美国文学简史常耀信版讲义2-2课件.pptVIP

I. Background: four sources  1. Unitarianism唯一神教派 (1) Fatherhood of God (2) Brotherhood of men (3) Leadership of Jesus (4) Salvation by character (perfection of one’s character) (5) Continued progress of mankind (6) Divinity of mankind (7) Depravity of mankind 2. Romantic Idealism Center of the world is spirit, absolute spirit (Kant) 3. Oriental mysticism Center of the world is “oversoul” 4. Puritanism Eloquent expression in transcendentalism II. Appearance 1836, “Nature” by Emerson III. Features 1. spirit/oversoul 2. importance of individualism 3. nature – symbol of spirit/God garment of the oversoul 4. focus in intuition (irrationalism and subconsciousness) IV. Influence 1. It served as an ethical guide to life for a young nation and brought about the idea that human can be perfected by nature. It stressed religious tolerance, called to throw off shackles of customs and traditions and go forward to the development of a new and distinctly American culture. 2. It advocated idealism that was great needed in a rapidly expanded economy where opportunity often became opportunism, and the desire to “get on” obscured the moral necessity for rising to spiritual height. 3. It helped to create the first American renaissance – one of the most prolific period in American literature. Nature is a kind of discipline to man. Once you are in nature, totally in solitude, you feel you’re nothing, but you see all. Nature makes people feel transparent and humble. Meanwhile, He saw an important difference between understanding (judging things only according to the senses) and reason. Divinity School Address In Divinity School Address, he celebrated the American stress on the authentic, unique self. He stresses the inner spirit of creativity, that one discerns not through rationality or even common sense, but through intuition, spontaneity, a kind of radical, primary insight. Each person is divine, but also participates in a kind of universal divinit