Dark romanticism

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Edgar Allan Poe is one of the best known authors of the dark romanticism subgenre.
Edgar Allan Poe is one of the best known authors of the dark romanticism subgenre.

Dark romanticism is a literary subgenre that emerged from the Transcendental philosophical movement popular in nineteenth-century America. Works of literature that were influenced by Transcendental thought but which didn't completely embrace the movement comprise the category. Such works are notably less optimistic than Transcendental texts about mankind, nature, and divinity. Authors considered most representative of dark romanticism are Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Herman Melville.

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[edit] Origin

The term dark romanticism comes from both the pessimistic nature of the subgenre's literature and the influence it derives from the earlier Romantic literary movement. Dark Romanticism's birth, however, was a mid-nineteenth-century reaction to the American Transcendental movement.[1] Transcendentalism originated in New England among intellectuals like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller and found wide popularity from 1836 through the late 1840s.[2] The movement came to have influence in a number of areas of American expression, including its literature, as writers growing up in the Transcendental atmosphere of the time were affected.[3] Some, including Poe, Hawthorne, and Melville, found Transcendental beliefs far too optimistic and egotistical and reacted by modifying them in their prose and poetry—works that now comprise the subgenre that was Dark Romanticism.[4]

[edit] Characteristics

While Transcendentalism influenced individual Dark Romantic authors differently, literary critics observe works of the subgenre to break from Transcendentalism’s tenets in a few key ways. Firstly, Dark Romantics are much less confident about the notion that perfection is an innate quality of mankind, as believed by Transcendentalists. Subsequently, Dark Romantics present individuals as prone to sin and self-destruction, not as inherently possessing divinity and wisdom. G.R. Thompson describes this disagreement, stating that while Transcendental thought conceived of a world in which divinity was immanent, "the Dark Romantics adapted images of anthropomorphized evil in the form of Satan, devils, ghosts . . . vampires, and ghouls."[5] Secondly, while both groups believe that nature is a deeply spiritual force, Dark Romanticism views it in a much more sinister light than does Transcendentalism, which sees nature as a divine and universal organic mediator. For these Dark Romantics, the natural world is dark, decaying, and mysterious; when it does reveal truth to man, its revelations are evil and hellish. Finally, whereas Transcendentalists advocate social reform when appropriate, works of Dark Romanticism frequently show individuals failing in their attempts to make changes for the better. Thompson sums up the characteristics of the subgenre, writing that:

Fallen man's inability fully to comprehend haunting reminders of another, supernatural realm that yet seemed not to exist, the constant perplexity of inexplicable and vastly metaphysical phenomena, a propensity for seemingly perverse or evil moral choices that had no firm or fixed measure or rule, and a sense of nameless guilt combined with a suspicion that the external world was a delusive projection of the mind--these were major elements in the vision of man that the Dark Romantics opposed to the mainstream of Romantic thought.[6]

[edit] Relation to Gothic fiction

Popular in England during the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-centuries, Gothic fiction is known for its incorporation of many conventions that are also found in Dark Romantic works. Gothic fiction originated with Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto in 1764.[7] Works of the genre commonly aim to inspire terror, including through accounts of the macabre and supernatural, haunted structures, and the search for identity; critics often note gothic fiction's "overly melodramatic scenarios and utterly predictable plots."[8] In general, with common elements of darkness and the supernatural, and featuring characters like maniacs and vampires, Gothic fiction is more about sheer terror than Dark Romanticism's themes of dark mystery and skepticism regarding man. Still, the genre came to influence later Dark Romantic works, particularly some of those produced by Poe.[9]

Earlier British authors writing within the movement of Romanticism such as Lord Byron, Samuel Coleridge, Mary Shelley, and John Polidori who are frequently linked to gothic fiction are also sometimes referred to as Dark Romantics. Their tales and poems commonly feature outcasts from society, personal torment, and uncertainty as to whether the nature of man will bring him salvation or destruction.[10]

[edit] Notable Authors

Many consider American writers Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Herman Melville to be the major Dark Romantic authors.[11]

The Raven, Poe's work of dark romanticism, as illustrated by Gustave Doré.
The Raven, Poe's work of dark romanticism, as illustrated by Gustave Doré.

