THE LIGHT AND DARK ROMANTIC FEATURES IN IRVING, HAWTHORNE AND POE

This study aims to highlight the characteristics of two of the subgenres of American Romanticism. The dark romanticism has been the most well known one unlike the Light romanticism. It is assumed that a comparative exploration of some works of both genres will help readers of literature to have a clearer overall idea for these two genres of the movement. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher as being dark romantic works, and Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow as being Light romantic works are chosen to explore the elements of each trend in Romanticism.