Transcendentalism

By mid-1800s, the US was firmly established as a nation—the nation was
inspired by authors like Ralph Waldo Emerson & Henry David Thoreau
(Transcendentalists) toward the belief in individuality & an awareness of
the vastness and beauty of nature
Transcendentalism: an intellectual movement founded by Ralph Waldo Emerson &
characterized by the following:
 Human senses can only know physical reality

Truths of existence lay outside the reach of the senses and can only be grasped
through intuition

The focus is on the Human Spirit

Deep interest in natural world & its relationship to

Human spirit is reflected in the natural world
humanity
Final conclusion—All forms of being (God, nature & humanity) are
spiritually united through a shared & universal

soul, or Over-Soul
Transcendentalist authors that we will read from our text include Emerson,
Thoreau, Walt Whitman & Annie Dillard; Walt Whitman and
o
o
o
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Emerson—from Nature (pg. 364), from Self Reliance (pg. 366)
Thoreau—from Walden (pg. 374), from Civil Disobedience (pg. 380)
Annie Dillard—from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (pg. 285)
Walt Whitman—from Song of Myself & “I Hear America Singing”
Background Information on Literary Movements
I. Classicism/Neo Classicism
A. Literary/Artistic movement of 18th Century
B. Stressed reason, balance/clarity, ideal beauty, and orderly form in
imitation of the arts of Ancient
Greece
II. Romanticism
A. Literary/Artistic movement of 19th Century
B. Reaction against Classicism/Neo Classicism
C. Stressed imagination (over reason), emotion, nature,
individuality, and intuition (over fact)
D. Particularly evident in New England
E. Transcendentalism—a philosophical movement, which was formed as an
off-shoot of this Romantic movement (included authors like Emerson,
Thoreau, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, and two poets we have already studied;
list them here and tell me why you know they must be Transcendentalists:
 Emily Dickinson—she was somewhat obsessed
with the soul, man’s connections to God and
nature
 Walt Whitman—focused on individuality,
emotions (from what we’ve read so far)

Not all Romantics were optimistic—for example, Poe, Melville, &
Hawthorne
III. Realism
A. Literary/Artistic movement of 19th Century
B. Stressed the actual as opposed to the imagined or fanciful
C. Authors tried to write truthfully, objectively about ordinary
situations—for example, Mark Twain
D. This movement was a reaction against Romanticism
IV. Naturalism
A. End of the 19th Century, beginning of 20th Century
B. Traced the effects of hereditary, environment on people helpless to change
their situation (examples include Stephen Crane, Jack London)