|
(2015
midterm assignment) Model Student Midterm answers 2015 #1: Long Essays (Index) |
LITR 4328 |
 |
Joshua Van Horn
American Renaissance: The Age of
Emotion
The American Renaissance is often considered the golden
age of American literature. A movement that was birthed out of a response to the
enlightenment, literature during this time has a rich history, and made a
lasting impact on its future generations. Authors and artists of the American
renaissance cultivated an American spirit, and their works continue to live on
through the national consciousness. In order for countries to unite under a
shared identity, they need national myths that will bind them together. The
American renaissance was able to provide these myths, and sustain the nation by
providing a sense of identity.
The American
renaissance, also know as American romanticism, is best understood through its
historical context. In large part it seems like a direct response to the
enlightenment. The enlightenment, an age that promoted reason over emotion,
unintentionally produced a worldview that involved little to no romance. The
American renaissance writers sought to maintain the understanding gained by the
enlightenment while also promoting romantic sensibilities. Ralph Waldo Emerson
perhaps captures this best in his work,
Nature.
In his essay Emerson speaks of “the integrity of
impression made by manifold natural objects”, saying that this impression is
what “distinguishes the stick of timber of the wood-cutter, from the tree of the
poet” (Emerson 9). Emerson argues that people are capable of having a sort of
spiritual experience through an observation of nature. The wise man, according
to Emerson, can appreciate nature in the same fashion that he once had during
“the simplicity of his childhood” (Emerson 8). If one has eyes to see, nature is
a revelation of the divine. Later, Emerson says that the “mark of wisdom is to
see the miraculous in the common” (Emerson 26). All of these sentiments express
an earnestness to unite what was learned during the enlightenment with an
emotional and spiritual perspective of past generations. The difference between
Emerson’s spirituality and past notions of spirituality is that Emerson does not
suggest that one should seek the divine in some unseen force. Instead, he asks,
“why should we not also enjoy an original relation to the universe,” through
nature? (Emerson 1). Emerson, in promoting the natural world, upholds the
scientific understanding gained by the enlightenment, while also offering a
pathway to the divine. For Emerson, one only needs to focus on things seen and
common—nature—in order to experience the divine’s presence.
A similar intuition is expressed in the poetry
of Walt Whitman. In his poem, “I Sing the Body Electric” Whitman writes, “And if
the body does not do fully as much as the soul?/ And if the body were not the
soul, what is the soul?” (Whitman 7-8). Here, Whitman is not only drawing a
connection between the body and the soul, but is basically equating the two.
Whitman does not deny the existence of the soul, but he suggests that flesh and
blood is as in tune with the divine as the soul is. Throughout the poem, Whitman
glorifies the human figure, saying, “that of the male is perfect, and that of
the female is perfect” (Whitman 10). Traditionally, western thought considers
the soul to be perfect, and the body inferior. Keeping in step with Emerson,
however, Whitman glorifies the natural world through exaltation of the human
body. For both writers, the divine is accessible through immediate experience by
means of examining nature and recognizing the wonder of the human body.
Appreciating the
glory of nature, as Emerson and Whitman do, one may also come to understand the
sublime. With nature and beauty representing the greatness of the divine, it
makes sense that something so awesome would also instill a sort of terror within
its observer. Many writers painted a picture of nature in which it is both
beautiful and terrifying. This portrait is known as the sublime. In James
Fennimore Cooper’s,
The Last of the Mohicans,
Cooper appeals to the sublime in his description of a
river. He speaks of the natural world’s “fantastic limbs and ragged tree tops,”
and its “romantic though not unapalling beauties” (Cooper 5.32). Again, as with
Emerson and Whitman, Cooper highlights the prestige of nature. What Cooper
brings to the table that is different from Emerson and Whitman is the
contemplation that something as beautiful as nature can also be viewed as
threatening. It is not that such things have harmful intent, but because they
are so grandiose one may feel intimidated by their brilliance. It is similar to
the biblical commandment to fear the Lord. It is not because the Lord has
planned evil against an individual, but because the individual is capable of
being swallowed up by the Lord’s all-consuming power. Similarly, Cooper and
other romantic writers understand the sublimity of the natural world with its
ability to provoke both awe and terror within the individual.
The individual’s
relation to nature is also found in women’s literature of the period. In Susan
B. Warner’s
The Wide, Wide World,
Warner also connects nature with the divine. While
observing mountains Alice says to Ellen, “he whose hand raised up those
mountains and has painted them so gloriously is the very same One who has said,
to you and to me, ‘Ask and it shall be given to you’” (Warner 15.80). Like other
writers, Warner recognizes the relationship between nature and the divine, so
much so that her characters encourage one another to find solace within nature.
Appreciation of nature is not the only romantic theme that Warner gets at
however. Warner also highlights the notion of heroic individualism. Ellen,
having the responsibility of purchasing a particular cloth for her mother, sets
out on her journey alone, “sensible that a great trust was reposed in her, and
feeling busy and important” (Warner 5.29). Throughout the rest of the work,
Ellen journeys through her life trying to find the peace she lost along with her
mother. The notion of the individual on a journey is a romantic theme that is
found throughout all of American renaissance literature. Like the appeal to
nature, it works on the individual’s emotional response of journeying through
the world alone.
Though there are other themes and concepts
found throughout American renaissance literature, most of them can be traced
back in some manner to the few mentioned. For the most part, American
romanticism promotes an attitude that places emotion over reason. Its not that
the writings belittle logic, but instead suggest that emotion plays as an
important part in the human experience as anything else. It’s as though writers
of the American renaissance felt that it was necessary to remind people of this
notion following the age of reason. Their literature has persisted throughout
American history, and serves as an important reminder of the power of emotion in
a contemporary setting. In a world that continues to persist in technological
advancement, it is essential to be reminded of the power of feelings and the
glory of nature.
 |
 |
|