Romanticism notes 3/30

We started discussing Trascendentalism today. During this period the press was dominated by Protestant critics. Transcendentalists would comment frequently on the Protestants because they believed they lacked a sense of joy and relationship with spiritual beings. Transcendentalism is a philosophy that is a revolution against Christian beliefs. It views God as a bully. God symbolizes that there is only one mode of religion and the people rebeled against that, thus Transcendentalism.
The Transcendentalist looks for an oversoul. He or she believes that all things have God in them and that somewhere there is an oversoul that unites all of us. Transcendentalists show no outward signs of religion. They don't go to ceremonies or say prayers. There is no need to go to a church or place of worship as a Transcendentalists because people are always in the presence of God. Each day is an endless sabath and church is everywhere. People made fun of the Transcendentalists and the movement lacked immediate effect. It was seen as a joke by the mainstream.

-Melissa

Neoclassicism Review

I thought that it might be a good idea to create an overview of some of the neoclassicism notes from class:

Neoclassicism was an urban movement that looked back at the classical world (Greeks/Romans). This "age of reason" marked a huge shift because the world became understandable. Characteristics of neoclassicism include simplicity, balance, moderation, clarity, order, logic, and wit. Deism was an intellectual movement of the time; the tenets of Deism were:

1. Presence of the universe itself proves the existence of God
2. Man is not perfect, but perfectible
3. Nature- value increases (human nature)
4. Truth/Virtue
5. Evil is that which destroys happiness
6. Duty to God
7. Education and Science are essential
8. Civil/Religious Liberty
9. No human authority

Many of the pieces that we read in class were propagandistic, emphasizing that revolution was the only available option. The four major audiences for this propaganda were nationals, allies, neutrals, and enemies.

The first work was London Correspondence 1757-1775 by Benjamin Franklin. The format of this piece was a numbered list (order) of rules to turn a great empire to a small one. Franklin understood his audience which was reflected in his cake analogy and his statement that he was a "modern simpleton." Franklin uses wit when describing how England treats the colonies. He wants this letter to be used to evoke political change- the two intended audiences were the neutrals and the enemies. Franklin uses logic to sway the neutrals and demoralizes the enemy by describing the ways in which Britain has failed to take care of the colonies, although this information is very slanted. It should also be noted that Ben Franklin was a deist and several tenets can also be found in this letter.

Next we read the speech "Give me Liberty or Give me Death." This speech was very emotional, however, it is disguised as logic. Henry uses rhetorical questions throughout the speech and improves clarity through the use of short bursts rather than long drags. One major argument that Patrick Henry makes is that we must follow the divine order which is a nonsense argument because it cannot be proven wither way. He creates an "either-or" situation involving too much absolutism to be a logical argument. We discussed in class today that the intended audience was the neutrals while the nationals and allies were more minor audiences.  

Characteristics of the Declaration of Independence (Thomas Jefferson) include: clarity, order, and logic. The declaration creates order with a bulleted list with repetition of length and form. The audience also leaves with the feeling that the result (revolution) will be inevitable. The audience in this case would be primarily the enemy which is demoralized by the list of complaints. It begins to raise the questions of whether they are responsible or not. The piece also has a nationalistic view.

In Thomas Paine's American Crisis there is a major focus on the allies and the enemies. He frowns upon the "summer soldier" and the "sunshine patriot" (consonance) who shrink from service to the country. He tries to convey to the allies that America will be the winning side come spring. In "The American Crisis," Paine is able to make a retreat sound glorious which demoralizes the enemy.  

Next, we discussed three poems by Phyllis Wheatley. "On being brought from Africa to America" says that she is glad that she was taken to America. A theme of the poem is the deistic tenet that man is not perfect but perfectible. "On Imagination" is a pre-romantic poem uses a progression of mood to finally build up to her sabotaging her poem in the end. (not perfect) 

Letters from an American Farmer by J. Hector St. John Crevecoeur is a nationalistic attempt to define the nature of America. America is seen as the "land of opportunities" because it does not have the same rigid class restrictions as do European countries.  

