Main forms of literature in America at the beginning of the XIX century

“Main forms of literature in America at the beginning of the XIX century”. The early XIX century literature is interesting for me, because it introduces such a variety of topics and problems, which the American writers did not refer to before. Many of the literary movements in America of the time involve only American authors, so the literature at the beginning of the

XIX century is considered unique throughout the world. Transcendentalism is philosophy that emerged in New England in the early to middle 19th century. It began as a protest against the general state of culture and society, and in particular, the state of intellectualism at Harvard and the doctrine of the Unitarian church taught at

Harvard Divinity School. Among transcendentalists' core beliefs was an ideal spiritual state that 'transcends' the physical and empirical and is only realized through the individual's intuition, rather than through the doctrines of established religions. Prominent transcendentalists included Ralph Waldo Emerson (“Nature”), Henry David Thoreau, Orestes Brownson, William Henry Channing, James Freeman

Clarke, Christopher Pearse Cranch, Convers Francis, Margaret Fuller, Frederick Henry Hedge, Sylvester Judd, Elizabeth Peabody, George Ripley, Amos Bronson Alcott, and Jones Very. In July 1840 they began to publish journal "The Dial". Dark romanticism is a literary subgenre that emerged from the transcendental philosophical

movement popular in nineteenth-century America. Works in the dark romantic spirit were influenced by Transcendentalism, but did not entirely embrace the ideas of Transcendentalism. 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 ("The Masque of the Red Death", "

The Pit and the Pendulum", "The Fall of the House of Usher", "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"), Nathaniel Hawthorne(“The Scarlet Letter”), Herman Melville ("Moby-Dick", "Billy Budd"), and in some way the poetess Emily Dickinson.

With the War of 1812 came an increasing desire to produce uniquely American literature and culture, and a number of key new literary figures emerged, perhaps most prominently Washington Irving, William Cullen Bryant, James Fennimore Cooper. Irving is often considered the first writer to develop a unique American style. He wrote humorous works in Salmagundi and the well-known satire "

A History of New York, by Diedrich Knickerbocker" (1809). Bryant wrote early romantic and nature-inspired poetry, which evolved away from their European origins. Cooper described pioneering life in America. The political conflict surrounding Abolitionism inspired the writings of William Lloyd Garrison and his paper "The Liberator", along with poet

John Greenleaf Whittier and Harriet Beecher Stowe in her world-famous "Uncle Tom's Cabin". I should also mention America's two greatest 19th-century poets such as Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. Whitman was a working man, a traveler, a self-appointed nurse during the American Civil War (1861-1865), and a poetic innovator. His magnum opus was "Leaves of Grass", in which he uses a free-flowing verse and lines of

irregular length to depict the American democracy. Emily Dickinson is probably one of the most famous and most loved American poets. The major themes of her creation are nature, love, death and eternity, though she frequently uses humor, puns, irony and satire in her poetry. Her poems are learnt and recited by every pupil and student in the USA and the Dickinson Homestead which in 2003 was made into the

Emily Dickinson Museum is visited by many admirers of her personality and style. So we can suppose that the early XIX century literature consisted of various movements, reflecting beliefs and hopes of the Americans at that time. In my essay I have studied them in more detail and demonstrated that the themes the writers and poets referred to are also important for a nowadays person.