What I s Transcendentalism? Basic Features of American Transcendentalism

1. What Is Transcendentalism? • Basic Features of American Transcendentalism • Origin of American Transcendentalism • Reasons for the Rise of American Transcendentalism • The Most Popular American Transcendentalists • Ralph Waldo Emerson(importantfeatures&works) • Henry David Thoreau(importantfeatures&works) • Sarah Margaret Fuller(importantfeatures&works)

2. What İs Transcendentalism? • İt’s a philosophy which claims the importance of spirituality over materialism and the belief that all nature is symbolic of the spirit.

3. Basic Features of American Transcendentalism • An individual is the spiritual center of the universe - and in an individual can be found the clue to nature, history and, ultimately, the cosmos itself. It is not a rejection of the existence of God, but a preference to explain an individual and the world in terms of an individual. • God can be found in both nature and human nature (Nature, Emerson stated, has spiritual manifestations).

4. The structure of the universe is parallel to the structure of the individual self - all knowledge, therefore, begins with self-knowledge. This is similar to Aristotle's dictum "know thyself." Transcendentalists accepted the neo-Platonic conception of nature as a living mystery, full of signs - nature is symbolic. The belief that individual virtue and happiness depend upon self-realization - this depends upon the reconciliation of two universal psychological tendencies:

5. . a) the expansive or self-transcending tendency - a desire to embrace the whole world - to know and become one with the world. b) the contracting or self-asserting tendency - the desire to withdraw, remain unique and separate - an egotistical existence. • The transcendentalist "transcends" or rises above the lower animalistic impulses of life (animal drives) and moves from the rational to a spiritual realm.

6. Origin of American Transcendentalism • The transcendental philosophy of Immanuel Kant • German İdealism • English and German Romanticism • Unitarianism • Puritanism(Ethical Seriousness)

7. Reasons for the Rise of American Transcendentalism • The Calvinism • The secularization of modern thought under the impact of science and technology • Lack of involvement in women's rights • The Industrialism • The impact of European ideas on Americans traveling abroad.

8. The Most Popular American Transcendentalists • Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882): He was a preacher,public speaker and was famous with his lectures and sermonies as he was a religious transcendentalist. Major Essays and Lectures • Nature (1836) • Self Relience(1841) • The American Scholar(1837) • The Divinity School Address(1838)

9. Nature(1836) This essay is considered the "gospel" of American Transcendentalism. It has an Introduction and eight chapters: 1. Nature 2. Commodity 3. Beauty 4. Language 5. Discipline 6. Idealism 7. Spirit 8. Prospects. The major thesis of the essay, in Emerson's words, is that we should now "enjoy an original relation to the universe," and not become dependent on past experiences of others and on holy books, creeds and dogma. • “Self-Reliance" (1841) This essay elaborates further on the familiar Emersonian thesis - trust yourself. This is also a very popular essay written in forceful and memorable language. "There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide ... " "Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string." • "The American Scholar" (1837) Delivered as a lecture to the Phi Beta Kappa Society, Harvard College, on August 31, 1837, "The American Scholar" is popular and important in expressing the practical aspects of Transcendentalism. Emerson prods the students to become more confident in their abilities and to take pride in native Americanism: "We have listened too long to the courtly muses of Europe. ... We will walk on our own feet, we will work with our own hands, we will speak our own minds." • "The Divinity School Address" (1838) A lecture addressed to the senior class at the Harvard Divinity College on July 15, 1838. The important theme of this lecture is that truth cannot be presented as doctrines or creeds. Emerson says, "It (the truth) cannot be received at second hand. Truly speaking, it is not instruction, but provocation, that I can receive from another soul." He goes on to tell the graduating class to be original and not imitative.

10. Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) He was the most challenging writer and wrote thought provoking writings in jail as he was repeatedly refusing to pay a poll tax. Primary Works • A Week on the Concord And Merrimac Rivers, 1849 • Civil Disobedience,1849 • Walden,1854

11. A Week on the Concord And Merrimac Rivers, 1849 This is a beautiful account of Thoreau's boat trip with his brother, John, from August 31 to September 13, 1839. The book is carefully organized with one chapter given to each day of a week - experiences of two weeks condensed in one. It is an excellent celebration of nature. • "Resistance to Civil Government" also known as "Civil Disobedience" (1849) For failing to pay poll tax, Thoreau was sent to jail. The famous and influential essay is the result of that gesture. Its message is simple and daring - he advocates "actions through principles." If the demands of a government or a society are contrary to an individual's conscience, it is his/her duty to reject them. Upholding moral law as opposed to social law "divides the individual, separating the diabolical in him from the divine." Inspired by Thoreau's message, Mahatma Gandhi organized a massive resistance of Indians against the British occupation of India. Thoreau's words have also inspired the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., the peace marchers and the numerous conscientious-objectors to the Vietnam war. • Walden (1854) Considered one of the all-time great books, Walden is a record of Thoreau's two year experiment of living at Walden Pond. The writer's chief emphasis is on the simplifications and enjoyment of life now. In one of the most useful studies of the book, Walter Harding ("Five Ways of Looking at Walden," in Thoreau in Our Season, edited by John Hicks, 1962, 44-57) discusses the broad appeal of this masterpiece in terms of at least the following five approaches: 1. As a nature book. 2. As a do-it-yourself guide to simple life. 3. As a satirical criticism of modern life and living. 4. As a belletristic achievement. 5. As a spiritual book.

12. Sarah Margaret Fuller,1810-1850 She worked as a schoolteacher, as an editor, held "conversations," was active in social reform, and went to Europe as a foreign correspondent. As a writer, she is admired as a literary critic.She has written on such themes as transcendentalism, women's rights, critical theory, gender roles, and political reform in Europe. Primary Works "The Great Lawsuit: Man vs Men, Woman vs Women," (The Dial essay) 1843; Summer on the Lakes, 1843, 1844; Woman in the Nineteenth Century, 1845;