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Resources about the Romantic Period

1.Gilmore, Michael T. American Romanticism and the Marketplace. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1985. Google Books. Web. 13 June 2009.

The purpose of this book is to clarify the relationship between the romantic literary period in America with the economic revolution that occured. According to Gilmore the market economy strongly effected the romantic authors and the writings they developed. The authors of the Romantic period marked the first generation of authors that could solely focus on writing as a source of income. It also states that the authors were seen as "oppositional in their attitude toward the values and social consequences of the market revolution" (Gilmore 5). This opposition shined threw their works. This source was helpful in understanding the circumstances that were going on in the authors' lives and how it effected their work. It also made it more apparent as to what the romantic texts were in response to. This source is credible because the author is very accomplished, has published many books, is a professor and has a Ph.D. from Harvard.

2. "Literary criticism." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Web. 7 June 2007.
Romanticism first began in Germany during the 19th century. Romanticism emphasizes the "individual passion and inspiration, a taste for symbolism and historical awareness, and a conception of art works as internally whole structures in which feelings are dialectically merged with their contraries" in the literal works of the Romantic writers. The page notes a few of the significant authors of the period and what they offered to the meaning of Romantic writing. Literature, during the Romantic period, focused on the "creative perception of meaning in the world," love, and beauty, just to name a few. "The lasting achievement of Romantic theory is its recognition that artistic creations are justified, not by their promotion of virtue, but by their own coherence and intensity." The Romantic movement is influenced by "universalitic and utopian hopes, political reaction, industrial capitalism, and general liberty."
The site provdes encyclopedic information, credible for the academic or personal use. The site is offered through MCC's electronic database, therefore, would be deemed credible.

3. Mayer, Nancy. The American Romantics and Religion in the Present Tense. The Midwest Quarterly 47.4: 350(12). Academic OneFile. Gale. Mesa Community College. Web. 4 June 2009
“Like the American Romantics, we must, together and alone, attempt to answer those questions from our own experience, if we are to answer them seriously, keeping in mind that the religious traditions we inherit or adopt are, inevitably, part of that experience.”In this article, Professor Nancy Mayer relates conversations of religion and beliefs with the writings of four prominent American Romantics: Thoreau, Whitman, Dickinson, and especially Emerson. She talks of America as a religiously tolerant land, with a mixture of many different beliefs and intensity levels. Mayer shows a connection to how the American Romantics based their religious thoughts on the human existence rather than a divine, supernatural presence that continually guides us. Mayer believes that these American writers used nature and personal experience to rationalize religion. This article is especially interesting to read because of its specific subject of religion and how some writers in the American Romantic period related to what was a much more passionate and awe-inspiring part of life in previous times. Though this article is not a definitive guide to understanding the Romantic writing and what made them characteristically Romantic, there are interesting points and comparisons being made that are well worth the read. This article is a credible source because it was found through the Mesa Community College database, Academic OneFile.

4. “Research Database". EBSCO Host. Web. 13 June 2007.
According to the above source, Romanticism is defines as the “Eighteenth and nineteenth century movement, style, and sensibility, origination as a reaction to the neoclassic focus on reason and intellect, and characterized by an emphasis on imagination, emotions, spontaneity, idealism, and individualism.”
EBSCO Host Research Database is filled with information for information seekers. Whether it is a thesaurus, periodical or newspaper article, EBSCO is the place to go. The research database has an information search tool to help information seekers perform specific searches. The advance searches help users narrow down a search of a particular piece of information.
This resource was valuable to me because I was able to use the thesaurus to find the definition for my first period definition. I am also learning to conduct search on a research database, feeling my way around. This is a credible website because it is a recommended site offered by Mesa Community College. If it weren’t credible, why would the college invest in this research database? The database is currently updating its domain, which authenticates this site. Therefore, this is a trusted website.

5. Day, Aiden. Romanticism. New York: Routledge, 1996. Print.
This source was accessed on the MCC Ebrary. This is a book that analyses the Romantic period. The book includes several definitons of the Romantic period. One way it is defined is as "a violent reaction to Enlightenment". The book devotes a lot of text to comparing and contrasting the Enlightenment and Romantic periods. The book also gives a history of the term "romantic" and a breakdown of the different meanings the word implies. This source is reliable because it was produced by a reputable publisher. It also says of romanticism that "emotionally it expressed an extreme assertion of the self and the value of individual experience... together with a sense of the infinite and transcendental".

