Transcendentalism

1. Transcendentalism Hannah Bredl, Mike Diana, Joe McFarland, and Cody Siegfried

2. What is it? • It was a mid-nineteenth century movement of literature and philosophy (1830-1855). • It was a belief of a spiritual state that “transcends” the physical and the empirical that can be realized by the individual • Transcendentalists believed in self-reliance, self- culture, and self-discipline. • Transcendentalism caused changes in literature and sparked social reform.

3. How did it start? • American transcendentalism has its roots in New England, specifically Boston, Massachusetts (called “the Athens of America”). • Transcendentalists were influenced by Immanuel Kant, German transcendentalism, Asian religious scriptures, and Platonism and Neo-Platonism. • They disagreed with Unitarianism and John Locke’s theory that knowledge comes to the mind from the senses.

4. Theories • Truth goes beyond the senses and cannot be found by observation alone. Everyone is capable of finding the truth and can be put in direct touch with god (oversoul) without scholars or ministers for interpretation. • This idea of inner light is borrowed from the Quakers. • Yet even though transcendentalism generally believed the same things, each person had different ideas and beliefs that separated them from one another.

5. Henry David Thoreau Ralph Waldo Emerson Walt Whitman Margaret Fuller Famous Transcendentalists

6. Definition • Transcendentalism is defined as any philosophy based upon the doctrine that the principles of reality are to be discovered by the study of the process of thought, or a philosophy emphasizing the intuitive and spiritual above the empirical • All that means is that whatever they were rebelling for they saw what was going on around them and made that be what they wanted to be different from

7. Romanticism • Romanticism is defined as an artistic style emphasizing imagination and emotion • What’s the difference?

8. Relationship • Romanticism • Viewed nature as perfect and man as flawed • Focused on self more • Transcendentalism • Viewed nature as symbolic and that nature provided answers about virtue and wisdom • Believed the individual was the ultimate spiritual being that you can derive all truth and knowledge from.

9. Relationship cont. • Romanticism • Value of emotion(stories to be felt by the reader and inspire them) • Nature is a living mystery (not like clockwork like rationalists) • Transcendentalism • God is the compilation of all individual souls on Earth that when you die, your soul transcends too

10. What Impact did Transcendentalism Have on America?

11. How the people of transcendentalism effected America "Without Emerson and Thoreau," notes Professor Ashton Nichols, "the United States would not have developed into the nation it has become. We would not believe in the power of the individual to the extent that we do, nor would we see nature at the center of one view of the American psyche.”

12. Transcendentalism in America The extraordinary members of this informal movement provided intellectual and moral leadership for not only art, and literary transformations but greatly in social transformations in America. The influence of their ideas continues today in many aspects of our culture, from efforts to preserve wild nature to civil disobedience around the world.

13. Where did the America we know today really come from? • Transcendentalism was cause of…. • Classrooms becoming a vibrant and even pleasurable experience. • Class rooms would still be a very strict place • No type of recess for younger kids • If you had any sort of trouble there was no extra help which is why school was so difficult.. • Established slavery as morally wrong • With out these ideas its possible slavery wouldn’t had been abolished until later years

14. Where did the America we know today really come from? • Transcendentalism was cause of…. • Women's rights • As for women, this movement was very important for their equal rights • Certain theologies • Love for nature • Which is good to keep a love for nature but also gave way to tree huggers.

