What is the American Renaissance and what was its significance on American literature?
American Renaissance, also called New England Renaissance, period from the 1830s roughly until the end of the American Civil War in which American literature, in the wake of the Romantic movement, came of age as an expression of a national spirit.
What was literature about during the Renaissance?
Renaissance literature is characterized by the adoption of a Humanist philosophy and the recovery of the classical literature of Antiquity, and benefited from the spread of printing in the latter part of the 15th century.
Why was literature important during the Renaissance?
Study of the classical languages and values moved Renaissance writers to incorporate the classical style into their own works and encouraged a more worldly view than that of Middle Age religious writings, so that writers and scholars began to look beyond the Church’s teachings and to take matters into their own hands.
What was the greatest period of American literature?
What are the periods of American literature?
- The Colonial and Early National period (17th century to 1830)
- The Romantic period (1830 to 1870)
- Realism and Naturalism (1870 to 1910)
- The Modernist period (1910 to 1945)
- The Contemporary period (1945 to present)
Who are the big five authors of the American Renaissance?
The richest period in American literary history, the American Renaissance (1830–1865) produced Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Emily Dickinson.
Why is American Renaissance period is considered to be the greatest American literature?
The American Renaissance was significant because it was the first time in history that American writers were considered equal or even better than European writers. At the time, America was a young country with no real literary talent or accomplishments to speak of yet.
What influenced American literature?
History, current events, and social events have really influenced American Literature. Authors have been influenced by the world around them and that has reflected in their works. This can be seen throughout the many eras studied in this class.
What is American literary Romanticism?
American Romanticism, like other literary movements, developed on the heels of romantic movements in Europe. Its beginnings can be traced back to the eighteenth century there. In America, it dominated the literary scene from around 1820 to the end of the Civil War and the rise of Realism.