CRITICAL TERMS North-American Narrative

TRANSCENDENTALISM (In the words of Emerson): "The Transcendentalist adopts the whole connection of spiritual doctrine. He believes in miracle, in the perpetual openness of the human; he believes in inspiration. The use of that term by Immanuel Kant, who replied to the skeptical philosophy of Locke, which insisted that there was nothing in the intellect which was not previously in the experience of the senses, by showing that there was a very important class of ideas, which did not come by experience, but through which experience was acquired; that these were intuitions of the mind itself; and he denominated them Transcendental forms.”

NEOPLATOMISM: A philosophical system developed which is based on Platonism with elements of mysticism and some Christian concepts and posits a single source from which all existence emanates and with which an individual soul can be mystically united.

AESTHETIC VISION: Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature art, and the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensorial and emotional values. More broadly, scholars in the field define aesthetics as "critical reflection on art, culture and nature." The aesthetic universals are “virtuosity”, “pleasure” “style”, “criticism”, “imitation” and “special focus.”

AMERICAN ROMANCE: It tends to prefer action to character, and action will be freer in a romance than in a novel, although in the static romances of Hawthorne, he uses the allegorical and moral forms. Characters will not be related to society (human beings will be shown in an ideal relation). They may become profoundly involved in some way, as in Hawthorne or Melville, but it will be a deep and narrow, an obsessive, involvement. In American romances, the romancer will probably would arouse our interest in a character by enveloping it in mystery. Astonishing events may occur, and these are likely to have a symbolic or ideological, rather than a realistic.

EXCEPTIONALISM: Isa described as an approach to America that represents freedom from a common lot, which is extended in the 19^th century to include Transcendentalist self-reliance. American exceptionalism maintains that their beginnings as a nation, historical evolution, as well as religious and political organizations and cultural institutions, make them an incomparable nation. The term "American exceptionalism" is used to describe the mode of telling the American story and histories as a unique and ahistorical. Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlett Letter

helps that the historical beginnings of American exceptionalism sit exactly in the center of Hawthorne's 17^th century Boston. Today's reader is aware of the place exceptionalism, specifically in America's relationship to god, faith and moral superiority, held in the Hester's community. Boston's treatment of Hester exhibits the moral high ground taken by early colonizers. This idea of the individual as superhuman is seen furthermore in the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale's speech and physical self-flagellation. Though Hawthorne tells us he is a "lost and desperate man," Dimmesdale is nonetheless held up in Boston as the ideal of religiosity and humanity. Hawthorne uses him to represent the disconnection between the ideal of the individual in the American exceptionalist view, and the reality of such an exceptionalist ideology being enforced on the individual. Hawthorne, failing in the characters’ struggle with the American exceptionalism of their time, delivers a harsh critique of that philosophy. However, Moby Dick takes its own look at the ideology. Melville's narrator, Ishmael, has an exceptionalist view of himself in the world. During his first encounters with Queequeg. Ishmael is uncomfortable with this foreign threat, at first, especially in his obvious physical and masculine superiority. Eventually, as Ishmael gets to know Queequeg's motivations, his exceptionalism breaks down.  Any doubts to Melville's opinions on American exceptionalism are answered with a close investigation of Captain Ahab and his ship. The Pequod is a modern critic for the exploration of American exceptionalism; a multi-national and cross-cultural ship, with an inherent purpose of global economic superiority.

Ahab follows his mission at all costs. Ahab displays the height of American exceptionalism, in all of its invincible glory, and Melville portrays him as doomed for the mouth of the whale and the bottom of the ocean. Most striking is the fate of the rest of the boat. Ahab even manages to convince the men on the Pequod that the voyage of destruction for his own selfish purposes will worthy of their commitment. In both The Scarlet Letter and Moby Dick's socio-political commentary underlines the anti- American-exceptionalism view.

REALISM: Broadly defined as "the faithful representation of reality" or "verisimilitude," realism is a literary technique against romanticism. The interest in scientific method, the systematizing of the study of documentary history, and the influence of rational philosophy all affected the rise of realism.  Realism focuses on the lower classes is considered naturalism. In American literature, the term "realism" encompasses the period of time from the Civil War to the turn of the century during which Mark Twain and others wrote fiction devoted to accurate representation and an exploration of American lives in various contexts. As the United States grew rapidly after the Civil War, the increasing rates of democracy and literacy, the rapid growth in industrialism and urbanization, an expanding population base due to immigration, and a relative rise in middle-class provided a fertile literary environment for readers interested in understanding these rapid shifts in culture.

SLAVE NARRATIVE: Narratives of slavery recounted the personal experiences of ante-bellum African Americans who had escaped from slavery and found their way to safety in the North. An essential part of the anti-slavery movement, these narratives drew on Biblical allusion and imagery, the rhetoric of abolitionism, the traditions of the captivity narrative, and the spiritual autobiography in appealing to their often white audiences. Some of these narratives bore a preface attesting to their authenticity and to the sufferings described within. Its purposes are to arouse the sympathy of readers, and to emphasize traditional Christian religious ideas and the cruelty of individual slave owners.

GOTHIC: Its characteristics are: An atmosphere of gloom, terror or mystery - Elements of the uncanny that challenge reality, including mysterious events that cause the protagonist to question the evidence of his or her senses and the presence of seemingly supernatural beings - An exotic setting isolated in time or space from contemporary life, often a ruined mansion or castle - Events, often violent or macabre, that cannot be hidden or rationalized despite the efforts of the narrator - An unnatural relation between the orders of things that are usually separate, such as life and death, good and evil, dream life and reality, or rationality and madness - A hidden or double reality.  Poe represents this process symbolically in “The Fall of the House of Usher” in the violent death-embrace of Madeline and Roderick Usher. An emblem of the hidden secret, Madeline, who has escaped from the tomb where she has been buried alive, as she clutches her brother Roderick, who by pretending a surface normality, has refused to acknowledge his culpability in burying her.

An interrupted narrative form that relies on multiple methods (inserted documents, letters, dreams, fragments of the story told by several narrators) to tell the tale. "Gothic romance flourished through the early 19^th century. Authors of such novels set their stories in the medieval period, often in a gloomy castle replete with ghosts, mysterious disappearances, and supernatural occurrences; their principal aim was to evoke chilling terror by exploiting mystery, cruelty, and horror. The term "gothic" also deals with aberrant psychological states.

IMPRESSIONISM: An approach to storytelling that attempts to show how the world seems to the consciousness of a character with a limited point of view. What the reader reads on the page is the illusion of an impression of reality. Impressionist literature tends to emphasize the way characters experience the world, not necessarily the way the world actually is. As a result, this approach often deals with ambiguity. For some writers, impressions are all that we have to make sense of the world because we are on the outside looking in, trying to interpret our surroundings.