1. American Romanticism
The term "Romaticism" is derived from "romantic, adj. - Lit. 'pertaining to a romance', fr. F. romantique, fr. MF. romant (whence F. roman, 'novel'), back formation fr. late L. Romanice, 'in Vulgar Latin'."
Romaniticism was a transatlantic cultural phenomenon that occurred both in Europe and in North America, even though at different times.
The Romatic period in American literature and art followed the Enlightenment period. Enlightenment's highest values concerning epistemology, aesthetics and human behavior were reason, success, reality, progress, and the clarity of nation. In the late eighteenth century, people felt that they had become seperated from nature and there was a shift in sensibility. Romanticism was a reaction against the rational mentality of the Enlightenment. People's values changed drastically, now great store was set by imagination, (social) decline, the Gothic tradition, and the ambiguity of perception. The civilization having become more and more commercial during the preceding decades, people felt its constraints more than ever before. …