6. "Romanticism." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Web. 10 June 2008
This website provides a brief synopsis of Romanticism as a movement. As a movement that dispelled the rational thinking and invention of the Enlightenment period, the Romantic period dealt better with the irrational, and the fiction that we find in literature today. It deals better with the beauty in life, or the monstrosities that only a writer can develop through storytelling, and all that fills an imagination. This website provides links to other topics on Romanticism, including the web’s best sites, journals and magazines to expand your research. This article was found through EBSCO Host from MCC's Library Resources, making it credible and reliable.

7. Hart, James D. The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1956. Print.
This book shows the reader that Romanticism is also imagination and boundlessness and contrasted with classicism (reason & restriction). Romanticism is the view of personal freedom for individuals. The start of romanticism is back when America was struggling for freedom from, "monatchial restrictions." This book was very helpful and informative.

8. International Information Programs, “Outline of American Literature” revised edition. Chapter 4, The Romantic Period, 1820-1960, Fiction. Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896). Dec 2006. Print.
Stowe’s book is an example of what was happening with slavery during her lifetime. She was opposed to the actions of people that were using slaves. According to the publication of the American Literature revised edition, the book lead to a debate that began to reform the society in America as we see it today. The book states, “Its passionate appeal for an end to slavery in the United States inflamed the debate that, within a decade, led to the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865).”
Romantic period before 1860 was shaped by a number of writers. For an example, Harriet Beecher Stowe was a novelist who wrote the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin. In this book, she contradicts the injustice of slavery in the United States. Therefore, the romantic period is defined as “an era of feeling: The virtues of family and love reigned supreme.” Writers have used their feeling of strong emotion, using their imagination to help correct society. It is there art of stressing and rebelling against social conventions.
This website was useful and informational for me. It help me learn about a time in our history, something I have overlooked in the past. Literature was not my passion, however as I read on, it is giving me valuable information about how history has shaped our society. This is a credible website because it is coming from the sources that are trusted, such as the state department with the extension in the URL dot gov.

9. "Romanticism" The Concise Oxford Companion to American Literature. James D. Hart. Oxford University Press, 1986. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Apollo Group. Web. 6 June 2007.
This site taught me that Romanticism is also imagination and boundlessness and contrasted with classicism (reason & restriction). Romanticism is the view of personal freedom for individuals. The start of romanticism is back when America was struggling for freedom from, "monatchial restrictions." This website was very helpful and informative. It was a pretty easy read and also had the "How to cite this entry" at the bottom of the page.

10. Holman, Hugh and William Harmon. "American Romanticism. A Handbook to Literature. Web. 7 June 2007.
The page defines Romanticism and provides insights about the beginning of the Romantic period. Included in the information provided, is a list of the general "aspects of the romantic movement," which include love of nature, mysticism, and individualism. The page provides you with a first idea of each Romantic writer's thoughts and views or possibly their inspiration for their works. For example, the "ultimate expression of a poetry organic in form and romantic in spirit, united to a concept of democracy that was pervasively egalitarian" in Walt Whitman's Leave's of Grass. The Romantic period marked the inspiration of the existing and non-existing world on literature. The information is a text-based page created by two english professors and are writers themselves. They have written many other books on literature. The text, which the page is based on, is actually the 6th edition although the latest edition is the 10th.

11. Woodlief, Anne. "American Romanticism (or the American Renaissance)". 18 August 2001. Web. June 16, 2007.
The purpose of this website is to introduce the reader to the period of American romanticism. The author of the article introduces the reader to the romantic period of American literature by naming several of the authors whose works comprise the romantic period, and by explaining the external forces that influenced the era. The author describes the romantic period of American literature as existing between, 1840 and 1865 with emphasis on the years between 1850 and 1855. These years she calls the golden years of American romantic literature. This resource helps the reader understand several things about American literature of this time. First of all, the author introduces the reader to the players on the scene of American romantic writers. Second, she talks about the economic, social, political, and environmental circumstances that led romantic writers to compose their works. Anne Woodleif is a professor of English emeritus at the Virginia Commonwealth University. 10. Van Spanckeren, Kathryn.

