American Transcendentalism

Radical Romantics

Birth of American Literature

Rebuking tradition: what is expressed, how it is expressed

Philosophical Rebellion of Americans

Romanticism Attitude toward nature, humanity and

society that emphasizes individualism and freedom. A celebration of individualism A reverence for nature The rebel (individual vs. society) A concern with the impact of new technology A fascination with death and the supernatural An impulse toward reform

NOT LOVE

TranscendentalismA literary movement that suggests the existence of an ideal spiritual reality that is knowable through intuition by transcending the scientific.

Catalysts Secularization--Science/Tech: the

activity of changing something (art or education or society or morality etc.) so it is no longer under the control or influence of religion

Industrialization: War of 1812

Defining: Transcendentalism “Basic truths of the universe lie

beyond the knowledge we obtain from our senses, reason, logic, or laws of science. We learn these truths through our intuition, our “Divine Intellect.”

Focus ConceptsSelf-Reliance IntuitionCarpe DiemNatureSimplicityNonconformity

Transcendental Beliefs: Self-RelianceAutonomous: (of persons) free from

external control and constraint in e.g. action and judgment

True to own inner perception or intuition

If I “know” it is truth, then it is truth.

Transcendental Beliefs: IntuitionNATURAL STATE OF MAN--MoralSociety pollutes man.

Transcendental Beliefs: IntuitionThe Divine Intellect—part of God in

each man; intuition; innate understanding of what is right and good; direct line of communication between God and man

Divinity within Man

Transcendental Beliefs: IntuitionOVERSOUL:

man, universe, and nature are intertwinedUniversal soul that permeates all beings “I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal

Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God.”- Nature

Transcendental Beliefs: Intuition

INTUITION over ReasonIndividual Intuition: highest form of

knowledge: the creative insight and interpretation of one's own inner voices

Transcendental Concept: Carpe Diem

Latin “Seize the Day”—TODAY “Act in the Living Present”Break away from traditionThink independently

Transcendental Beliefs Reverence of NATURE

Nature is inherently good—purest creation “The foregoing generations beheld God and Nature face to face;

we—through their eyes. Why should we not also enjoy an original relation to the universe?”- Emerson

Simplicity

Making simpler or easier or reduce in complexity or extent

Criticism of Technology

“Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end…We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.” (19)—Thoreau

TranscendentalismBasic belief: “By meditating, by communing with nature through art, man transcends his senses and finds beauty, goodness, and truth”

References

http://www.jesuitcp.org/facultypages/rmcghee/American%20Literature/Transcendentalism/Transcendentalism%20notes.htm

http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap4/4intro.html

http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/ideas/introduction.html