American Literature: 1840-1860 TRANSCENDENTALISM.
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Transcript of American Literature: 1840-1860 TRANSCENDENTALISM.
American Literature: 1840-1860
TRANSCENDENTALISM
American History
Tension leading to Civil WarWestward expansion—railroads, telegraph
Mexican War (1848)Industrialization
American Mind-Set
Dissatisfaction with present time, optimism about future
Technology and science will bring better times
American Mindset
Loss of American values—cheap labor, mill towns, child labor
American individualism
Transcendentalism was in response to the American mindset at the time
First major American philosophical movement
Publication of Emerson’s Nature is considered the watershed (defining) moment
Transcendentalism
Belief that humans can intuitively transcend the limits of the senses and of logic to a plane of “higher truths.”
Valued spirituality (direct access to a benevolent God, not organized religion or ritual)
Basic Principles of Transcendentalism
1) The fundamental truths of being and the universe lie beyond the senses and can only be understood through intuition.
2) The focus is on the human spirit and the spiritual relationship between humanity and nature.
3) Nature is a manifestation of the human spirit. The meaning of existence can be found through exploring nature.
4) All forms of being – God, nature, man – are spiritually united under a shared universal soul – the Over-Soul.
Ralph Waldo Emerson coined this term.
To Review…Transcendentalists…
A deep faith in human potentialBelieved that all forms of being are
spiritually united through a shared universal soul
Popular themes in their writing include love and nature
Known for their essays expressing their ideas and beliefs
Similar to Romanticism
Nature is the key to self-awarenessIf you open yourself up to nature, you man
receive its gifts: a deeper, more mystical experience of life
Nature offers a kind of “grace” – “salvation” from mundane evils of everyday life.
Both T & R came to prominence around the same time. (Remember, TSL was published in 1850).