American Literature: Romanticism Sample Final Exam Essays 2015 final exam assignment Overall Learning Experience

Gregory Buchanan

14 May 2015

Philosophy and Literature United in American Romanticism

          In my study of English literature, I am always interested in discovering applications to philosophy. Our course has allowed me to make good use of my undergraduate philosophy minor. Authors in American Romanticism exist in tension with one another: each offers unique contributions to his or her nation's interpretation of the genre, but each also identifies with a tradition that is fundamentally shaped by others. Reconciling their individuality with their identities as American Romantics has required me to better understand the concepts that appear prominently in American Romanticism. Some of these I had studied previously in other contexts, or was in the process of studying, but a few were entirely new. And because concepts in American Romanticism are so deeply engrained in our nation's popular culture, some were vaguely familiar, but I had never formally articulated them. Specifically, our course refined my understanding of desire and loss, which I understood in only philosophical terms; it changed how I understood the relationship between Nathaniel Hawthorne's and Stephen Crane's metaphysics, a relationship I only partially appreciated in the past; and it exposed me to the concept of the romantic narrative, which I had perceived in popular culture but never before considered in scholarly terms. Acquiring these concepts has helped me better relate my understanding of philosophy to my study of English literature, a unification of knowledge I find very satisfying.

          The mid-term examination offered me the opportunity to examine several course texts for occurrences of cyclical desire and loss, an important concept in American Romanticism, and a fascinating topic from a philosophical perspective. I have always been interested in the motivations behind moral actions, and our study of this concept allowed me to develop my understanding of moral psychology in a very practical, concrete way. Moral psychology as a discipline examines the faculties supposedly responsible for moral action, particularly the mind and the will. Of these faculties, American Romanticism emphasizes the operation of the will. When the will motivates an individual to act, it generates a desire. When this desire has been fulfilled, moral psychologists might say that it is sated or satisfied. However, in the texts that we have studied, it is rare that desire is simply satisfied. Often the object of the desire remains elusive, as Ligeia does in Edgar Allan Poe's "Ligeia." Even when it is obtained, the possessor does not remain satisfied, but experiences loss. In some cases, he or she experiences actual loss of the object; in others, a realization that possession of the desired object is not actually satisfying. Edgar Allan Poe's "William Wilson" illustrates the second type of loss: the original William accomplishes his desired goal--he kills the duplicate William--only to lose his life. Both kinds of loss yield new desires in a perpetual cycle of craving and satiety. Satisfaction is always promised in the achievement of a future desire, but it is almost never achieved. Investigating this cycle has caused me to think differently about the role of the will in practical decision making. I now realize the sophistication with which it operates, sometimes in apparently self-defeating ways, and I plan to apply these insights to my study of perennial problems in philosophy, particularly that of free will. If free will exists, the operation of the will must be effective, and the texts we have studied offer several interesting cases in which it may not be. I plan to study each more closely. 

          My research project helped me organize my thinking about the relationship between Hawthorne's and Crane's understandings of free will. Before this semester, I knew that Hawthorne was not a strong proponent of Puritan theology, but I was unclear about his exact position on the problem of free will. I assumed that he was a determinist but was unable to articulate his orientation toward determinism. There are two orientations toward determinism--positive and negative. The negative orientation was familiar to me from prior reading: it perceives people's lack of agency as a cause for pessimism about human affairs. Many of the philosophers with which I was familiar were negatively oriented toward determinism, and I considered it the only viable orientation. Although I acknowledged that the positive orientation existed, I was unfamiliar with any significant philosophers or writers who endorsed it. My assignment to present Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Self-Reliance" and "The Over-Soul" introduced me to Emerson's positive orientation toward determinism. After learning that determinism could be meaningfully associated with optimism, I rethought my understanding of Hawthorne's metaphysics. When I approached the research project, I sought to present Hawthorne and Crane as optimists and determinists, which required me to demonstrate the compatibility of their individual philosophies. Crane is easier to present as an optimist than Hawthorne, but I enjoyed making the comparison. Had I not been assigned to present Emerson's essays, I would have approached my project differently, and I would have continued believing that determinism cannot be meaningfully associated with optimism.

          In addition to learning more about topics in which I was interested before the course, I also learned about an entirely new concept, the romance narrative, which promises to remain relevant to my interests after the course concludes. A romance narrative is an account of a benevolent character's quest to achieve a goal that either directly or indirectly results in his or her transcendence beyond mundane experience. Walt Whitman's "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" concisely illustrates its structure: a man attending an astronomy lecture despairs of understanding the stars intellectually, so he leaves the lecture-hall and achieves mystical unity by gazing skyward alone. I find the idea of the romance narrative fascinating because its depiction of a journey reveals limitations that are sometimes forgotten or concealed in our everyday experience. In "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer," it is the lecture of the astronomer that prevents the speaker from fully appreciating the stars. The romance narrative of the poem points out that over-intellectualization can sometimes obstruct our progress toward complete comprehension. Western culture generally treats intelligence was an unequivocal good, so its limits are easy to overlook without the help of a narrative centered around overcoming obstacles to transcendence. Other obstacles to meaningful experience can also be detected through the romance narrative. Additionally, the romance narrative may also broaden my perspective regarding my role in the affairs of others. Like most people, I am naturally inclined to conceptualize my life as a romance narrative in which I am the questing hero. While there is nothing wrong with this, I might increase my appreciation for the experiences of others by considering their lives as romance narratives. American Romanticism offers narratives from the perspectives of several identities, and viewing any in isolation from the others is uninteresting. The romance narrative offers a convenient paradigm for increasing awareness of others, in addition to exposing limits that cultural predispositions sometimes conceal.

          Overall, our course has substantially contributed to my intellectual development: I learned the concept of desire and loss in a new context, discovered a better way to connect Hawthorne's view of free will with Crane's, and gained a new paradigm for recognizing limits in my search for meaningful experience. I especially appreciated the course's willingness to indulge appearances of concepts in popular culture. Many authors in American Romanticism appear in popular culture, and I feel more prepared to explain their popular portrayals. Our course complimented the American Realism course I completed last semester, which also considered its texts from a philosophical perspective and incorporated popular culture references. American Romanticism and American Realism respond to similar philosophical questions in their canonical texts. Combined with the American Realism course, our course has prepared me to intelligently appreciate their answers.