Genre Transition

(1630 to 1800) Colonial Literature                             (1800 to 1860) American Romanticism

• • Age of Reason, Logic                                                      Emotion and Intuition

  • Fear of the Wilderness                                                   Drawn to Nature

  • Diaries, Religious Texts, Government Texts               Sonnets and Essays

  •  Obey Tradition                                                               The Noble Savage

  • Collectivism, Embrace the Community                       Embrace the Individual

  • The Elect and Culture Heroes are remarkable          The Common Man is remarkable

The Romantic Hero

• • Romantic protagonists are either young, or are middle-aged with youthful qualities.

  • Romantic protagonists are innocent and pure of purpose. They have not been corrupted by the cities.

  • Romantic protagonists have a very well developed sense of honor and what is right and wrong in the world. 

  • Romantic protagonists know truths because of deep intuition, and not through formal learning.

  • Nature and its freedom is good, The city and its interdependence is bad. If a Romantic Hero goes to a city to accomplish a goal or settle a conflict, they will leave at the end.

  • Unlike today's modernized Romanticism-flavored male heroes that are good with women and romantic relationships, this time's Pre-Civil War Romantic Heroes were hopelessly uneasy with women. The youthful innocence and independence that is emphasized would be reduced by being "domesticated" by a formal relationship. The noble savage moves onward and back into nature and is not "tamed" by the city.

Alliteration (Consonance and Assonance), Rhyme, and Stress

Identification of consonance, assonance, and rhyme in prose and poetry is not about the letters in the words, it is about the sounds in the syllables.

• • Handout: Phonetic Notation of the American Heritage Dictionary - A handy list of all of the sounds in American English

  • Practice: Rhymes and Alliterations (Consonance and Assonance) Self Test: Verse 1 of Lose Yourself (2002) by Eminem - Answers

Expanding Essay Project

• • Writing Project: Two Four Eight Sixteen Sixty-Four

  • Writing Project Support: Emerson and Thoreau Quotes

  • Handout: Purposes of Paragraphs

  • Handout: The Problem of Misattribution (Work in Progress)