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American Transcendentalism

American Transcendentalism. Today’s Goals. Understand America’s roots—next phase of literature after Romanticism—Transcendentalism (1830’s–1900). Transcendentalism.

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American Transcendentalism

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  1. American Transcendentalism

  2. Today’s Goals • Understand America’s roots—next phase of literature after Romanticism—Transcendentalism (1830’s–1900)

  3. Transcendentalism • "We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds...A nation of men will for the first time exist, because each believes himself inspired by the Divine Soul which also inspires all men." • - Emerson

  4. Transcendentalism in Film • Watch the following film clip from Dead Poets’ Society and, as you watch, determine the central ideas about life that are communicated. • Note details that support your answer. 4

  5. Dead Poets’ Society

  6. So what is Transcendentalism? • Transcendentalism has been described as a literary movement, a philosophy, and to some, even a religion. • While transcendentalists have slightly different interpretations of the movement, most agree on several main ideas.

  7. How and when did it originate? • 19th Century • New England • Anti-European (Literary Freedom) • Intuition and Idealism

  8. Who founded it? • Usually Emerson and Thoreau are considered the earliest American Transcendentalists.

  9. Quote Activity • Take the individual quote, read it, and, on the handout, try to distill its main message. What is it saying?

  10. Nature • “Undoubtedly we have no questions to ask which are unanswerable. We must trust the perfection of creation so to believe that whatever curiosity the order of things has awakened in our mind, the order of things can satisfy.” • - Ralph Waldo Emerson

  11. Universal Soul • “All are needed by each one; Nothing is fair or good alone.” • - Ralph Waldo Emerson

  12. Here and Now • “Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is.” • - Henry David Thoreau

  13. Nonconformity • “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” • - Henry David Thoreau

  14. Self-Reliance • “There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide.” • - Ralph Waldo Emerson

  15. Simplicity • “I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumbnail.” - Henry David Thoreau

  16. Transcendentalism • Major tenets • Nature • Universal Soul • Here & Now • Nonconformity • Self-reliance • Simplicity

  17. Tomorrow • We’ll start examining the transcendentalists focus on nature and see if this is reflected in America today.

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