Unit Six -- American Gothicism / AntiTranscendentalism

Opening: As usual, I would like you to spend a few minutes reviewing the Georgia Performance Standards, essential questions, and key terms.  Doing this should prepare you for the unit, and help you understand on which aspects of the texts to focus as you read.

ELAALRL3 The student deepens understanding of literary works by relating them to their contemporary context or historical background, as well as to works from other time periods.

(you have seen this one before).

ELAWLRL1.3.a.i The student identifies and analyzes elements of poetry from various periods of world literature and provides evidence from the text to support understanding; the student:

• a. Identifies, responds to, and analyzes the effects of diction, syntax, sound, form, figurative language, and structure of poems as these elements relate to meaning.
• i. sound: alliteration, end rhyme, internal rhyme, terza rima, consonance, assonance

ELAALRL2 The student identifies, analyzes, and applies knowledge of theme in a work of American literature and provides evidence from the work to support understanding.




Essential Questions:

• What draws people toward things that are mysterious?
• Are people generally good or generally evil?
• Think about the Transcendentalists' philosophy for a moment. With which of their ideas would you disagree?

Key Terms:

• Gothicism
• Narrative Poem
• End Rhyme / Internal Rhyme
• Alliteration
  
  
  MINI LESSON:Before you start:
  
  What is original sin?
  How did the Transcendentalists feel about it?
  
  If you cannot explain these two questions, you probably need to call me over for a little conversation. It would not make much sense progressing without knowing these things and being able to explain them well.
  
  Just like every other movement in American Literature you have studied (Puritanism, Rationalism, Romanticm, and Transcendentalism) Gothicism (also called Dark Romanticism) is a reaction to the movement that came before it. Gothicism is a little different because it coincides with Transcendentalism. Sometimes the Dark Romantics are known as Anti-Transcendentalists for this reason.
  
  First, let's review the Transcendentalist philosophy:
  
  1. They believed that everyone was absolutely pure and that each individual is a part of God.
  
  2. They believed that people's thoughts and intuition were the voice of God.
  
  3. They did not believe in institutions like government because they thought the individual human mind was the strongest power in the universe.

What would your argument to this philosophy be? Are all people good? Is the voice inside people's heads the pure voice of God?

Let's review the lives of some of the Dark Romantics to see if we can predict how they would answer these questions:

 

Nathaniel Hawthorne's great grandfather was one of the judges in the Salem witchcraft trials during Puritan times. During these trials, nineteen people and two dogs were hanged, and one man was crushed to death by stones all in the name of God. Nathaniel Hawthorne was embarrassed by this, so he changed the spelling of his to lessen the association with his relative, a minister and a judge who sentenced people to cruel deaths because other people accused them of being evil. Hawthorne would become famous for his novel The Scarlet Letter and short stories like "The Minister's Black Viel" and "The Birthmark" in which he criticises the Puritan culture. How would Hawthorne feel about the Transcendental philosophy? Reread thier beliefs if you need to.

 

Herman Melville was not a trained and educated writer like Emerson, Thoreau, or Hawthorne. He instead made his early living in the merchant marine as a sailor because of the fiancial breakdown in his family. Melville, who wanted to become a writer, was working on a ship as early as twelve years old. While sailing around the globe, Melville witnessed many things he would not have seen at his home in New York. One sight that reportedly effected him severely were the cannibals he saw in the South Pacific. Melville would write Moby Dick later in his life. Moby Dick was a novel about a ship captain, Ahab who was so obsessed with killing a white whale that ate his leg that he sacrifices his entire ship and all the men on it. Was Ahab pure of mind to sacrifice all the men he was charged with leading? Would a man who witnessed people eating human flesh agree that everyone was good and pure?

Edgar Allen Poe's mother died when he was very young, his stepfather disowned him when he went to college, and all three of his wives died from tuberculosis. Poe developed terrible addictions to opium and alcohol. By today's standards, he was probably insane. Poe's stories and poetry all feature characters who begin with a small grain of evil in their minds which eventually takes over. Many biographers argue that every one of Poe's stories represent something inside his mind.

In short, the Dark Romantics, after reviewing their life experiences thought that the Transcendental philosophy was severely flawed. They saw that people could be evil, insane, unpure, or generally not 100% good like the Transcendentalists thought. Unlike the Transcendentalists, they believed in original sin, and that it was responsible for the evil that existed inside of everyone.

Post the following responses to your blog:

2. On which side of the divide do you fall? Are you closer to being a Transcendentalist or a Dark Romantic? Explain your answer with a short paragraph.

3. Read either "The Black Cat" or "Hop-Frog", both by Edgar Allen Poe. As you read, keep the Dark Romantics' beliefs in mind because you will be asked to point out these beliefs in the story later. \

4. Write a 2-3 paragraph response to the story you read. You should explain what you thought of the story as well as how well it illustrates how the Dark Romantics disagreed with the Transcendantalists. You need to provide at least a line or two of direct textual evidence from the story you chose to prove your claim.

You can also see the video a little larger here.

5. Once of Poe's most famous works was "The Raven", a poem he wrote while his second wife was literally dying in the next room. Read the poem (more than once), and then write a response (at least two paragraphs) that includes a few lines that stuck out to you. Add another paragraph or two that should explain how this poem represents an anti-Transcendental idea. As always, responses with direct evidence are always better than those that do not.

6. Look over the text of The Raven once more.  Provide evidence from the poem for each of the following elements:

• End Rhyme
• Internal Rhyme
• Alliteration

CLOSING:
7. Review your responses to the essential questions, Georgia Performance Standards, and key terms in the opening of this unit.  How have you addressed these elements in your work.  Explain to me how you have done this, and provide evidence from your work to support your claims.


When you are finished, review your work to be sure it contains everything I've asked for, and then leave me a comment to this post to remind me to read your work.

Self-Evaluate Your Work!!