The final writer who's works we have read was Philip Freneau. As with the works of Phyllis Wheatley, Freneau's poems could be considered pre-romantic. He describes more of nature, written in response to beauty. The poem "The Republic Genius of Europe" reinforced the idea of the inheritance of the classic model. 

I think that this is a pretty good outline of what we have covered, but please comment if I missed anything.

-Kelsey

 

3/25 notes: Romanticism ctd.

-People go on longer than the movement and keep writing until the end of the century, for example Whitman (a transcendental) and Melville (a Gothic).
-Key Romanesque concept: no one understands you and appreciates you until after you're dead. Romantic poets lived a misunderstood live and then everyone laments the fact that they were not understood during their own lives
-These two authors are the beginning of great American literature , however, the educational system wasn't changing-- it is identical to the education of the Europeans
-Taylor Edwards and Ben Franklin are not published yet
-American's had access to European literature about a month after it was released in Europe

-The biggest issue was the gender difference in education. Both men and women got rudimentary educations, however past that it was unequal. It was not the reason of women belong in the household and don't need an education, it was more based on a censorship value. Men did not want women reading what they deemed inappropriate. The men found sexual references to be immoral for women to read. Higher class women had more of a chance to be educated. Another strong feeling was that women should not be allowed to read fiction. It is keeping the Puritan notion of fantasy and lies = evil. Since fiction is fantasy it had the power to inflame womens' passions, which were believed to be uncontrollable by women. Women were belived to be very vulnerable to these fantasies, which is why the father's main goal for his daughter is to find him a husband to take care of her. Women could not read novels as well.
-There were these same warnings for men, however it was believed men could control themselves
-This idea continues to the Civil War
-Poetry is the highest of civil virtues, it is amazing to most how poets can put great moments in time into literature
-America wanted a National Poem, but it turned out awful and was stopped by Walter Scott.
-Walter Scott was the prototype of American Prose. He was the single most popular writer in America. Scott put fiction in historical settings -- it gave people something they understood and something they didn't -- the first historical drama
-Walter Scott switched the focus of writing a National Poem to novels.
-James F. Cooper: wrote the "first" successful novel, although he took basically all the same ideas from Walter Scott's 'The Pirate' and wrote 'The Spy'
-This novel was so well recieved because it was about the frontier, which people in Europe knew nothing about. Cooper could virtually make everything up and the Europeans wouldn't know the difference.

-Neoclassism Test Friday!!!

-Sammi

Romanticism

Romanticism is the opposite of Neoclassicism. It is all about emotion over reason. It attacks the old order and suggests that the classics didn't work then, why would they work now? Romanticism was a search for identity and many of the early romantics tried to create a sense of American identity. There was also an emphasis on "I" or the individual, since neoclassicism had been about the group and it elevated the humble especially in the settings. It was all about the common man or the common place. This was the beginning of free verse because they abandoned the standardized form. Two key words that describe Romanticism are dissatisfaction and unrest. They wanted something new and the French Revolution was what started it all. A revolution is all about not following the rules and making your own. So the strict neoclassic rules were replaced by the free form of the romantics. In the past reason had gotten in the way so now it was time to follow instinct. Romanticism went on for almost 100 years and Neoclassicism for only 40 years.
There are 3 phases of Romanticism but they all overlap each other. The first is American Heritage with the early Romantics such as William Bryant, JF Copper, and Washington Irving. They tried to create a sense of American identity in their writing. The next phase was the Gothics who wrote about human nature (beginning of psychology). These were writers like Edgar Allen Poe, Nathanial Hawthorne, and Herman Melville. And the last group was the Transcendentals who wrote about nature, instinct, and intuition. The believed in oversoul or "we are God." These were people like RW Emerson and HD Thoreau.

