American Romanticism
Text-Objective Discussion 2008

Thursday 4 September: Columbus, N 24-28; Selections from Genesis (web post); John Smith, N 43-53. Mary Rowlandson, N 117-134. Thomas Jefferson, N 338-346.

text-objective discussion leader: Tanya Stanley

Objective 1: Literary Categories of Romanticism

  Objective 1a. Romantic Spirit or Ideology

·         To identify and criticize ideas or attitudes associated with Romanticism, such as desire and loss, rebellion, nostalgia, idealism, the gothic, the sublime, the individual in nature or separate from the masses.

Selections from Genesis (web post)

The Creation

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.  27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree . . . .  31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.  And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.  

Idealism:  man created as God’s image, man having dominion [power] over the fish, the birds, and the cattle “over all the earth...”  Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it

The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776

[Also in Norton 342]

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

[Norton 346]

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States . . . . And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. . . .

Idealism:  “to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth…”

“…the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them…”

endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights

“…the Supreme Judge of the world…”

Discussion question:

Both texts represent the importance of men having power.  The excerpt from the Declaration of Independence echoes the creation story of Genesis. 

What other Romantic aspects in objective one (desire and loss, rebellion, nostalgia, idealism, the gothic, the sublime, the individual in nature or separate from the masses) echo in these two texts?