American Literary Romantics

10 Questions

What is the primary characteristic of the protagonists in American Romances, such as Hawthorne's Arthur Dimmesdale and Melville's Ahab?

Haunted, alienated individuals pitted against unknowable, dark fates

What factor contributed to the development of the American Romance as a literary genre?

The absence of settled, traditional community life in America

What distinguishes American novels from English novels, according to the text?

The use of mythic symbolism and heightened emotional tone

What is the primary purpose of the symbolic plots in American Romances?

To explore the complexities of the human psyche and the unconscious self

What is a characteristic of English novels, as mentioned in the text?

The portrayal of poor main characters rising on the economic and social ladder

What is the primary function of the main character's rise in English novels, according to the passage?

To provide a sense of wish fulfillment for the middle-class readers

What is a characteristic of the American novelist, as described in the passage?

They have to invent new forms and creative techniques

What is a common feature of the Romantic heroes in American literature, as described in the passage?

They are often self-divided and tragic

What is the significance of the American frontier in American literature, as described in the passage?

It is an undefined and constantly moving frontier

What is a characteristic of American novels, as described in the passage?

They are often sprawling and idiosyncratic

Study Notes

The First Great Literary Generation in the United States

Walt Whitman, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, and the Transcendentalists represent the first great literary generation produced in the United States.

Characteristics of American Romance

The Romantic vision in American novels tended to express itself in the form of the "romance," a heightened, emotional, and symbolic form of the novel.
Romances were not love stories, but serious novels that used special techniques to communicate complex and subtle meanings.
Instead of defining realistic characters through detail, American novelists shaped heroic figures larger than life, burning with mythic significance.

Protagonists of American Romance

The typical protagonists of American Romance are haunted, alienated individuals, such as Arthur Dimmesdale or Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter, Ahab in Moby-Dick, and Poe's isolated and obsessed characters.
These characters are often pitted against unknowable, dark fates that grow out of their deepest unconscious selves.

Absence of Settled Community Life

The absence of settled, traditional community life in America contributed to the development of American Romance.
English novelists lived in a complex, well-articulated, traditional society, whereas American novelists faced a history of strife and revolution, a vast wilderness, and a fluid democratic society.

American Novels vs. English Novels

American novels often reveal a revolutionary absence of tradition, whereas English novels confirm the aristocratic social structure.
American novels focus on the individual's struggle to create their own identity, whereas English novels show a poor main character rising on the economic and social ladder.

The Democratic American Individual

The democratic American individual had to invent themselves, as they lacked a stable social structure.
The serious American novelist had to invent new forms, resulting in unique and innovative creative techniques.

The Dark and Forbidding Nature of American Romance

The Romance form is dark and forbidding, indicating the difficulty of creating an identity without a stable society.
Many Romantic heroes die in the end, such as the sailors in Moby-Dick and Arthur Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter.
The self-divided, tragic note in American literature becomes dominant, reflecting the greater social tragedy of a society at war with itself.