专八英美文学 美国文学爱默生Emerson.ppt

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Transcendentalism 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 It began as a rebellion against traditionally held beliefs by the English Church that God superseded the individual. As the philosophical leader of Transcendentalism ，Ralph Waldo Emerson was credited for developing it into a free，democratic and independent national culture and exerted great influence upon the Americans from generation to generation．His idea has become an indispensable part of Western culture . Beliefs of Transcendentalism Finding its root in the word “transcend,” Transcendentalists believed individuals could transcend to a higher being of existence in nature. God is located in the soul of each individual. Humanity’s potential is limitless. Experience is valued over scholarship. For the transcendentalists, the soul of each individual is identical with the soul of the world and contains what the world contains. Transcendentalists wanted to rejuvenate the mystical aspects of New England Calvinism and to go back to Jonathan Edwards divine and supernatural light, imparted immediately to the soul by the spirit of God. Edgar Allan Poe had a deep dislike for transcendentalism. He ridiculed their writings in particular by calling them metaphor-run, lapsing into obscurity for obscuritys sake or mysticism for mysticisms sake The Founder of Transcendentalism: Ralph Waldo Emerson The Major Advocates of Transcendentalism: ??----Ralph Waldo Emerson ----Henry David Thoreau ----John Muir ----?Margaret Fuller ----Amos Bronson Alcott Introduction to Transcendental Thought In 1831 makes his first trip to England where he meets poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth who introduce him to Romantic notions of nature and philosophy. Transcendentalist Philosopher Nature which describes how humans find God within nature Testament（圣约书） of Transcendentalism. Its announcement