New England Renaissance

And Transcendentalism

A Growing Nation Part II

1837 Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered “The American Scholar” calling for American intellectual independence from Europe

Emerson challenged American writers to interpret their own culture in new ways

A burst of intellectual activity called “The flowering of New England” brought forth an array of great writers and literature

New England Renaissance

Most New England writers of this time were influenced by the Transcendental movement

Major Players: Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau

This movement arose from liberal thinkers who departed from Calvanism

It became a literary, philosophical, and political movement

Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism is difficult to define because it has many facets, sources, and encompasses a range of beliefs and principles that relied on the individual writer or thinker

American Transcendentalists drew on a variety of thinkers and philosophers to mold their movement such as German philosopher Immanuel Kant, Plato, French mathematician Pascal, Swedish scientist Swedenborg, and Buddhism ideals

Yeah, but what is it?

Transcendentalism produced a native blend that was romantic, intuitive, and mystical

For them the point was the “real truths” the fundamental truths lie outside the experience of the senses and resided in the “Over soul” or universal soul

Transcendentalists had a reverence for nature and out connection to it

Say what?

An individual is the spiritual center of the universe - and in an individual can be found the clue to nature, history and, ultimately, the cosmos itself. It is not a rejection of the existence of God, but a preference to explain an individual and the world in terms of an individual.

Basic Principle # 1

The structure of the universe literally duplicates the structure of the individual self - all knowledge, therefore, begins with self-knowledge. This is similar to Aristotle's dictum "know thyself."

Basic Principle # 2

Transcendentalists accepted the neo-Platonic conception of nature as a living mystery, full of signs - nature is symbolic.

The belief that individual virtue and happiness depend upon self-realization

Basic Principle # 3 and # 4

Thoreau withdrew from society to live by himself near Walden Pond

He felt intensely the Transcendentalists reverence for nature

The 18 essays in Walden are on topics ranging from a battle of red vs black ants to the individual’s relation to society

His observations of nature reveal his philosophy of individualism, simplicity, and passive resistance to justice

Walden

William Cullen BryantOliver Wendell HomesJames Russell LowellJohn Greenleaf WhittierThese men represented America’s coming of

age and are acclaimed as the first generation of American poets

Fireside Poets