美国文学欣赏Ralph_Waldo_Emerson.ppt

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) Emerson’s Early Life Born on Election Day in 1803 in Boston, MA. Born on the same street as the birth home of Benjamin Franklin. Father was a famous minister who encouraged young Ralph to pursue philosophy at a young age. Teacher and Priest After graduation, Emerson became a school teacher in suburban Boston. 1823 graduated from seminary school and became a priest to follow in the footsteps of his father. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Transcendentalism Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) The British critic Matthew Arnold said the most important writings in English in the 19th century had been Wordsworths poems and Emersons essays. Emerson His wife, Ellen Tucker, died tragically young from tuberculosis（肺结核）, leaving Emerson a legacy that allowed him to spend the rest of his life traveling, lecturing, and writing. Nature (1836), a major contribution to American Romanticism and Transcendentalism, appeared anonymously and was favorably received among his friends. Emerson Originally an address to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard in 1837, The American Scholar was a radical document in its time, a blow against an educational system that favored rote死记硬背 learning, declamation, and a prescribed curriculum for all undergraduates. Emerson Later in the century, an American educational revolution brought concentration choices and elective courses to our college and universities. This reform was inspired in great part by Emersons pronouncements about scholarship, about the idea of an education, and about the nature of thinking itself. The Founder of Transcendentalism: Ralph Waldo Emerson What is Transcendentalism? Transcendentalism was a literary movement that flourished during the middle 19th Century (1836 – 1860). It began as a rebellion against traditionally held beliefs by the English Church that God superseded the individual. Introduction to Transcendental Thought In 1831 makes his first trip to England where he meets poets Samuel Taylor