Essential Questions I'm Supposed to Answer

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

• Their beliefs and individualism come through their pieces by letting what they wish to happen to them and others happen to their characters.

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

• Romanticism is a movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual. ex. "Satire is people as they would like to are; romanticism, people as they would like to be; realism, people as they seem with their insides left out." -Dawn Powell
• Gothic Romanticism is a genre or mode of literature that combines fiction, horror and romanticism ex.“One hand was behind his back, and he held it out, presenting a bouquet of white and smoky purple lilies...They’re straight from the underworld, by the way. They are everlasting. They won’t die.”(The Devilin Fey)
• Southern Gothic Romanticism is a submergence of Gothic Fiction and takes place in the American South. The four themes in SGR are--Imprisonment, Violence, Sense Of Placement, and Freakishness ex. “Later he saw Jesus move from tree to tree in the back of his mind, a wild ragged figure motioning him to turn around and come off into the dark where he might be walking on the water and not know it and then suddenly know it and drown." (Wise Blood)
• These are all alike because they all involve romantic crap, its just that GR is creepy romantic stuff and SGR is the same but after the civil war and in the south

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

•  It is a response to it because it is basically the same thing but in it's own form it's taken on its own personality traits and style. It's like in Mean Girls when Cady becomes the new Regina George, just with her own different touches. It's a response to it by becoming it. And that's also how it's a manipulation, because it is manipulating it and forming it into its own.

How did the American culture prompt the dark sides of Romanticism (think Gothic and Southern Gothic)?

•  I think it prompted the dark sides because the people were sinning a lot which made it OK for someone to write about that kind of stuff where before it would've been weird for a random dark book to come about in the midst off all these good people. Also, it was the people doing bad things that probably gave someone the idea that people in real life can do terrible things so people in books can to.

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

• They formed the main ideas of our writing. It's like our ancestors gave us some of the traits we have today, we derived off of them. And that's how writing is. It all came from somewhere and as we evolve, we still keep some of those ancestor-y traits.