American Transendentalists

1. American Transendentalists Walt Whitmanand Emily Dickinson

2. Philosophical Perspectives Metaphysics A branch of philosophy investigating the principles of reality that transcends the realities of any other science; non-empirical. Ontology The nature of being (existence): What can be said to exist, if anything? How should we categorize things that are said to exist (or "be")? Can one give an account of what it means to say that a non-physical entity exists? What constitutes the identity of an object? When does an object go out of existence, as opposed to merely changing? Phenomenology The objective study of subjective topics such as consciousness and the content of conscious experiences, including judgments, perceptions, and emotions. Positivism A philosophy that the only authentic knowledge is based on actual sensory experience, not on metaphysical speculation. Epistemology A theory of knowledge, part of a philosophy of pragmatism, concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge: How do we know what we know? How can we be sure we know what we know? Empiricism A theory of knowledge as it arises from sense experience (scientific method). Realism In the arts and literature, Realism as a movement began in the mid nineteenth century as a response to the Romantics, purporting an ideology of objective reality rather than the hyperbolic emotionalism of the Romantics.

3. Some Viewpoints "The word Transcendentalism, as used at the present day, has two applications. One of which is popular and indefinite, the other, philosophical and precise. In the former sense it describes man, rather than opinions, since it is freely extended to those who hold opinions, not only diverse from each other, but directly opposed." - Noah Porter, 1842 Transcendentalism is the recognition in man of the capacity of knowing truth intuitively, or of attaining a scientific knowledge of an order of existence transcending the reach of the senses, and of which we can have no sensible experience." - J. A. Saxton, Dial II: 90 "The problem of transcendental philosophy is no less than this, to revise the experience of mankind and try its teachings by the nature of mankind, to test ethics by conscience, science by reason; to try the creeds of the churches, the constitution of the states, by the constitution of the universe." - Theodore Parker in Works VI: 37 "First and foremost, it can only be rightly conceived as an intellectual, aesthetic, and spiritual ferment, not a strictly reasoned doctrine. It was a renaissance of conscious, living faith in the power of reason, in the reality of spiritual insight, in the privilege, beauty, and glory of life." - Frances Tiffany, "Transcendentalism: The New England Renaissance," Unitarian Review, XXXI: 111. "If I were a Bostonian, I think I would be a Transcendentalist." - Charles Dickens in American Notes "I was given to understand that whatever was unintelligible would be certainly Transcendental." - Charles Dickens in American Notes

4. A Brief Chronology of Events 1832 Emerson resigns the ministry of the Unitarian Church -unable to administer the holy communion. 1836 The annus mirabilis of the movement, during which Emerson published Nature (the "gospel" of transcendentalism); George Ripley published Discourses on the Philosophy of Religion; Orestes Brownson published New Views of Christianity, Society, and Church; Bronson Alcott published Record of Conversions in the Gospel (based on classroom discussions in his Temple School in Boston, and provoking severe criticism); the Transcendental Club met for the first time. 1837 Emerson delivers his Phi Beta Kappa address on "The American Scholar" at Harvard, which James Russell Lowell called "an event without former parallel in our literary annals." 1838 Emerson delivers his Divinity School Address at Harvard which touched off a great storm in religious circles. 1840 The founding of the Dial, a Transcendental magazine, which "enjoyed its obscurity," to use Emerson's words, for four years. 1841 The launching of George Ripley's Brook Farm - a utopian experiment. Hawthorne was a resident there for a short time and wrote The Blithedale Romance based upon his experience there. 1842 Alcott's utopian experiment at Fruitlands. 1845 Thoreau goes to live at Walden Pond. 1846 Thoreau is put in jail for his refusal to pay poll tax. 1850 Passage of the Fugitive Slave Act. The Transcendentalists found themselves increasingly involved in abolition of slavery. 1855 Walt Whitman publishes his Leaves of Grass. 1859 Charles Darwin's Origin of Species is published. 1862 Henry David Thoreau dies.

5. Emily Dickinson People important to her Carlo, her Newfoundland dog Thomas Wentworth Higginson Susan Gilbert Austin Dickinson Mabel Loomis Personal attributes reclusive diagnosed with Bright's Disease rumored to have been agoraphobic or to suffer from schizotypal personality disorder possibly lesbian; had no known romantic relationships with, either, men or women, but wrote intensively romantic love poems and letters to women Publications published only seven poems in her lifetime wrote 1800 poems in her lifetime first published in collected volume in 1955, when the numbers were assigned by the editor most of her poems were written as private contemplations (i.e., a personal journal) Lavinia Dickinson (sister) discovered her work after Emily's death, bundled in ribbons in her bureau drawers Poetical and literary attitudes conflicted in her religious beliefs and God because of the death of loved ones disillusioned in love rejected the world Biographical data nickname "The Belle of Amherst" b. 1830 - d. 1886; born and buried in Amherst, MA Her place in the canon of American Literature: blossomed as a writer during the Romantic Period influential to the Turn-of-Century and Modernist poets of the twentieth century often paired with, and contrasted to, Walt Whitman in Transcendental temperament Literary influences not as widely read as her contemporaries, but familiar with Shakespeare and Keats, Longfellow, Emily Bronte, as well as Biblical scripture Style compacted imagery and language use common (hymn) verse dashes used to create a sense of indecisive or halting argument; capitals for emphasis Subject Matter "puzzle" poems; common natural subjects; grief, loss, the death of loved ones; the nature of the soul Defining concepts and themes circumference (expansion and limitation) paradox (seeming contradictions) death, dying, God, existential angst white (white election)

6. Walt Whitman Biographical data: Date of Birth: May 31, 1819 Place of Birth: West Hill (near Huntington), Long Island Date of Death: March 26, 1892 Place of Death: Camden, New Jersey Transcendental attitudes body-consciousness frank and open acceptance of physicality and nudity; sex and sexuality (including bisexuality and homosexuality); spiritual communion depends on physical contact or closeness. Politics: Civil War diminished Whitman’s faith in democratic sympathy. Poetical techniques: the catalog (lists) are a unit of expression; determining the line perception is favored over analysis: a panoramic vision of experience, instead of an introspective one Realism: an ideology of objective reality rather than the hyperbolic emotionalism of the Romantics; symbolic language and metaphors eschewed in favor of concrete detail, and image-driven description. anecdotes, a frequent narrative device gerunds and participles, instead of active verbs, to delay the end of the sentence