《爱默生思想和美国文学发展_》.pdf

HIT Graduation Thesis for the M.A. Degree Chapter 2 Main Content of Emerson’s Thought Emerson’s transcendentalism consists of rich content, covering a wide range of scopes such as his nature outlook, social outlook, religious outlook, cultural outlook and so on. Critics once commented on his comprehensive thought: “Any serious discussions of such ‘American’ traits as individualism, optimism, pietism, glorification of nature and wildness, egalitarianism, utopianism, and literary experimentalism must take account of Emerson’s pronouncements on these subjects.” (Bruccoli Layman, 1988: 75) Emerson’s basic thought is mainly embodied in his major works: Nature (1836), The American Scholar (1837), The Divinity School Address ( 1838), Self-Reliance (1841) and The Over-Soul (1841). Among them Nature, The American Scholar and The Divinity School Address served as a Declaration of Independence for the spirit, intellect, and imagination. (McQuade, 1986: 957) Emerson’s transcendental thought can generally be divided into three parts: his philosophy, his religious thought and cultural thought. 2.1 Emerson’s Philosophy 2.1.1 Active Soul and Spirit Emerson’s philosophy (Transcendentalism) is apriorism of Idealism. He expressed this thought in almost all his works, especially in his first important work Nature published anonymously in 1836, which is generally regarded as the American declaration of transcendentalism. In Nature （Baym,1985: 824-858 ）Emerson insisted that one should strive for an original relation to the universe and he expressed such ideas as follows: Philosophically considered, the universe is composed of Nature a