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American Transcendentalism

American Transcendentalism. “It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, ‘Always do what you are afraid to do.’” – Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emotion Supernatural Atmosphere. Nature Individual Subjectivity. Romanticism. Transcendentalism. Gothic. Transcendentalism.

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American Transcendentalism

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  1. American Transcendentalism “It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, ‘Always do what you are afraid to do.’” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

  2. Emotion Supernatural Atmosphere Nature Individual Subjectivity Romanticism Transcendentalism Gothic

  3. Transcendentalism • Proposes a belief in a higher reality than that found in sense experience or in a higher kind of knowledge than that achieved by human reason. • Suggests that every individual is capable of discovering this higher truth on his or her own, through intuition

  4. Deism • Transcendentalism also involved a rejection of strict Puritan religious attitudes • Unlike the Puritans, the Transcendentalists saw humans and nature as possessing an innate goodness.

  5. Born Bad or Good? Enlightenment Blank Slate Transcendentalists Good Puritans Sinful

  6. The Influence of Romanticism • The celebration of • individualism • the beauty of nature • the virtue of humankind

  7. Transcendentalism • Transcendentalists believed that humanity was Godlike and saw the world in which only good existed • They chose to focus on the positive rather than evil & darkness

  8. Transcendental Beliefs • Intuition, not reason, is the highest human faculty • A rejection of materialism • Simplicity is the path to spiritual greatness • Nature is a source of truth & inspiration • Non-conformity, individuality & self-reliance

  9. The Transcendentalists • American Transcendentalism began with the formation in 1836 of the Transcendental Club in Boston • Magazine: The Dial • Brook Farm: communal living experiment • Ralph Waldo Emerson • Margaret Fuller • Henry David Thoreau • Bronson Alcott

  10. Transcendentalist Authors

  11. Margaret Fuller (1810 - 1850) • American writer, journalist, and philosopher, was part of the Transcendentalist circle. • Margaret Fuller's "conversations" encouraged the women of Boston to develop their intellectual capacities. • In 1845 Margaret Fuller published Woman in the Nineteenth Century, now considered an early feminist classic.

  12. Major Transcendentalist Works • Ralph Waldo Emerson • “Self-Reliance” 1841 • Henry David Thoreau • Walden 1854 • “Civil Disobedience”

  13. Anti-Transcendentalists • Nathanial Hawthorne and Herman Melville • Both explore the darker side of nature and human nature • Both consider life in its tragic dimension, a combination of good and evil

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