Transcendentalism

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Transcendentalism
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Some background...

• New England Renaissance (1840-1855)
• Literary outpouring based mainly in the New
  England states.
• Writing is distinctly American (Irving and
  Cooper too European Poe not yet respected).

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• New England Renaissance (contd)
• Increasing interest in utopia perfect
  community
• Optimism of period led to Transcendentalist
  movement.

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What is Transcendentalism?

• Hard to define
• Kant says based on understanding through
  intuition.
• Some basic ideas
• The Over-Soul Divinity of human nature and
  omnipresence of God.
• Reverence for nature - humanity is reflected in
  it.
• Simplicity and self-reliance

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Over-Soul

• For my ally is the Force. And a powerful ally it
  is. Life creates it, makes it grow. The force
  surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we
  not this crude matter. You must feel the Force
  around you. Here, between you, me, the tree, the
  rock...everywhere! Even between the land and the
  ship."

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• Some basic ideas (contd)
• Truth - based on individual rather than
  established rules. (A foolish consistency is the
  hobgoblin of little minds Emerson)
• Civil disobedience

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Civil Disobedience

• Passive, non-violent resistance to governmental
  policies to which an individual is morally
  opposed.
• Influenced individuals such a Dr. Martin Luther
  King Jr., Ghandi, and Cesar Chavez
• slide borrowed from Jamea Yaeger, Santana High
  School

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slide borrowed from Jamea Yaeger, Santana High
School
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Some Key Players...

• Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
• essayist, poet, Unitarian minister (for a time),
  orator, and philosopher
• called for intellectual Declaration of
  Independence.
• Nature (1836) considered the first full
  expression of Transcendentalism.

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Some Key Players(contd)

• Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
• Somewhat of a protégé of Emerson.
• Quit job as teacher because he objected to
  corporal punishment.
• Refused to pay taxes in protest of the Mexican
  War.

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• Henry David Thoreau (contd)
• Walden - Based on experiences living alone at
  Walden Pond for two years.
• Whereas Emerson established many tenets of
  Transcendentalism, Thoreau tested them.