12. “The Romantic Period, 1820-1860: Essayists and Poets: Introduction.” From Revolution to Reconstruction. 2006. Web. 22 June 2007.
This website is an educational project focused on researching American history. The American Romantic Period is defined as a time that “coincided with the period of national expansion and the discovery of a distinctive American voice.” The Romantic Period was a time of emerging national identity, idealism and passion. Romantics looked to art for inspiration and focused on development of the self. This website gives examples of major authors of the period and how their work displays Romantic elements. The source is a educationally sponsored article. **

13. “Romantic Period, 1820-1860, Fiction” Outline of American Literature. Web. 23 June 2010.
American Romantic authors created characters with strong, “larger-than-life” qualities. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allen Poe, and Herman Melville are considered Romantic writers whose characters fit such a description. The undiscovered and rugged nature of America at the time of Romanticism is thought to have influenced writers of this time. Just as people were exploring the country and facing their fears of and interest in the unknown, these authors were exploring the inner workings of man and trying to understand his fears and desires. The main character often has to establish his own identity, much like the country and its society were doing at the time. This website was very informative and contained additional information about individual authors and their works. It also provided links to other literary time periods.

14. Reuben, Paul P. “Chapter 3: Early Nineteenth Century and Romanticism - A Brief Introduction” PAL: Perspectives in American Literature - A Research and Reference Guide - An Ongoing Project. Web. 14 February 2008.
This page provides easy reference lists and charts to begin your search for additional information. As highlighted in the site, American Romanticism dealt with a variety of issues. Authors explored a person’s attempt to find him/herself amidst a lying world. They often incorporated mysterious or unknown or improbable elements into their writing, reflecting the unknown nature of the frontier of the time. With the success of their own revolution and the later tumultuous French Revolution, authors also examined ideas of freedom and the ongoing practice of slavery in America. This website looks sparse at first, but it does provide bullet points of helpful information with a variety of links to related material.

15. "The Romantic Period, 1820-1860: Essayists and Poets" US Department of State, December 2006. Web. 23 June 2010.
This site was created by the US Department of state. It is a usinfo.state.gov Web site, making it credible because it's a site that is regulated by our government. The main purpose for the Web site, under their publications link, is to provide people with information about the different American Literary periods (from the colonial period to contemporary American literature). The site is useful to be informed about the Romanticism period because it provides examples, authors/poets and definitions. According to the site, the Romanticism period originated in Germany and reached America around 1820.
"Romantic ideas centered around art as inspiration, the spiritual and aesthetic dimension of nature, and metaphors of organic growth. Art, rather than science, Romantics argued, could best express universal truth.
Some authors/poets that the site includes are: Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.

16. “Romanticism”. Wikipedia. 10 June 2008 Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Web. 10 June 2008
The point of this website is to give information to the public on desired topics. This particular page of the website gives information on the Romantic period in various areas such as literature and art. It defines the romantic period as a time when artists were beginning to use strong emotions in their writing that had not been used before as a sort of way to rebel against the enlightenment period. This was one of the first times that horror was used in literature. This website gives very clear meanings as well as background on the subject. It also provides links to further research subjects that have to do with the romantic period. This is a credible source because it gives references to where the author got the information in the article, it is copyrighted, and it is regularly updated.

17. “American Romanticism”. Woodlief, Ann. 18 August 2001. Web. 10 June 2008
This website gives the reader an idea of what life was like during the romantic period and how that led writers to have the style they did. The writers of this time period were trying to be original, trying to make the everyday happenings of life make sense and have meaning. They were also exploring personal ego and emotion. This website is a good one to study when trying to understand romanticism because in order to understand the works of the time period, one must understand the authors’ lives and what they were going through to make them write such emotional pieces. This website gives reference to many historical happenings that one could research to make sure that it is accurate. It is also part of an education website meaning that it was not created to make a profit, but rather to educate viewers on the subject.

18. Melani, Lilia. “Romanticism.” A Guide to the Study of Literature: A Companion Text for Core Studies 6, Landmarks of Literature. English Department, Brooklyn College. 3 September 2001. Web. 16 June 2008.
This website is breaks down romanticism into parts such as imagination, nature, symbolism and myth, emotion, individualism, exotic, and explained the parts and how they played a role in the time period. This time period refined how people thought of the world and themselves. It was during this time period that the imagination of the mind being the creative power for writing. Nature became a common theme to write about in the romanticism period. The writers used nature as a work of art. Instincts and feeling played a huge role in the writing of this time period. This article gave me a basic understanding of where the romantic period started and the beliefs of the time period which gave me a starting point in understanding how it affects the writing of today. Lilia Melani is a Professor of English at the Brooklyn College making her a credible source. She also cites the source where she got her information.

