Transcendentalism
Unitarian ministers realized that society and
government controlled what people did and that the
individual person as God’s perfect creation, were
capable of doing what is right through their souls and
intuition.
http://edun331classtry.wikispaces.com/
Transcendentalism
 Movement called for new ideas in culture, religion,
philosophy, and especially literature
 Also known as “American Transcendentalism” that
emerged in New England in middle 19th century
 Movement began as an informal Boston discussion club,
but its influence gradually rippled outward to affect the
values and beliefs of Americans and US writers
 Began as a protest against the general established state of
culture and society, in particular the state of
intellectualism
Transcendentalism Core Beliefs
 An ideal spiritual state that 'transcends' the physical
and empirical, and is only realized through the
individual's intuition, rather than through the
doctrine’s of established religions
 Rooted in the transcendental philosophy of Immanuel
Kant
Principles
 Idealism through the fundamental belief in a higher
reality of ideas in a metaphysical realm of spirit, that is
screened and symbolically revealed by the material
world
 Pantheism in that there was no direct supernatural
worship, but admiration and revery, via the natural
world and its visible images, and focused on an
ultimate “oneness” in which every individual thing
forms part of an intricate and larger harmony
 Optimism through followers who were convinced of
the essential goodness and purposefulness of life
Influences
 Kantian metaphysics
 Romanticism
 Puritanism
 Platonism and neo-platonism
 Mysticism
Popular Transcendentalists
 Henry David Thoreau
 Ralph Waldo Emerson
 Walt Whitman
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Modern Transcendentalists
Martin Luther King Jr.
Mahatma Gandhi
Mother Theresa
Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Born in Boston, MA.
• Raised by his mother and his
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aunt, both practicing
intellectuals.
He attended Harvard College
where he worked multiple
jobs to support himself.
He then was ordained a
junior pastor at Boston’s
Second Church.
Began the Transcendental
Club, where they published a
journal called, The Dial.
During this time, Ralph
published his most famous
work, Self-Reliance in 1842.
Writing Style
 Optimistic view of human spirit
 Natural world held spiritual truths
 Highly charged (strong language) “electric”
 Themes of self improvement, power, fate, history, and
Christianity
The Conduct of Life (1860)
 Essay broken down into sections revealing a sense of
human togetherness and an awareness of man’s
limitations
 Fate
 Power
 Wealth
 Behavior
 Worship
 Beauty
Henry David Thoreau
• Born in Concord, MA.
• Taught School at Concord
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Academy in Canton, MA. But
dismissed soon after.
Went back to Harvard and
graduated.
Moved back to Concord
where he met Ralph Waldo
Emerson who became a type
of mentor.
Emerson’s works inspired
Thoreau to spend two years
living “simply” in the
wilderness.
Through his two years, he
wrote Civil Disobedience.
Writing Styles
 Wrote about nature, history, philosophy
 Literary style interweaves close natural observation, personal
experience, pointed rhetoric, symbolic meanings, and
historical lore
 Poetic sensibility, philosophical austerity, and “Yankee” love
of practical detail
 Idea of survival in the face of hostile elements, historical
change, and natural decay
Walden
 declaration of independence, social
experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery,
and manual for self reliance
 Based on a cabin in Walden woods owned
by his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Emphasizes the importance of being close
to nature. Materialists attitudes. Attempt to
engage creativity with the better aspects of
contemporary culture.
Civil Disobedience
 people should not permit government to overrule their
consciences
 Motivated by his disgust for slavery. Government is
more harmful than helpful and therefore cannot be
justified.
Margaret Fuller
• Born in Cambridge, MA.
• Her father taught her
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thoroughly, learning to read by
the age of 3½ .
By the age of 30, Fuller gained
the reputation as being the most
well-read person in New
England.
However, her father died in 1835,
leaving the family dependent
upon her, causing fuller to get a
job as a teacher at Alcott’s
Temple School in Boston.
In 1839, Fuller gained a position
at Emerson’s Journal, The Dial,
as the editor.
While at The Dial, Fuller wrote
one of her most famous work,
The Great Lawsuit.
Writing Style
 Feminist , women’s education, equal rights
 Reformation of social levels (prisoners, homeless)
 Psychological well-being of the individual
 Believed in the possibility of change
Elizabeth Peabody
• Born in Billerica, MA.
• Worked as an assistant teacher
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for Amos Alcott in the Temple
School in Boston.
After the school closed, she
published one of her most
famous works, Record of a
School.
She opened a bookstore, where
she met Margaret Fuller and
hosted a series of meetings
called “Conversations” with
Margaret Fuller.
She then applied and earned the
position of Business Manager for
Emerson’s journal, The Dial.
After the journal disbanded
because of the lack of
subscriptions, she opened up
her own kindergarten.
Writing Style
 Woman’s rights
 fine arts, history, mythology, literature, and nature
 Supported the education of children younger than age 6 (later
became kindergarten)
 Anti-slavery
 led efforts for the rights of the Paiute Indians.
Amos Bronson Alcott
• Born in Wolcott, CT.
• Father of 4 children, among them:
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Louisa May Alcott
Teaching himself to read, Alcott
spent a few years as a salesman in
the American South.
By the Age of 30, Alcott became
widely known for his debating
Thoreau. During this time he was
also played a role in the
Underground railroad.
In 1834, he opened the Temple
School in Boston.
After his school disbanded, he
moved to Concord, MA where he
took part in The Dial, a journal
ran by Emerson.
At The Dial, Alcott published one
of his most famous series of
works, Orphic Sayings.
Writing Style
 Utopian socialist (develop the best powers of body and soul)
 emphasized the ideas of the school of American
Transcendentalists led by Emerson
 Platonic philosophy, the illumination of the mind and soul by
direct communion with Spirit
 Influenced the mid 19th century New Thought movement
The
Dial
 American magazine published 1840 and 1929,
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publication of the Transcendentalists
(Transcendental Club, included Emerson, Fuller,
Peabody, Alcott)
Outlet for modernist literature, vehicle for essays
and reviews
Viewed as a political magazine, heavily criticized
Reestablished as a literary magazine in 1920 to
include artwork, poetry, and fiction
Published writers like Ezra Pound, W.B Yeats, E.E
Cummings, and T.S Elliot
Common Factors
Works Cited
 Encyclopedia Britannica. “Emerson, Ralph Waldo.”
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6
dia_Britannica/Emerson,_Ralph_Waldo
 American Transcendentalism Web. “The Dial: A
Magazine for Literature, Philosophy, Religion, and
History.”
http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/ideas
/dialhistory.html
 The Literature Network. “Henry David Thoreau.”
http://www.online-literature.com/thoreau/#