美国文学教案2.doc

Section 2 Summit of Romanticism –American Transcendentalism I. Background: four sources 1. Unitarianism (1) Fatherhood of God (2) Brotherhood of men (3) Leadership of Jesus (4) Salvation by character (perfection of one’s character) (5) Continued progress of mankind (6) Divinity of mankind (7) Depravity of mankind 2. Romantic Idealism Center of the world is spirit, absolute spirit (Kant) 3. Oriental mysticism Center of the world is “oversoul” 4. Puritanism Eloquent expression in transcendentalism II. Appearance 1836, “Nature” by Emerson III. Features 1. spirit/oversoul 2. importance of individualism 3. nature – symbol of spirit/God garment of the oversoul 4. focus in intuition (irrationalism and subconsciousness) IV. Influence 1. It served as an ethical guide to life for a young nation and brought about the idea that human can be perfected by nature. It stressed religious tolerance, called to throw off shackles of customs and traditions and go forward to the development of a new and distinctly American culture. 2. It advocated idealism that was great needed in a rapidly expanded economy where opportunity often became opportunism, and the desire to “get on” obscured the moral necessity for rising to spiritual height. 3. It helped to create the first American renaissance – one of the most prolific period in American literature. V. RalphWaldo Emerson 1. life 2. works (1) Nature (2) Two essays: The American Scholar, The Poet 3. point of view (1) One major element of his philosophy is his firm belief in the transcendence of the “oversoul”. (2) He regards nature as the purest, and the most sanctifying moral influence on man, and advocated a direct intuition of a spiritual and immanent God in nature. (3) If man depends upon himself, cultivates himself and brings out the divine in himself, he can hope to become better and even perfect. This is what Emerson means by “the infinitude of man”. (4) Everyone should understand that he makes himself by making his world, and that he