Imagination in American Romanticism
We've mentioned that the American Romantics were really into individualism. Well, they also happened to be really into the imagination. And that's because they believed that the imagination is an expression of individual identity. If five of us were instructed to imagine a tree, for example, we would all imagine it differently, because we're five different people.
Yup—we really are special, individual snowflakes.
Not only did the American Romantics believe that the imagination expresses our individuality, they also believed that our imagination allows us to make insights that we couldn't arrive at through "rational" means. Our imagination, like our emotions, allows us access into a realm of knowledge that is beyond reason or rationality.
Chew On This
Why is the imagination so important to the American Romantics? Because it can take us beyond ourselves. Check out Emily Dickinson's "There is No Frigate Like a Book," which deals with how books enrich our imagination.
When Ishmael in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick looks at whale bones, he doesn't just see whale bones. His imagination takes him back right to the very beginning of the world.