American Renaissance (literature) facts for kids

The American Renaissance was an exciting time in American literature. It happened from about 1830 until the American Civil War. During this period, American writers created many famous works. This time is often linked to American Romanticism and a way of thinking called Transcendentalism.

What Was the American Renaissance?

The idea of the "American Renaissance" was first used by a scholar named F. O. Matthiessen. He wrote a book in 1941 called American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman. Matthiessen believed that the writers of this time shared a strong belief in the "possibilities of democracy." He saw their books as "literature for our democracy." He wanted people to remember and value these important American stories.

This movement mostly happened in New England. It was partly inspired by a new focus on humanism. This was a shift away from older religious ideas. At this time, many American writers wanted to create a unique American style of writing. They wanted to be different from British literature.

In 1815, Walter Channing asked for "a literature of our own." Other writers like John Neal agreed. This led to a wave of national pride in American writing in the 1820s. Writers like Washington Irving, William Cullen Bryant, and James Fenimore Cooper became very important. This desire to show national pride through literature was key to the American Renaissance.

Why Some People Criticize It

Not everyone agrees that the American Renaissance was a perfect time. Some critics even question if it was a distinct movement at all.

• Borrowing Ideas: One criticism is that writers during this time sometimes took old ideas and styles. They then changed them into new works.
• Ignoring Big Issues: Some critics say that authors didn't talk enough about important political issues. For example, they often avoided the topic of slavery. This was a huge issue at the time.
• Leaving Out Voices: Another big criticism is that many women writers and their concerns were often left out. Scholars like Matthiessen mainly focused on a small group of white male writers. William E. Cain pointed out that Matthiessen's list was "extreme white male." He said that Matthiessen's book showed what later readers would try to fix.

Some people thought that books by women were not as popular as those by men. However, other critics say that the most popular authors of the time were actually women. These included Harriet Beecher Stowe and Fanny Fern. They argue that Matthiessen should have included women in his original list of important writers.

Over time, scholars have started to include more diverse authors in the American Renaissance. They now include Emily Dickinson, who began writing poetry in the late 1850s. Harriet Beecher Stowe's famous book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), became very important in the late 1970s. Also, African-American literature, like slave narratives by writers such as Frederick Douglass, and early novels by William Wells Brown, have gained more recognition.

Famous Writers and Their Works

The most well-known writers from the American Renaissance include:

• Ralph Waldo Emerson with his works Representative Men and Self-Reliance.
• Nathaniel Hawthorne with The Scarlet Letter and The House of Seven Gables.
• Herman Melville with his famous novel Moby-Dick.
• Henry David Thoreau with Walden.
• Walt Whitman with his poetry collection Leaves of Grass.

It's interesting that many of these main writers were not very famous during their own time. They often had only a small group of followers.

Later, other authors were added to this important list. They were also seen as contributing to this literary movement. These include:

• Edgar Allan Poe
• Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Emily Dickinson
• Frederick Douglass
• William Wells Brown
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• John Greenleaf Whittier

See Also

• American literature
• Transcendentalism