Post on 17-Aug-2020
Transcendentalism
English 11AP
Transcendentalism
• A 19th century American philosophical movement
• Ideas in literature and philosophy that developed in the 1830s and 1840s
• A protest against the culture and society of the time.
Transcendentalism
• A belief in a spirituality that
“transcends” the physical
and empirical, realized
through the individual’s
intuition rather than
religious doctrine
• Major figures included
Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Henry David Thoreau, Walt
Whitman, Emily Dickinson,
and others.
Transcendentalism
• The Transcendental Club was established in Cambridge, MA in 1836.
• They were influenced by ancient Indian and German Idealist philosophy and the English Romantics
• The movement died out by the late 1840s.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
• 1803-1882, was an
American essayist, lecturist,
and poet
• Champion of individualism
and critic of the pressures of
society
• His most well known
lectures/ essays include
“Nature,” “Self Reliance,”
and “The Over Soul.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
• He wrote about
individuality, freedom,
the relationship between
the soul and the
surrounding world
• He was a great influence
on the thinkers, writers,
and poets that followed
him.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Went to Harvard and graduated in 1821
• Was a schoolmaster
• Became an ordained minister
• After his first wife died, he began to disagree with the methods of his church.
• He resigned in 1832.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
• In his speeches, he urged Americans to create a writing style free from European influence
• Was staunchly anti-slavery
• A close friend of Henry David Thoreau and Nathaniel Hawthorne
Ralph Waldo Emerson
• He believed that the truth did not need to be revealed from God, but could instead be intuitively experienced directly from nature.
• President Obama lists Emerson’s “Self Reliance” as one of his favorite books on his Facebook page
Henry David Thoreau
• American author, poet,
abolitionist, naturalist,
and philosopher
• Best known for his book
Walden and his essay
“Civil Disobedience”
• His work anticipated
modern ecology and
environmentalism
Henry David Thoreau
• He advocated
abandoning waste and
illusion in order to
discern life’s essential
needs
• Influenced Tolstoy,
Gandhi, and Martin
Luther King, Jr.
Henry David Thoreau
• Studied at Harvard
between 1833-1837
• Taught school in MA
but resigned rather than
administer corporal
punishment
• Was a philosopher of
nature and its relation to
the human condition
Henry David Thoreau
• For two years, he lived in a
small house he built on the
shore of Walden Pond on
land owned by Emerson
• Refused to pay taxes
• Later critics regard Walden
as a classic work exploring
natural simplicity, harmony,
and beauty as models for
just social and cultural
conditions
Henry David Thoreau
• Advocate of recreational
hiking and canoeing
• One of the first American
supporters of Darwin’s
Theory of Evolution
• Sought a middle ground
between civilization and the
wilderness
• Rejected alcohol and meat
• Died in 1862 at age 44