American Romanticism

Often considered the first period of American creativity, the Romantic period is placed within the historical context of westward expansion, the increasingly heated nature of the slavery question, and strained relations between the opposing desires for reform and separation found in the North and the South. Historically, this period of tensions resulted in the Civil War. Within the literature, however, the opposing views of life were able to co-exist relatively peacefully.

Romanticism is typically defined as a "literary and philosophical theory that tends to see the individual at the center of all life, and it places the individual, therefore, at the center of art, making literature valuable as an expression of unique feelings and particular