trancendentalism 美国文学课件.ppt

* Transcendentalism (1830s-1850s) Transcendentalism was a group of new ideas in literature, religion, culture, and philosophy that emerged in New England in the early to middle 19th century. It is sometimes called American Transcendentalism. ☆ Emerson’s 1836 essay Nature ☆Transcendental Club (Sep. 1836)1838) ☆ The Dial (1840-1844) a major culture movement a coherent movement a group published frequently I. Terminology ☆ derived from “transcend” ☆ wanted to transcend the physical and empirical and reached an ideal state through the individual’s intuition. ☆ first used as a pejorative term, meaning one whose feet didn’t touch the ground and suggesting their position was beyond sanity and reason ☆ Also called American Transcendentalism to differ the uses of the word “transcendental” II Backgrounds and Origins 1. materialism idealism Anti-materialistic-oriented life 2. Romanticism ☆ placed central importance on emotions and the individual ☆ emphasized intuition and inner perception of truth (not reason) ☆ emphasized nature’s beauty, strangeness, and mystery ☆ emphasized individual expression and artistic freedom 3. American Puritanism The dual heritage of American Puritanism Worship of God; Nature’s divine symbolism Individualism Self-culture /self improvement (Edwardian notions) (Franklin’s notions) New England Transcendentalism was, in actuality, Romanticism on the Puritan soil. III. Beliefs ☆The intuitive faculty, instead of the rational or sensical, became the means for a conscious union of the individual psyche with the world psyche also known as the Oversoul. ☆ Four Premises: Self-reliance: An individual is the spiritual center of the universe, and in an individual can be found the clue to nature, history and, ultimately, the cosmos itself. It is not a rejection of the existence of G-d, but a preference to explain an individual and the world in terms of an individ