19. Brians, Paul. “romanticism.” 11 March 1998. 25 June 2008 < http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/hum_303/romanticism.html >. This website details the origins of the Romantic era in literature. The article states that it began with music and eventually grew to transform art and literature. It started in the late 1700s in Germany and England and by the early 1800s it had spread through Europe and the United States. It notes that emotion was a large part of romanticism, as was nature and individualism. This will help me to read through Romantic literature and understand the context. It will help me to understand more about the authors and what they were trying to emphasize in their work. This website is credible because it has a stated author and is a .edu.

20. “American Romanticism Overview”. University of West Georgia. Department of English and Philosophy. Web. 23 June 2009.
The webpage is that of a Literature professor at the University of West Georgia. In this page, there is great information on what makes the American Romantic period different from the rest, with emphasis on individualism and how the American Romantic period differs from that of England. The author notes that the American Romantics were defined as having an “obsession with and celebration of individualism.” In continuation the author notes characteristics of the Romantics and how they contrasted with other periods. The overview provides a timetable to compare periods, categories for the authors and eras, and characteristics of them all. There is a great deal of basic knowledge of the American Romantics to be taken from this site. This information is very useful to help students understand what made this period different from the others and why it is significant. There seems to be more details provided that you might not see in other general sites.

21. "Romanticism." Encarta. Web. 6 Jun 2009.
Encarta is an encyclopedia run by Microsoft, making it a credible source. The Romantic movement in literature focused most on personal freedom and agency. It emphasized the importance of imagination. It was the first time in literature that authors embraced putting feelings above logic. This enabled authors to write more of what they wanted. Authors despise censorship and romanticism allowed them to write freely about the beauty in the world. Romanticism also focused a lot on nature, and romantic authors wrote about the beauty and power of nature.

22. Day, Aiden. Romanticism. New York: Routledge, 1996. Print.
This source was accessed on the MCC Ebrary. It is a great book all about Romanticism that discusses gender, politics, nature, and many other topics. The Romantic period was all about not having politics involved in personal issues, such as spirituality or sexuality. This book gives several examples of passages in literature that reflect the Romantic philosophies. It cites many authors and works of literature. This is a great source for learning about Romanticism. There are also comparisons between Romanticism and Enlightenment.

23. "American Renaissance." Merriam Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature. Merriam-Webster, Inc., 1995. NA. Academic OneFile. Gale. Mesa Community College. 12 June 2009
The main purpose of this article is to describe the Romantic Period and the authors that influenced it. When trying to analyze a text and the period in which it was written one should look for elements of advocating for “reforms in church, state, and society, fostering the rise of Free Religion and the abolition movement”. The transcendentalist authors were extremely influential during this time period. This source was helpful because it pointed out the main issues that would be addressed. Additionally the details that it gave about the authors was similar to a description one would give when describing an eccentric author. This source is credible because it came out of a respected encyclopedia found through MCC's Academic OneFile.

24. Kreis, Stephen. "The Romantic Era". The History Guide: Lectures on Modern European Intellectual History. Revised 4 August 2009. Web. 23 June 2010.
This is a very in-depth website regarding the Romantic Era. It goes into great detail on the definition of the time, what events were taking place in the world, examples of popular texts that were written during this time, who was considered to be important authors of the time, as well as the changes that were taking place. The criteria that this site uses to define the period were that it appeared in conflict with the Enlightenment Era, it was an era heavily motivated by self-consciousness, and that it was a time in which people sought to reclaim human freedom. This resource was immensely helpful in my understanding of my text because it gave me great information regarding what was actually going on during this time that I could adapt to the theme of my text. This is a credible website because it is obviously well researched and very in depth. It also uses numerous in text citations, offers a table of contents, and provides in text links to other articles for further reading on the topic.

"Liberty Leading the People" by Eugène Delacroix

"Liberty Leading the People." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Web. 16 June 2010.

Early American Romantic Authors

"Romanticism in the American Short Story. YouTube.com. Web. 22 December 2009.

Unknown Period Reflection on Romantic

A Reflection on Romanticism

Beyond Romance