15. Where did the America we know today really come from? • Transcendentalism was cause of…. • Ability to discover personal truths • The source of our distinctly American way of experiencing ourselves • Transcendentalism brought a feeling of focusing on oneself and learning about yourself • Confidence in our value as individuals

16. Walt Whitman • Born – May 31, 1819 • Long Island New York • Neither of his parents read his poetry • Forced to drop out of school at age 9 to support his family • Read a lot mainly Homer, Dante, and Shakespeare • Age 17 was a teacher (1836) • 1841 he was a journalist • Editor for newspapers in Brooklyn and New Orleans • 1850 he created a new kind of poetry • Got inspiration from music • Died in 1892

17. Whitman’s Famous Poems “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed” “O captain! My Captain!” (1866) “A Noiseless Patient Spider” “Leaves of Grass” “Song of Myself”

18. Ralph Waldo Emerson • Born Boston 1803 • Grew up in Boston, and went to Harvard • Class poet at Harvard • Friends with Napoleon's Nephew • Was a teacher at a Women’s school • Originally a minister, but left for his love of writing • Toured Europe • Considered a essayist, philosopher, and poet • Died in 1882

19. Emerson’s Works “Nature”- 1850 “The American Scholar” – 1837 His many Representative Men “The Naturalist”- 1834 The Lord’s Supper “Bacchus” “Merlin”

20. Sarah Margaret Fuller • Born: 1810 Cambridgeport MA • Very good education for a girl at her time • Best read person in New England • Journalist and translator • Knew Latin • Looked up to her father • Tought at Temple School in Boston • Editor of The Dial Emerson’s journal • Literary Critic for the New York Tribune • Sent to Europe for the Tribune • Died 1850

21. Fuller’s Works Summer on the Lakes - 1844 Woman in the Nineteenth Centruy - 1845 Papers on Literature and Art - 1846

22. Bronson Alcott • Born: 1799 Wolcott CT • Philosopher, teacher, reformer • Self- Educated • Was a peddler in the south • Established many schools for Children • Influenced by Johann H. Pestalozzi, and Socrates • Had to close his schools • Sold them to rid him of debt • Fan of “Utopian” Communities • Father of Louisa May Alcott • In debt a lot • Died 1888

23. Alcott’s Works Wrote for Emerson’s The Dial “Orphic Sayings” Fruitlands- his utopian community

24. Henry David Thoreau • Born: 1817 Concord MA • Author, poet, naturalist, philosopher • Leading Transcendentalist • Studied at Harvard • Doesn’t have a diploma from Harvard • Wrote about nature and being in nature • Lived by himself in a cabin at Walden Pond to be in nature • Went against the grain, anarchist • Died 1862

25. Thoreau’s Works Walden or Life in the Woods- 1854 Excursions- 1863 “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience” 1849 “Paradise Regained” – 1843 “Slavery in Massachusetts”- 1854 “Walking” – 1861 …. To name a few

26. Works Cited "Bronson Alcott." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 16 May. 2010 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/13464/Bronson-Alcott>. “Henry David Thoreau.” American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 23 Mar. 2010. <http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com>. Kennedy, David M, Lizabeth Cohen, and Thomas Bailey. “Trumpeters of Transcendentalism.” The American Pageant. 14th ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2010. 361-364. Print. “Margaret Fuller.” American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 23 Mar. 2010. <http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com>. “New England Renaissance.” American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 23 Mar. 2010. <http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com>. “Ralph Waldo Emerson.” American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 23 Mar. 2010. <http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com>. Seckinger, Ernie. “American Transcendentalism.” Windstream. The Thoreau Society, 29 June 2008. Web. 22 Mar. 2010. <http://home.windstream.net>. “Transcendentalism.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online School Edition, n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2010. <http://www.school.eb.com/‌eb/‌article-9073185>. “Transcendentalism.” Transcendentalism. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 May 2010. <http://www.themystica.com/‌mystica/‌articles/‌t/‌transcendentalism.html>. “Walt Whitman.” American Poems. Gunnar Bengtsson, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2010. <http://www.americanpoems.com/‌poets/‌waltwhitman>.

27. Quiz 1. What do transcendentalists believe? 2. Who influenced the transcendentalists? 3. Name one of the most famous transcendentalists. 4. True or false…. Transcendentalists liked to be one with nature?

28. Answers 1. They believe the truth can transcend through reflection and observation 2. Germans like Immanuel Kant and religions of Asia 3. Henry David Thoreau (but answers may vary) 4. True!