Essential Questions

Essential Questions for this Unit:

• How are the Romantics' beliefs of optimism and individualism reflect in their writing?

In their writings, Romantic authors wrote with passion and without any rules or guidelines, which brought out the sense of individualism. Their writings also challenged the current, and more formal, writing styles of classicism and realism. The writings also show optimism, because they could write about whatever they wanted, including better situations than they were in, making them want to escape reality and hope for a brighter, better future.

• What are Romanticism, Gothic Romanticism, and Southern Gothic Romanticism? How are they similar, and how are they different?

Romanticism: a movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual.

Gothic Romanticism: genre or mode of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance.

Southern Gothic Romanticism: a subgenre of Gothic fiction unique to American literature that takes place exclusively in the American South.

Romanticism, Gothic Romanticism, and Southern Gothic Romanticism are all similar; the most obvious reason being they're all Romanticism in one way or another. Other similarities are they are all three forms of literature, and they all involve a form of romance, whether it be the plot itself or a subplot. Also, Southern Gothic Romanticism is a subgenre of Gothic Romanticism, which is a subgenre of Romanticism.

Differences between the three are the fact that Southern Gothic Romanticism takes place in specifically the south part of the United States of America, usually in the general area near Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and other south-eastern states. Also, Gothic Romanticism combines Gothic elements, such as gloomy settings, tragic events, etc, along with any form of romance. 

• How is the Southern Gothic movement a response to literary movements that preceded it, as well as a manipulation of Romantic literary conventions?

Southern Gothic Romanticism is a form of Gothic Romanticism, but takes place in the South. It brings out all the aspects of the South and the people that live there. The grammar style also changes, because Southern Gothic Romantics show the dialect of the Southerners, and write so the reader can get a sense of how the people talk(ed). The style of the grammar used is also how Southern Gothic Romanticism manipulates traditional Romanticism.

• How did the American culture prompt the dark sides of Romanticism? 

America has an eventful history, and those events, whether major or minor, have affected how writers compose their Romantic works. Southern Gothic Romanticism, specifically, has been used to express America's history. America's civil war and slavery, along with the slaves' treatment, are two major things that have affected America's influence on Romanticism, especially Southern Gothic Romanticism. Those two things bring out the "dark side" of Romanticism by involving the hardships and gruesome aspects of war, the harsh and unnecessary treatment of the slaves, the circumstances people involved in those two things had to deal with, and more.

• How do the writings of these time periods influence the writings of today?

The Romantic writings still have an affect on writings today, because authors today still use them to develop foundations for their own writings. Romanticism just gets divided into more and more subgenres, like it did with Gothic and Southern Gothic Romanticism. Those older Romantic writings also are used as reference for writers who want to write during that time period.

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