American Literature: 1840-1860 TRANSCENDENTALISM

American Literature: 1840-1860

TRANSCENDENTALISM

American History•Tension leading to Civil War•Slavery•Westward expansion—railroads, telegraph

•Mexican War (1848)• Industrialization

American Mind-Set

• Increased roles of gov’t, increase in industrial productivity

•Technology and science will bring better times

Romanticism

• Nature is the key to self-awareness• If you open yourself up to nature, you man

receive its gifts: a deeper, more mystical experience of life

• Nature offers a kind of “grace” – “salvation” from mundane evils of everyday life.

Transcendentalism

• Belief that humans can intuitively transcend the limits of the senses and of logic to a plane of “higher truths”.

• Valued spirituality (direct access to a benevolent God, not organized religion or ritual

Basic Principles of Transcendentalism

1) The fundamental truths of being and the universe lie beyond the senses and can only be understood through intuition.

2) The focus is on the human spirit and the spiritual relationship between humanity and nature.

3) Nature is a manifestation of the human spirit. The meaning of existence can be found through exploring nature.

4) All forms of being – God, nature, man – are spiritually united under a shared universal soul – the Over-Soul.

To Review…Transcendentalists…

• A deep faith in human potential• Believed that all forms of being are

spiritually united through a shared universal soul

• Popular themes in their writing include love and nature

• Known for their essays expressing their ideas and beliefs

Anti-transcendentalists

• Believed that the truths of human existence tend to be elusive and disturbing

Transcendentalism

–Basic truths of the universe lie beyond the knowledge we obtain from the senses.

Transcendentalism

–Use intuition to find existence of our own souls

Emphasize spiritual unity with all forms of being (humans, nature and God)

Ability to experience God firsthand

The Oversoul

Everything shares a universal soul (oversoul)

Giant Eyeball in the sky

Study nature as means to self-knowledge

Who?

• Ralph Waldo Emerson• Henry David Thoreau

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau:

Two Writers Who Changed America

Emerson and Thoreau

• Transcendentalists (the power of the imagination!!)

• Essay writers (non-fiction)• Influence American culture

self-reliancepeaceful protestlove of nature

Emerson and Thoreau encouraged us to…

– Think for ourselves– Do our own thing– Protest injustices– Change unjust laws– Admire the natural beauty of our country

Emerson background

• 1803-1882• Father of Transcendentalism• Harvard educated-minister• Moves away from religion• His son dies at age 5• Writes essays

Emerson

• Your duty is to yourself FIRST, community/country second

• You need to be self-reliant…pick yourself up.

• Your imagination more powerful than a book

Henry David ThoreauEmerson’s friend, student

Civil DisobedienceWalden

Thoreau

• Lived what Emerson preached• 1817-1862• Social activist• Two major works:

– Civil Disobedience, Walden

Civil Disobedience• Refuse to follow any rule that goes against

your belief• Do not get violent, get quiet• Protest civilly…sit down, refuse to move

Civil Disobedience: influences

Gandhi: Led a revolution against Great Britain without shooting a gun, or raising a fist.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Led a revolution against racial discrimination without shooting a gun, raising a fist.

Walden

Thoreau our first naturalist!• Emerson taught him to be self-reliant…he

does this by going into the woods, building his own house and living for 2 years, 2 months, 2 weeks

• Writes about his experience in WALDEN• Reminds us that nature is best teacher

Famous Quotes from Emerson and Thoreau…

“Whoso would be a man must be a non-conformist”

Self-Reliance

Self-Reliance

“Imitation is suicide”

“Trust thyself”

Self-Reliance

“What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think”

Self-Reliance

“To be great is to be misunderstood”

Self-Reliance

“Envy is Ignorance”

Self-Reliance

Civil Disobedience• “Under a government which

imprisons unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.”

Civil Disobedience• “Let you life be a counter-friction

to stop the machine”

Civil Disobedience• “A minority is powerless while it

conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight”

Walden

• “I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately…

• to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach…

• and not, when I came to die, discover I had not lived.”

“I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life”