Transcendentalism Introduction American Literature
Transcendentalism: The name comes from the German philosopher Immanuel Kant s notion of transcendent forms; that is, forms of knowledge that exist beyond reason and experience.
Emerson wrote that all life is an experiment. One needn t follow the guidance of tradition. Trust thyself; every heart vibrates to that iron string.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Sage of Concord
Self Reliance For the nonconformist, imitation is suicide... According to Emerson, the great are always misunderstood.
It is easy to in the world to live after the world s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude (363).
Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind (362). (Of course, this can be dangerous when personal integrity ceases to be a concern, or no longer has a commonly accepted definition.)
Great men [confide] themselves childlike to the genius of their age... (362) Childlike: one s experience of the world unmediated, unfiltered by custom or social pressures.
Transcendentalist Subject Matter
Subject Matter The quest for beauty & the sublime Interest in external nature for its own sake (and its beauty) Nature as source for the knowledge of the primitive Nature as a refuge Nature as a revelation of God to the individual
Central Arguments of Transcendentalism
Central Arguments Transcendentalism is a religious, philosophical and literary movement. Often the transcendentalists disagreed with each other, but on these points they agreed: Nature is a living mystery. It is full of signs. The intuitive faculty (as opposed to rationality or sense) is the means for a union of the individual psyche and the world psyche (the Oversoul, life-force, prime mover and God).
Central Arguments An individual is the spiritual center of the universe. Within the self or the individual are found the clues or the secrets to nature, history and the cosmos. The structure of the universe duplicates the structure of the individual self. All knowledge begins with self-knowledge. Virtue and happiness depend upon self-realization. In order for self-realization to occur one must reconcile the desire to embrace the whole world with the desire to remain unique and separate from the world.
Transcendentalist Values
Transcendentalist Values Stress on emotion rather than reason Optimism, geniality
Transcendentalist Values Utopian ways of thinking and living (Brook Farm) Experimentation in science and social institutions
Notes: On Utopia The word Utopia was coined by Sir Thomas More in 1516, with the publication of his book of that name. The book concerns the experiences of a man who is shipwrecked on an island. There he discovers a perfect society, and observes their religious, social and political customs so as to understand how they achieved perfection.
Notes: On Utopia The word itself is a pun. In Greek, it literally means no place (u- + topia) But it also sounds like it means beautiful place (eu- + topia)
Notes: On Brook Farm
Notes: On Brook Farm Brook Farm, established in the spring of 1841, was America s first secular utopian community a large dairy farm in West Roxbury, requiring a $30,000 investment achieved by selling shares. Founded by George Ripley, a Unitarian minister, and his wife. Took inspiration from the Shakers, as well as the French Socialist and Utopian writer Charles Fourier.
Notes: On Brook Farm Ripley s goal was to combine the thinker and the worker in the same individual; to guarantee the highest mental freedom, by providing all with labor, adapted to their tastes and talents, and securing to them the fruits of their industry; to do away with the necessity of menial services, by opening the benefits of education and the profits of labor to all; and thus to prepare a society of liberal, intelligent, and cultivated persons, whose relations with each other would permit a more simple and wholesome life, that can be led amidst the pressure of our competitive institutions.
Notes: On Brook Farm Brotherly cooperation instead of selfish competition Highest intellectual, physical, and moral education which the current state of knowledge will permit Institute an attractive, efficient, and productive system of industry Prevent the exercise of worldly anxiety Diminish the desire of excessive accumulation (lessen greed) Impart a greater freedom, simplicity, truthfulness, refinement, and moral dignity
Notes: On Brook Farm Ripley courted Emerson, who declined to join the commune. By July, 1842, membership had increased from 20 to 70, including for a time the writer Nathaniel Hawthorne (more from him later). However, many were not fully committed to membership there were boarders and students who merely provided income.
Notes: On Brook Farm 1,100 visitors a year paid thirty-seven cents each for dinner, supper, and a night s lodging. Shareholders withdrew; some felt membership had become too elite; some felt others weren t contributing to work enough or at all, which created resentment. Continuing construction on the property contributed to debt; fire demolished one building and sealed the demise of the farm.
Currents Frontier: vast expanse, freedom, no geographic limitations Optimism: greater than in Europe because of the frontier
Henry David Thoreau The Man of the Woods
Thoreau lived in seclusion on land owned by Emerson for more than two years. This time became the subject of his book, Walden.
Thoreau s work sold poorly during his lifetime, but his reputation improved dramatically after his death.
Thoreau s rejected material gain as a worthy aim in life. This stood in marked contrast to much that animated American life - e.g. the entrepreneurial spirit, and selfimprovement in terms of advancing oneself professionally and socially.
Thoreau would not use corporal punishment as a teacher, which was widespread in his day. This reflects changing attitudes towards childhood (Romanticism), and the attendant changes to pedagogy - that is, how to teach.
Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away (377).
Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! (374)
The paragraph beginning time is but the stream I go a- fishing in... may be seen as an early example of streamof-consciousness writing (375).
The surface of the earth is soft impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity! (377)
What s the news? (375)