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19 th Century American Transcendentalism

19 th Century American Transcendentalism. Monday, September 13, 2010. Shirley’s Conversation Starters.  1)Why does Emerson’s book “Nature” Chapter 1 have no title? 2) In what way are “Nature” and “The American Scholar” similar?

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19 th Century American Transcendentalism

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  1. 19th Century American Transcendentalism Monday, September 13, 2010

  2. Shirley’s Conversation Starters •  1)Why does Emerson’s book “Nature” Chapter 1 have no title? • 2) In what way are “Nature” and “The American Scholar” similar? • 3) Why does Emerson in “Nature” give us questions but never answers them? • 4) Why does it feel like “The Transcendentalist“ Emerson is giving up? • 5) Why would Buell think it is so important to put “The Transcendentalist” in part II?

  3. The Transcendental Club • On September 8, 1836, the day before the publication of Nature, Emerson met with Henry Hedge, George Putnam and George Ripley to plan periodic gatherings of other like-minded intellectuals.This was the beginning of the Transcendental Club, which served as a center for the movement. Its first official meeting was held on September 19, 1836.

  4. The Transparent Eyeball • “Standing on the bare ground, --my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space,-- all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God” (“Nature” I).

  5. The Transparent Eyeball

  6. Who is Emerson as a Literary Figure? • What can we learn about him from his TONE: • Diffident (reserved), diaphanous (delicate or vague), even impersonal • Genteel, refined, contemplative • Edward Waldo on his father’s writing: Autobiographical “incidents are generalized and personality merged in a type” • How does Emerson seem to design his essays to increase or decrease the “illusion of autobiography”?”

  7. From Journal to Book “I went to Walden Pond this evening a little before sunset, and in the tranquil landscape I behold somewhat as beautiful as my own nature” (Journal, August 12th 1836) “In the tranquil landscape, and especially in the distant line of the horizon, man beholds somewhat as beautiful as his own nature” (“Nature”)

  8. Emerson’s notion of subjectivity • Emerson’s use of the first person, not a single entity but made up of two different personal forms: • the voice of private feeling or opinion (Emerson, the speaker, is separate from his audience, aware of possible disagreements or misunderstandings, making it necessary for him to confess or pontificate • -the exemplary or representative persona (the transcendental “I”): take what I say not as opinion, but as an axiom. Emerson is speaking according to an informing spirit, rather than as an individual (Buell Literary Transcendentalism 289).

  9. Further Questions for Discussion • How can we account for the differences in Emerson’s approach to explaining Transcendentalism in “The American Scholar” (1837) as opposed to “The Transcendentalist” (1841)? • Are Emerson and the Transcendentalists anti-modern?

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