AMERICAN PROSE: FROM RENAISSANCE TO NATURALISM

 
AMERICAN RENAISSANCE

The phrase was first used by F.O Mattheiesn in his book American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman (1941).

This period was represented by a spirit of National consciousness in the works of authors like the writers of

• New Englanders
• The humorists
• Herman Melville
• Walt Whitman and so on

The newly found democratic forces and the romantic period of Europe was the influencing factor of this phase of literary activities which emphasized on producing literature which depicts native scenes and characters so as to create a new identity of America.

The romantic spirit of this phase valued upon the spirit of individualism, common person and inspired imagination.

The chief proponents of this period were Ralph Waldo Emerson (The Father of Transcendentalism), Henry David Thoreau and many of their associates who were driven by a new optimistic affirmation by the Romantic movement.

TRANSCENDENTALISM

It is a movement which was a reaction against the rationalism of 18^th century and the humanitarian thought of 19^th century.

The unity of world and God is the fundamental ground of the movement and the recognition of the soul of an individual with God though the principles of individualism and self-reliance was practiced.

The genesis of Transcendentalism is associated with Concord, a small New England village in Boston which was a place of high-minded conversation and simple living and Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) is said to be the Father of Transcendentalism and Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) being the only Transcendentalist who was actually being born in Concord.

This place attracted many literary figures such as Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Margaret Fuller and many more.

Nature (1839) is an important essay of Emerson which lays the foundation of the Transcendentalist thought encapsulating the major ideas of Emerson which includes the need for a national consciousness, use of personal experience, the idea of cosmic over soul and so on. Another important essay of Emerson with respect to Transcendentalism Self-Reliance (1841).

Similarly, Walden (1854), the masterpiece essay of Thoreau is another important text of self-discovery, an idea inherent to thought of Transcendentalism.

AMERICAN ROMANTICISM

It is a subgenre of Romanticism of Europe reflecting the popular fascination with the irrational, the demonic and the grotesque.

The chief proponents and the first literary generation of this period were Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Washington Irving and so on.

They aimed to express themselves through, what Hawthorne called, “Romance” a heightened, symbolic and emotional form of novel which is serious in nature and through special techniques communicates complex and subtle meanings in their literary works.

The American Romanticism symbolizes dark and frightening imagery and indication an inability to form an identity in a largely unstable society.

The greater social tragedy of a society represented in an uncanny human imagination.
Examples of such works being:-

• The Scarlet Letter (1850) by Nathaniel Hawthorne

• Moby Dick (1851) by Herman Melville (Melville’s dedication to Hawthorne for his impressive The Scarlet Letter)

WOMEN WRITERS OF THE PERIOD

Women of the 19^th century faced inequalities of acute kind which consisted of them having been stripped off from their basic fundamental rights including right to vote, right to education, right to own property and so on.

Outraged by the imposed inequalities and patriarchal hegemony a strong group of intellectual women grew up who outrightly demanded their fundamental rights.

Through their literary works they expressed their quest for equality and liberty and crave for a society which treats women as equally as men.

The leading women writers of this phase includes: -

• Harriet Beecher Stowe (Uncle Tom’s Cabin)
• Harriet Jacobs
• Harriet Wilson
• Lydia Child

REALISM

After the Civil War (1861-1865), social transformation of industry, agriculture and slavery in American society took place and the Americans increasingly idealized development and the concept of self-made man.

But with the growing industrialization grew the concept of alienation.

The damage of economic and social forces and the alienation associated with it on the vulnerable individual found its expression in literary works like: -

•  Maggie: A Girl on the Streets by Stephen Crane
• Martin Eden by Jack London
• The American Tragedy by Theodre Dreiser

The protagonists of the realistic novels, such as Mark Twain’s Huck Finn or Dreiser’s Sister Carrie, only survived through their strength, flexibility, kindness and individuality.

These novels, thus, bring the sense of realism.

NATURALISM

Naturalism is a representation of determinism thought which states that individuals in the world are the helpless wager of economic and social forces which is out of their control.

Naturalism is associated with the miserable and realistic portrayal of lower-class life.
It rejects religion as a motivating force rather sees the universe as a machine which is in contrast to the optimistic conceptualization of the universe of 18^th century “The Age of Reason’’.

Naturalism sees the universe as a blind, godless out of control machine.

Like Romanticism, Naturalism too started in Europe but in America it flourished as Americans became urbanized and aware of the social and economical forces.

The naturalist writers tried to relate the individual to the society through their works by uncovering unpleasant pictures of society which includes sex, divorce, adultery, poverty and crime. These writers includes: -

• Stephen Crane
• Upton Sinclair
• Theodre Dreiser
• Jack London
• Frank Norris