[edit] Edgar Allan Poe

Main article: Edgar Allan Poe

Many consider Edgar Allan Poe to be the seminal dark romantic author. Much of his poetry and prose features his characteristic interest in exploring the psychology of man, including the perverse and self-destructive nature of the conscious and subconscious mind.[12] Some of Poe’s notable dark romantic works include the short stories “Ligeia” and “The Fall of the House of Usher” and poems “The Raven” and “Ulalume.”

Author Nathaniel Hawthorne had close ties to American Transcendentalism.
Author Nathaniel Hawthorne had close ties to American Transcendentalism.

[edit] Nathaniel Hawthorne

Main article: Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne is the dark romantic writer with the closest ties to the American Transcendental movement. He was associated with the community in New England and even lived at the Brook Farm Transcendentalist Utopian commune for a time before he became troubled by the movement; his literature later became anti-transcendental in nature.[13] Also troubled by his ancestors' participation in the Salem witch trials, Hawthorne's short stories, including “The Minister's Black Veil,” frequently take the form of "cautionary tales about the extremes of individualism and reliance on human beings" and hold that guilt and sin are qualities inherent in man.[14]

[edit] Herman Melville

Main article: Herman Melville

Best known during his lifetime for his travel books, a twentieth-century revival in the study of Herman Melville’s works has left “Moby-Dick” and “Bartleby the Scrivener” among his most highly regarded. Also known for writing of man's blind ambition, cruelty, and defiance of God, his themes of madness, mystery, and the triumph of evil over good in these two works make them notable examples of the dark romanticism subgenre.

[edit] Prominent examples

Elements contained within the following literary works by Dark Romantic authors make each representative of the subgenre:

[edit] References

  1. ^ Dark Romanticism: The Ultimate Contradiction.
  2. ^ Galens, David, ed. Literary Movements for Students Vol. 1. Detroit: Thompson Gale, 2002: p. 319.
  3. ^ Levin, Harry. The Power of Blackness: Hawthorne, Poe, Melville. New York: Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 1958: p. ix.
  4. ^ Koster, Donald N. "Influences of Transcendentalism on American Life and Literature." Literary Movements for Students Vol. 1. David Galens, ed. Detroit: Thompson Gale, 2002: p. 336.
  5. ^ Thompson, G.R., ed. "Introduction: Romanticism and the Gothic Tradition." Gothic Imagination: Essays in Dark Romanticism. Pullman, WA: Washington State University Press, 1974: p. 6.
  6. ^ Thompson, G.R., ed. 1974: p. 5.
  7. ^ The Romantic Period: Topics, The Gothic: Overview.
  8. ^ The Gothic: Materials For Study, Introduction.
  9. ^ The Romantic Period: Topics, The Gothic: Overview.
  10. ^ Dark Romanticism: Byron, Coleridge, Mary Shelley, and the Pursuit of the Supernatural.
  11. ^ Dark Romanticism: The Ultimate Contradiction.
  12. ^ Auden, W.H. "Introduction." Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1981: p. 518.
  13. ^ Galens, David. 2002: p. 322.
  14. ^ Wayne, Tiffany K. "Nathaniel Hawthorne." Encyclopedia of Transcendentalism. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 2006: p. 140.

[edit] General references

  • Galens, David, ed. (2002) Literary Movements for Students Vol. 1.
  • Koster, Donald N. (1975) Transcendentalism in America.
  • Mullane, Janet and Robert T. Wilson, eds. (1989) Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism Vols. 1, 16, 24.
  • Wayne, Tiffany K. (2006) Encyclopedia of Transcendentalism.

[edit] External links

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