美国文学第5周超验主义.ppt

~~He was one of the three great American authors of the last century who had no contemporary readers and yet became great in this century, the other two being Herman Melville and Emily Dickinson. ~~His masterpiece “Walden” holds that the most important thing for men to do with lives is to self-sufficient and strive to achieve personal spiritual perfection. Thoreau’s Evaluation ~~Walden exhibits Thoreau’s calm trust in the future and his ardent belief in a new generation of men. ~~He has been regarded as a prophet of individualism in American literature. ~~He was very critical of modern civilization. Thoreau’s Evaluation New England Transcendentalism The Summit of American Romanticism Transcendentalism (1) Definition (2) Features (3) Influences (4) Representatives ~~ Transcendentalism is a literature, philosophical and artisic movement that flourished in New England from about 1836 to 1860.Transcendentalism has been defined philosophically as “the recognition in man of the capacity of knowing truth intuitively” Ⅰ.What is Transcendentalism? ~~The publication of Nature marked the beginning of Transendentalism ~~“Transcendental” ~~The most important representatives are Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. 1. Placing emphasis on spirit, or the Oversoul, as the most important thing in the universe. --a new way of looking at the world 2. Stressing the importance of the individual—self-reliance. --a new way of looking at man Ⅱ.Major features ( ideas): 3. Offering fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the spirit or God. (Nature was not purely matter. It was the garment of the Oversoul.) “Spirit is present everywhere.” The individual soul communed with the Oversoul and was therefore divine. 1. Romantic literatures of Europe, 2. German idealism and French eclecticism. 3. American Puritanism, 4. Oriental mysticism (philosophy of the Chinese Confucius