By Jeanne Brock
It’s Famous!
• "We will walk on our own feet; we will work
with our own hands; we will speak our own
minds...A nation of men will for the first time
exist, because each believes himself inspired
by the Divine Soul which also inspires all
men."
• This quote was the very basis of
Emerson’s view on Transcendentalism.
• Transcendentalism is an American literary,
political, and philosophical movement of the
early nineteenth century, centered around
Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Emerson was an American lecturer,
philosopher, essayist, and poet, best
remembered for leading the Transcendentalist
movement of the mid-19th century.
• He lived form 1803 to 1882, and married
Lidian Jackson with whom he had 1 son.
• Emerson was mostly known for his
individualism and essays such as Self-Reliance,
The Over-Soul, Circles, The Poet and
Experience.
• He is considered to be one of the greatest
lectureurs of his time, and was well respected
by many people.
• Other important transcendentalists were
Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Amos
Bronson Alcott, Frederic Henry Hedge, and
Theodore Parker.
• Henry David Thoreau is most well known for
his essay, “Civil Disobedience.”
• "It is easy in the world to live after the world's
opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our
own; but the great man is he who in the
midst of the crowd keeps with perfect
sweetness the independence of solitude.“
• This is how Ralph Waldo Emerson described
people in society.
• Transcendentalism was inspired by American
romanticism and the dark European
romanticism.
• Based on ideas of unity with nature and of
individualism from society.
• Henry David Thoreau was a student of
Emerson’s and was more radical in his beliefs
than Emerson was.
• Thoreau was arrested several times for refusal
to pay taxes. He felt that taxes were one of the
most deliberate forms of conformity.
Society
• Society at this time criticized Emerson and his
colleagues, saying that it was irresponsible
and crazy.
Society continued..
• Many transcendentalist were viewed by
society as atheists and trouble-makers.
• Some, like Henry David Thoreau, were
arrested for their rebellion.
Art
• The artists of this time period were just as
individualistic as the writers of
Transcendentalism.
• Their pieces involve nature and the beauty
and power of natural elements.
Beliefs
• Established principally by Ralph Waldo Emerson
in his book Nature (1836) Principles of
Transcendentalism:
• all objects are miniature versions of the universe
• intuition and conscience "transcend" experience
and reason
• man is one with nature
• God is everywhere, in nature and in man
• extension of Romanticism