harriet Beecher), whose Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) dramatized the plight of the black slave.

      Apart from the Transcendentalists, there emerged during this period great imaginative writers—Nathaniel Hawthorne (Hawthorne, Nathaniel), Herman Melville (Melville, Herman), and Walt Whitman (Whitman, Walt)—whose novels and poetry left a permanent imprint on American literature. Contemporary with these writers but outside the New England circle was the Southern genius Edgar Allan Poe (Poe, Edgar Allan), who later in the century had a strong impact on European literature.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • American Renaissance — ist eine von F. O. Matthiessen geprägte Bezeichnung der Literaturwissenschaft, genauer gesagt der American Studies, für die Zeit von 1836 bis 1861. Während dieser Zeit wurden viele der Romane geschrieben, die heute als bedeutende Meisterwerke der …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • American Renaissance — This article is all about the American Renaissance in architecture and the arts. For the use of the term in literature, see American Renaissance (literature). For the white nationalist magazine, see American Renaissance (magazine). In the history …   Wikipedia

  • American Renaissance (Zeitschrift) — American Renaissance ist eine US amerikanische rechtskonservative Zeitschrift, die Positionen des weißen Separatismus vertritt. Sie wurde 1990 vom Journalisten Jared Taylor gegründet und wird von der New Century Foundation herausgegeben. Um die… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • American Renaissance (Begriffsklärung) — American Renaissance steht für: American Renaissance, eine Stilrichtung der Literatur American Renaissance (Zeitschrift), eine US amerikanische rechtsradikale Zeitschrift Diese Seite ist eine Begriffsklärung zur Unterscheidung mehre …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • American Renaissance (magazine) — For the magazine about renaissance faires, see Renaissance Magazine American Renaissance (abbreviated AR or AmRen) is a monthly racialist magazine published by the New Century Foundation. [http://www.amren.com/siteinfo/information.htm] The… …   Wikipedia

  • American Renaissance (literature) — In American literature, the American Renaissance was the mid 19th century, and especially the period roughly from 1850 to 1855, during which many of the works most widely considered American masterpieces were produced. These included Melville s… …   Wikipedia

  • Native American Renaissance — The Native American Renaissance was a term originally coined by critic Kenneth Lincoln in his 1983 book of the same title. Lincoln’s goal was to explore the explosion in production of literary works by Native Americans in the decade and a half… …   Wikipedia

  • The Coming American Renaissance — a book authored by Michael Moynihan (Simon Schuster, 1996) argued that the United States has unique economic advantages that enable it its global economic position. When it appeared in 1996, it helped reverse the then prevailing view expounded b …   Wikipedia

  • Renaissance (disambiguation) — Renaissance usually refers to a period in the history of Europe between the Middle Ages and the Modern Age. See also .Cultural movementspecific regions of Europe* English Renaissance * French Renaissance * German Renaissance * Italian Renaissance …   Wikipedia

  • Renaissance en historiographie — Renaissance (historiographie) Pour les articles homonymes, voir Renaissance. Cet article traite du concept de Renaissance en historiographie, indépendamment des époques ou civilisations où le terme est employé par les historiens. La découpe… …   Wikipédia en Français

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”