Romanticism in the North American short history

Abstract

Romanticism was an extremely influential movement which flourished at the end of the 18th century and which had a huge impact on various areas, including literature. Countless writers have represented in their works key Romantic features such as the depiction of horror and intense emotions, the use of exotic and wild natural settings, nationalism, individualism, the reproduction of the human psyche, and symbolism, among many others. In this paper, it is shown how the Romantic Movement influenced, more specifically, the North American short story by analysing five works: Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle,” Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil,” Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” and Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.” The results which have been obtained from this analysis have demonstrated that these five short stories can be considered as Romantic works because they reflect multiple characteristics of the Romantic Movement. In fact, these writers portray the peculiarities of the most important subfields of American Romanticism, which are known as “Light Romanticism” and “Dark Romanticism.”

El Romanticismo fue un movimiento extremadamente influyente que surgió a finales del siglo 18 y que tuvo un gran impacto en varias áreas, incluida la literatura. Innumerables escritores han representado en sus obras características esenciales del Romanticismo como la representación de horror y emociones intensas, el uso de entornos naturales exóticos y salvajes, el nacionalismo, el individualismo, la mente humana, y el simbolismo, entre muchas otras. En este artículo, se muestra cómo el Romanticismo influyó, en concreto, la narrativa breve norteamericana analizando cinco obras: “Rip Van Winkle,” de Washington Irving; “The Minister’s Black Veil,” de Nathaniel Hawthorne; “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” de Herman Melville; y “The Minister’s Black Veil” y “The Tell-Tale Heart,” de Edgar Allan Poe. Los resultados que se han obtenido de este análisis han demostrado que estas cinco historias breves se pueden considerar trabajos románticos porque reflejan múltiples características del Romanticismo. De hecho, estos autores retratan las peculiaridades de los dos sub-campos más importantes del Romanticismo Americano conocidos como “Romanticismo Claro” y “Romanticismo Oscuro.”