How English Writers Shaped the American Renaissance

How English Writers Influenced the American Renaissance

English Literature

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When we think of the American Renaissance, we often remember famous names like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgar Allan Poe. These writers played a big part in creating a unique American style of writing. However, their works were also influenced by English writers. In the 19th century, English literature had a huge impact on American writers. It inspired them and helped them explore ideas like transcendentalism, Romanticism, and individualism.

The Romantic Movement: A Link Between America and England

The American Renaissance took place between the 1830s and 1860s. It was a time of cultural growth, with new ideas in literature, art, and philosophy. This movement didn’t happen alone; it was closely connected to the European Romantic Movement, which started in England in the late 1700s.

English Romantic poets like William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Lord Byron influenced American writers. These poets focused on emotions, imagination, nature, and individual expression, rather than just logic. Their work encouraged a deep connection with nature and personal freedom. These ideas were important to American writers.

For example, the idea of the “sublime”—a feeling of awe when experiencing nature—was important to both English and American writers. American transcendentalists like Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were inspired by English Romantic poets. Emerson’s essay “Nature” and Thoreau’s book Walden both show a strong connection to nature, similar to the work of the English poets.

Emerson, in particular, was greatly influenced by Wordsworth. He even said that Wordsworth helped him understand nature and life’s meaning. Thoreau’s Walden also shows ideas inspired by English writers who believed in living simply and close to nature.

The Gothic Influence from England

The American Renaissance was also shaped by the darker, mysterious side of literature known as the Gothic style. English Gothic writers like Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, and Lord Byron explored themes like madness, death, and the supernatural. Poe, especially, was inspired by the English Gothic tradition.

Poe’s works, such as The Tell-Tale Heart and The Fall of the House of Usher, explore themes of death, madness, and fear. In his famous poem The Raven, Poe uses the Gothic style to talk about grief and deep emotions. Poe adapted these dark ideas from English Gothic writers and created his own American Gothic style. His work inspired other American writers, including Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville.

English Essayists and Philosophers

English essayists and philosophers also influenced American writers. Thinkers like Samuel Johnson, Thomas Carlyle, and John Stuart Mill shaped American ideas about individuality, society, and creativity.

Ralph Waldo Emerson was particularly influenced by Carlyle. Emerson’s essay Self-Reliance echoes Carlyle’s ideas about individuality and breaking free from society’s rules. Emerson also borrowed ideas from British philosopher John Stuart Mill, especially the idea of human potential and personal growth.

How English Literature Influenced American Short Story Writers

The American Renaissance saw the rise of the short story as a unique type of writing. Writers like Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne played a big role in this. Their work was inspired by English writers like Sir Walter Scott and Charles Dickens.

Poe was inspired by Scott’s detailed characters and settings, while Dickens’s stories about society and complex people also had an impact on American writers. Hawthorne, too, was influenced by English writers like Dickens and the Brontë sisters. His stories, such as The Scarlet Letter and Young Goodman Brown, explore deep psychological themes, much like English Gothic literature.

The Transcendentalists’ Reaction to English Traditions

While American writers were influenced by English writers, some wanted to create a new, distinctly American style of writing. The transcendentalists, like Emerson and Thoreau, wanted to break free from European traditions. They felt that American writers should create literature that was based on American life and nature.

In his essay The American Scholar, Emerson called for American writers to stop copying European styles and to instead focus on the American landscape and experiences. Thoreau’s Walden is a great example of this, as it focuses on living simply in nature, far from European civilization. Walt Whitman, too, celebrated America’s diversity and individuality in his poetry.

Conclusion

The American Renaissance was a time of great creativity, and English writers played an important role in shaping it. From English Romantic poets to Gothic writers, their work inspired American writers in many ways. However, American writers didn’t just copy what the English wrote—they used these ideas to create a new, American style of writing. By mixing European influences with American values and experiences, they created a literary tradition that still resonates today.

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