Understanding Transcendentalism: A Unique American Literary Movement

1. Transcendentalism 1800 - 1860 We will walk with our own feet we will work with our own hands we will speak our own minds -Ralph Waldo Emerson

2. Transcendentalism “Great men are they who see that the spiritual is stronger than any material force; that thoughts rule the world.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

3. Journal

4. What was transcendentalism? In short, it was a philosophical/ literary movement of the early nineteenth century, advocated/initiated by literary greats such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and the Fireside Poets, to name a few.

5. Transcendentalism • Transcendentalists were well educated people who lived in the decades before the American Civil War. • These people, mostly residing near Boston, were attempting to create a ‘uniquely American’ body of literature. • Americans had won independence from England several decades before this time. It was time for literary independence– to create work clearly different from anything European.

6. Facts… • Believed that everything in the world was a reflection of the “divine” soul • The physical world/ environment was a doorway to the spiritual world • Used intuition as a guide or a roadmap for life • A person is his/her own best authority

7. More… • Believed in human perfection and strived to achieve it by: • Improving own lives and assisting in others’ lives (reform movements) • Established Utopian communities (Brook Farm, 1841) • Instigated social change—abolitionism

8. Review • Explain the difference between Dark Romanticism (Gothic Fiction) and Transcendentalism • Compare to other movements—like Puritanism