美国文学课件Chapter Four-1. Emerson.pptVIP

Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882) American essayist, philosopher, and poet Place of Birth: Boston, Massachusetts Known as: The leader of the American literary movement of transcendentalism, which rejected the conventions of formal religion and argued that one can achieve spirituality through intuition and connection with nature Milestones 1821 Graduated from Harvard University 1829 Was ordained as a Unitarian minister, but left the church in 1832 due to philosophical differences with the religion 1832-1833 In Europe, met British writers Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, and Thomas Carlyle, and began a lifelong correspondence with the latter 1834 Moved to Concord, Massachusetts, and developed a circle of literary friends, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau 1836 Anonymously published his first book, Nature, a long philosophical essay that established his transcendentalist views 1837 Delivered his American Scholar lecture 1838 Delivered the “Address at Divinity College” 1841 Published his first series of Essays, which included “Self-Reliance,” “Prudence,” and “Friendship” 1842-1844 Edited The Dial, a transcendentalist journal 1846 Published Poems Why should we grope among the dry bones of the past, or put the living generation into masquerade out of its faded wardrobe? The sun shines today also. There is more wool and flax in the fields. There are new lands, new men, new thoughts. Let us demand our own works and laws and worship. ---Ralph Waldo Emerson (From “Introduction” of Nature) Transcendentalism, in philosophy and literature, refers to the belief in a higher reality than that found in sense experience or in a higher kind of knowledge than that achieved by human reason. In its most specific usage, transcendentalism refers to a literary and philosophical movement that developed in the U.S. in the first half of the 19th century. It was str