The American Renaissance: 1840-1860Transcendentalism & Anti-Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism

The optimistic view that God, the universe and the individual are all connected in one Universal soul with people and human nature as good and pure

Value self-reliance, individualism, intuition, feelings, puts the human spirit OVER logic or rationalism

Physical facts of the natural world are a doorway to the spiritual or ideal world; must judge human character through nature and society

Similar views to those in the 1960s &19 70s “Trust Yourself” – Bob Dylan

Writers: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau

Anti-Transcendentalism

Agreement with transcendentalism in that all things are connected, except they are more pessimistic – humans and society are generally corrupt and flawed – not capable of being perfect

Writers: Edgar Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorn, Herman Melville

Focus on original sin, guilt, lies, deceit, madness, insanity, evil, imagination

Emersonian Topics

Non-conformity vs. Conformity

Self-reliance vs. Egotism

Small Self vs. True Self

Men’s Relationship to God

Role of Nature/Connection to Nature

Isolation vs. Search for Solitude

Emerson’s Essay Excerpts

1. Five key points about author & his philosophies

2. Find two meaningful quotes from each excerpt.

Place each quotes into category from previous slide. Defend your choice.

Explain the meaning of each quote, and tell why you personally agree or disagree with its message.

3. Find and explain the use of at least two allusions: Biblical, literary or historical

4. Explain how well these quotes apply to our modern lives and how each reflects transcendentalist thought.

To Access Emerson Excerpts

Go to Emerson Excerpts file on class Wikispace (“Nature” and “Self-Reliance”)

This PPT also on Wiki

Come to class PREPARED: impromptu, graded discussion – print out excerpts on your own time to annotate and use as a reference in class if you wish

Henry David Thoreau: Walden

Inspired by Emerson’s “Nature”: Lived in a hut on Walden Pond for two years to strip his life of” inessential things” – experiment in self education and communion with nature

“Thoreau’s night in jail” – refused to pay taxes in opposition of Mexican war and slavery “Civil Disobedience”

Died at age 44 of TB nearly unrecognized outwardly but inwardly successful.

Walden: Read as… social criticism? Inspiration of self reform? Brilliant observations of nature? A hymn to possibilities of life? You decide.

Thoreau’s Messages – Find one of each in

Walden1. Love and respect for nature

2. Following one’s dreams to a practical end

3. Abiding by one’s conscience: standing up for what one knows is right

4. Happiness should be found in a simple life, not in a materialistic one

Reading from Walden – Do odds or evens

1. Discuss the significance of perception and perspective as developed in the writings of Emerson and Thoreau.

2. Compare and contrast Emerson’s and Thoreau’s attitudes toward society or nature as expressed in their lives and their writing.

3. Examine and discuss Thoreau’s views on technological progress as expressed in Walden.

4. Comment on Thoreau’s feelings on the relationship between man and nature in Walden.

Three Poems on Wiki

1. Identify and discuss three transcendental ideals of Emerson and/or Thoreau in “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” by William Butler Yeats.

2. Identify and discuss three transcendental ideals of Emerson and/or Thoreau in “I dwell in possibility” by Emily Dickinson.

3. Identify and discuss three transcendental ideals of Emerson and/or Thoreau in “Leaves of Grass: Song of Myself 1,2” by Walt Whitman.