Transcendentalism

English 11AP

Transcendentalism

• A 19th century American philosophical movement

• Ideas in literature and philosophy that developed in the 1830s and 1840s

• A protest against the culture and society of the time.

Transcendentalism

• A belief in a spirituality that

“transcends” the physical

and empirical, realized

through the individual’s

intuition rather than

religious doctrine

• Major figures included

Ralph Waldo Emerson,

Henry David Thoreau, Walt

Whitman, Emily Dickinson,

and others.

Transcendentalism

• The Transcendental Club was established in Cambridge, MA in 1836.

• They were influenced by ancient Indian and German Idealist philosophy and the English Romantics

• The movement died out by the late 1840s.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

• 1803-1882, was an

American essayist, lecturist,

and poet

• Champion of individualism

and critic of the pressures of

society

• His most well known

lectures/ essays include

“Nature,” “Self Reliance,”

and “The Over Soul.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

• He wrote about

individuality, freedom,

the relationship between

the soul and the

surrounding world

• He was a great influence

on the thinkers, writers,

and poets that followed

him.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

• Went to Harvard and graduated in 1821

• Was a schoolmaster

• Became an ordained minister

• After his first wife died, he began to disagree with the methods of his church.

• He resigned in 1832.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

• In his speeches, he urged Americans to create a writing style free from European influence

• Was staunchly anti-slavery

• A close friend of Henry David Thoreau and Nathaniel Hawthorne

Ralph Waldo Emerson

• He believed that the truth did not need to be revealed from God, but could instead be intuitively experienced directly from nature.

• President Obama lists Emerson’s “Self Reliance” as one of his favorite books on his Facebook page

Henry David Thoreau

• American author, poet,

abolitionist, naturalist,

and philosopher

• Best known for his book

Walden and his essay

“Civil Disobedience”

• His work anticipated

modern ecology and

environmentalism

Henry David Thoreau

• He advocated

abandoning waste and

illusion in order to

discern life’s essential

needs

• Influenced Tolstoy,

Gandhi, and Martin

Luther King, Jr.

Henry David Thoreau

• Studied at Harvard

between 1833-1837

• Taught school in MA

but resigned rather than

administer corporal

punishment

• Was a philosopher of

nature and its relation to

the human condition

Henry David Thoreau

• For two years, he lived in a

small house he built on the

shore of Walden Pond on

land owned by Emerson

• Refused to pay taxes

• Later critics regard Walden

as a classic work exploring

natural simplicity, harmony,

and beauty as models for

just social and cultural

conditions

Henry David Thoreau

• Advocate of recreational

hiking and canoeing

• One of the first American

supporters of Darwin’s

Theory of Evolution

• Sought a middle ground

between civilization and the

wilderness

• Rejected alcohol and meat

• Died in 1862 at age 44