-Callie

March 20th notes + question for online discussion

On Friday we progressed to Philip Freneau. We were faced with the task of determining what neoclassic traits Freneau's work possesses. We saw that it contains a predictable style and nationalism, which brings neoclassicism. However, Freneau's work is very emotional, and it was agreed by the class that his work his pre-Romantic, like Phillis Wheatly. Yet Wheatly is more logical than the emotional Freneau. Freneau's Romantic leanings are best demonstrated in the poem "The Wild Honey-Suckle." Which both glorifies nature and contains less of a "practical" purpose. It is "art for the sake of art." That notion is a Romantic one. We were then told what Romanticism is. Essentially it is/was a movement in the arts in which artists, and the rest of society to an extent, glorified the artist. The artist was seen as someone different, a god almost, who can make things appear with the simple use of his creativity and imagination. Mr. Lazarow then told us that this belief usually dies after a period of war or other pervasive unpleasantness. That it is a lofty, impossible to attain ideal.

Do you agree with the Romantic notion? Do you think it is a good philosophy of life? I'll give a personal example of someone I know who embodies this way of life. One of my friends is an artist, a really good artist at that. He's an interesting person in many ways, one of the more notable aspects not being that, despite being one of the smartest and most creative people I've ever met, he failed high school on purpose because of, what he calls, his "morals." To describe him a bit more, he's more "cultured" than most teachers at this school, having read everything from "Also Sprach Zarathustra" and "The Magic Mountain" to obscure Japanese art comics. Creativity-wise his paintings are phenomenal. He had the acumen to get elected vice-president of the student association with a terrific video, yet he continually annoys the organizer of it by not showing up to any meetings and simply not caring. Despite his amazing character, he, as of the last month, goes to Burlington County Alternative. He has no solid plan for the future, once deciding to move to France right after graduation, then reconsidering and choosing either Japan or Sweden. After he realized that he disliked moving away to a country so simply, he wanted to become a sailor. This was all in one year, his senior year. To offer a contrast, his dad was a pretty major film artist in the 60's, working with Andy Warhol and Dali. However, his dad paid for therapy sessions for my friend, and is not exactly altogether pleased with his future plans, or rather, lack thereof. My friend, through all this, is confident in his set of beliefs.

It is my belief that the Romantic ideal is a necessary one. However, an attachment to a reality should also be present. It is ludicrous to straightforwardly believe in a perfect world such as one that a Romantic may argue for. But if this ideal were lost, good art, free from the constraints of solely profit, would be lost as well. Many of the artists we now consider the "greatest" were at their own time, starving or suffering from persecution. When an artist defies commonly accepted 'rules', he or she is nearly always met with resistance from critics. If there were no beliefs that argued for an asthete ideal, many of these artists would have little to fall back on as reassurance.

- Alexander Altaras

March 17 & 18 Minutes

On Tuesday we continued talking about Letters from an American Farmer and we said how Hector focuses on immigration and the feeling that Americans had that they were different was a mindset that ultimately led to revolution.
Other topics we discussed include:
-the idea of the "completion of the great circle" (this phrase is very characteristic of a neoclassic document and it was similar to what Wheatley said.)
-America as the melting pot
-the document's audience:
1. nationals
2. neutrals (because encoded within it is an instruction manual" as to how to be an American, giving it a logical edge. also, its written and not pushy)
3. enemies
- Hector's exaggeration of America
- there is a purpose for everyone in America and in America man has the chance to rise up and better himself (relates to: man is not perfect but perfectable)

We were asked to think about the reality of the American dream.

Today we discussed America's "tolerance" on other languages as well as what makes a person an American.

We talked about America's failures in becoming a mulitlingual country, like many in Europe, alluding to the controversy sparked by the Spanish translation of the national anthem.

-Julie S.

March 11 Minutes

Today we discussed 'On Imagination' by Phillis Wheatley. It is neoclassic in form, however it is very emotional. The thoughts are very long and are much more abstract than the other poems (imagination). There is a lot of personification, which connects the abstract to the concrete. There is a progression of mood from positive at the beginning and dark at the end. We discussed that "WINTER" is a powerful force, and "fancy" is a pretty, airy and light version of imagination ("flight of fancy"= thinking whimsically, daydreaming). Romantics believed that imagination had power, and that imagination is the gateway to reality. To Romantics, artists were godlike becaues they could create. However, Romanticism comes into conflict with reality.

