(2015 midterm assignment) Model Student Midterm answers 2015 #1: Long Essays (Index)

LITR 4328 American Renaissance

Rosie Galvan

March 5, 2015

American Renaissance: A progressive journey

As the semester progresses in Dr. White’s class, I have come to understand how powerful and important the American Renaissance is towards our growth in the literary world. Of course there definitely was a sense of intimidation going into this class knowing that Historical knowledge was needed or would be presented towards any texts we read in the class. Not being the biggest fan of history myself, I had already come in with a closed off and bored state of mind. However I know begin to see all the importance these Historical events had and the effects they placed on literature, along with the growth of great American authors (to name a few) such as Whitman, Dickinson, Poe and Irving.

There have been five sections that have conducted the course of the American Renaissances development and growth so far; what the concept of American Renaissance is, different terms of Romanticism, early Romantic fiction, Historical Romance and women domestic romance. These five different topics relate but are not limiting the American Renaissance progress. Beginning with American Renaissance as a whole, what in fact does this mean to us?

 The American Renaissance was well lived between the years of 1820s going all the way to the 1860s. It was also known as the “Antebellum period” which was also known as the period before the American Civil War. According to F.O. Matthiessen book, American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the age of Emerson and Whitman, he claims that this period was also known as “first maturity” towards American Literature. There were more relatable texts and feelings of the every man’s daily life being produced by these American Renaissance authors. At this point American renaissance writers were taking a stronger stand over their work and placing more historical and realistic attention towards their novels and texts, one writer in particular was Walt Whitman. Whitman was one of “American’s greatest poets” as he used his writing to give a particular emotions and backgrounds to the lives of the American people. He also expanded the use “free verse” a method used in poetry where the verses tends to stray away from the “formal verse” of rhyming with rhythm and meter. A great importance from Whitman was the way he incorporated the ‘nitty-gritty’ realness of everyday life into his work. He talked about the things others were afraid to talk about and the struggles of the American survival life.

            The American Renaissance also touched base with several romantic terms such as the gothic, sublime, romance and transcendentalism. The term that I am noticing a high interest in and finding a common repetition within the American Renaissance text is the use of the gothic in the texts. One example of the gothic in American Renaissance literature can be seen in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, Ligeia. Edgar uses the gothic touch to give off an element of suspense, eeriness and the thrill of mystery in his short story. Poe also mixes the elements by adding the touch of romanticism into his story. I had to be a little skeptical towards having an open mind on mixing a gothic principle with a romantic one. I had set my mind towards labeling the romantic as that of love, nature and a story with a resolution; and not seeing how this element would fit into a story with a gothic base. However as I continued to read on, I noticed how Poe described Ligeia by using descriptions such as the sound of her sound as, “the dear music of her low sweet voice”, the statute figures of her “marble hand upon my shoulder, In a beauty of face no maiden ever equaled to her” (pp3). In such a sublime way it made the text richer towards the romantic element and gave the incredible overwhelmed feeling of adoration and love. Amanda Duarte stayed it best in her essay, The Romantic Umbrella, she says, “Poe’s description of Ligeia is also quite romantic although the work itself is gothic, he [Poe] sees the beauty in Ligeia that no one else does”.

As the American Renaissance continues to develop, broader categories in them such as early romantic fiction, historical romance and women’s domestic romance novels begin to explore American relations between class, race and restricted issues. In the writing towards early romantic fiction we have read material from American writer Washington Irving. Irving wrote the short stories of Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, both stories become essential to the American readers due to the entertaining and attention grabbing plot. Both stories relate towards an element of suspense and a touch of magic and mystery. American readers not only enjoyed the different type of genre but would continue to tell these stories with different adaptions and alterations towards future generations as legends and scary stories. The elements of gothic were also etched into these texts (Sleepy Hollow) as the description of the trees in the woods being, “towered like a giant above all the trees…the limbs were gnarled and fantastic…twisting down almost to the earth” (pp56). There was almost a craving form the American readers of wanting more ghost stories and superstation in their readings. The thrill was now set and readers enjoyed the way they got to leave their lives for a moment, read these stories and go into a world of suspense and fictional situations.

Another area of the American Renaissance the class has touched on is the Historical and woman’s domestic romance. Both the historical and women’s domestic romance deal with the issues of a changing ideal of family and family members as a unit. In the historical romance aspect we see that women and men of different cultures, class and race begin to unify not only under the essence of changing times with wars and society but also along the motifs of love. This is seen in James Fenimore Cooper’s novel, The Last of the Mohicans, the motifs of interracial love and friendship, views of nature and interesting religious aspects in a ‘wild’ environment are represented throughout the novel. The woman’s domestic romance was an area also relating towards the changing times of society but rather on focusing on a society as a whole, writers such as Susan B. Warner who wrote The Wide, Wide world, relate towards the aspects of American women and the course of having their voices heard and obtaining a place in society.

Dr. White’s class is really opening my eyes towards not centralizing one certain term for one particular piece of literature such as romanticism but rather seeing how each collective category is found within these American Renaissance novel, stories and poems creating a classic collection for generations to come.