Wheatley is neoclasic, however her writing in the poem has a pre-romantic nature. The winter is the force clamping down on imagination. Imagination is combating winter. The Romantics thought that by writing about Spring and warmth, it would turn into Spring by the power of imagination. However, when you let imagination become reality, nothing happens.

The last stanza shows Wheatley's intelect because the last line does not rhyme. This shows she is giving up (her imagination is giving up), it shows surrender and disruption. It shows the end of a perfect vision which fails, as well as the poem

-Sammi

March 10 Minutes

Yesterday in class we started discussing Phillis Wheatley's poem "To His Excellency General Washington." We continued that discussion today in class. We noted that this poem had a traditional structure as evident through the arrangement of the poem into couplets with rhyming at the ends of the lines. We also discussed Columbia, who was named multiple times throughout the poem. Columbia is America's goddess. The mention of her name is Phillis Wheatley's way of saying that we should model ourselves after the classics (Athens, etc...). These classics also had deities. The connection to classics helps to strengthen the idea that the nation needs to break away from the British. Wheatley says that we are special because we are the ultimate inheritors of the classics and only our nation can build a superior civilization modeled after the traditions of these classics. The British are inferior to us because they had the chance to make their civilization superior through the classics, but they failed. Finally, we discussed Phillis Wheatley's reference to epics. She invokes the Muses, who are generally invoked when someone is telling an epic. The Muses are supposed to give inspiration and help the narrator tell his story. Another similarity to epics comes in the form of similar subjects. Both this poem and epics talk of war and fighting and generally revolve around a single hero.

--Alexis

Class notes- March 9th

Today we talked about Phillis Wheatley's poem "On Being Brought From Africa to America." The first thing we established was how she was thankful for religion, and not directly for slavery. Then we analyzed the last two lines in which she talked about 'refining' her people. By this she means that she is exposing something already inside. Essentially this is the Neoclassic idea of "man is not perfect, but perfectible." This pagan essence of her people was defeated and replaced. Then we we discovered how this piece is a revolutionary poem, but not in the immediate sense that one would think of. It is not about political revolution, but rather theological revolution. There was a segregation that stretched even into theological territories back then. People believed that there was a seperate heaven for souls of other races. Phillis Wheatly however, defies this and writes, "join th' angelic train", meaning joining the same heaven.

-Alexander Altaras

Standardized Testing

With the HSPAs fresh in our memory I thought I would begin a discussion on standardized testing. Standardized testing may have been originally implemented to create a level playing field for students anywhere and truly assess student's abilities. In different schools and different classes an "A" can mean entirely different things. However as we all have seen standardized testing has many weaknesses. To name some:
1) Some bright students simply do not perform well on tests due to nerves, poor habits, etc. and vice-versa some poor students for some reason or another perform well on tests.
2) Standardized testing often includes long hours of testing early in the morning when students are not mentally ready to be tested.
3) Students in upper-middle class families have certain advantages when it comes to studying/preparation (SAT tutoring/classes for example)
4) Standardized testing often tests subjects that are very general or basic and cannot accurately assess a student's ability to thrive in the classroom.
etc...

However, standardized testing is still crucial in college applications, high school proficiency, and in the workplace. As everyone has surely seen the HSPA may be one of the most pointless time consuming tests ever created and surely costs the state of NJ thousands (if not millions) of dollars to distribute.

What's your stance on standardized testing: Do you feel it is neccesarry and efficient in its current form? or possibly you think with some reforming standardized testing can become the proper method to lay a level playing field? or possibly you feel that standardized testing is at its core a bad idea and would feel the best option for it to be eliminated completely? If you fall into category number 3 perhaps you could propose an alternative method.

-Tyler Harris