TRANSCENDENTALISM

Period between 1830 and 1850 In the North – economic and social changes Industrialization Urbanization Factories with poor working conditions, wage labor, first unions A new breed of materialism In the South old, almost feudal social order (a few extremely wealthy plantation owners ruled)

Historical and Political Context Period marked by territorial expansion, growing nationalism, and increasing political, social, and regional polarization The addition of territory through war with Mexico -- inflamed slavery/antislavery tensions

Religious Context American Unitarianism - belief that God is one being instead of the Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit The Unitarians believed in human capacity for spiritual, moral, and intellectual improvement, denied the Calvinistic concept of innate depravity and the doctrine of predestination. A fundamentally optimistic view of human nature -- God extends salvation to everyone

Philosophical Context 18th Century Enlightenment Rational Scientific Material Empirical Belief in progress, improvement of society, and of the individual Tolerance

John Locke(1632-1704) (one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers) Postulated that the human mind at birth was devoid of conscience, moral understanding and intuition (tabula rasa) all of which developed through experience. Insisted that there was nothing in the intellect which had not previously been in the experience of the five senses

Literary Period American literature came of age in the 1850s, the period we call American Renaissance (three generations after the country achieved its political independence) American Renaissance literature is almost exclusively Romantic literature (the Transcendentalists are an offshoot of Romanticism)

Transcendentalism = a philosophy that asserts the primacy of the spiritual over the material and empirical. The term coined by Immanuel Kant as a response to the philosophy of Locke. According to Kant, there are some ideas and aspects of knowledge which are beyond what the senses can perceive, but are intuitions of the mind itself – he named them transcendental forms.

Transcendentalism Religious, philosophical and literary movement 1830s – 1850s Mostly New Englanders (mainly around Boston, Cambridge and Concord, Massachusetts) Wanted to create American literary independence (authentic American literature)

Transcendentalists were not a cohesive organized group Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman,. Amos Bronson Alcott, Martin Van Burren, Margaret Fuller Transcendentalism incorporated the Romantic emphasis on the individual and the Unitarian belief in the goodness and perfectibility of man. Transcendentalism was more of a call to action than a precise, logical line of thought. It urged people to break free of the customs and traditions of the past and to listen to the spirit of God inside them. Most of the transcendentalists became involved in social reform movements (anti-slavery, women's suffrage, Native American education and rights, world peace)

Major Tenets of Transcendentalism All institutions (social, political, economic, religious) -- suspect as being false, materialistic Emphasized personal insight, individuality, and institution The affirmation of the right of individuals to follow truth as they see it, even when contrary to established laws or customs Oversoul = the divine spirit or mind that is present everywhere, an all-pervading supreme mind. A kind of a cosmic unity between man, god and nature. Importance of a direct relationship with God and with Nature ONENESS = GOD + NATURE + MAN

RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803 – 1882) Emphasized: * The need for each man to think for himself, not to give up their freedom as individuals to constricting beliefs and customs, to common values, to established institutions * Importance of an individual’s resisting pressure to conform to external norms

HENRY DAVID THOREAU (1817 – 1862)

Civil disobedience as a mechanism for change Viewing government as a machine that may or may not do enough good to counterbalance what evil it commits, he urges rebellion. The opponents of reform, he recognizes, are not faraway politicians but ordinary people who cooperate with the system. Although Thoreau asserts that a man has other, higher duties than eradicating institutional wrong, he must at least not be guilty through compliance.

Possessions complicate life Thoreau emphasizes the crushing, numbing effect of materialism and commercialism on the individual’s life. Argues property ownership and technological progress consume men before they have a chance to consider how they might live. Encouraged his contemporaries to be content with less materially. To Thoreau, the cost of something is not so much its actual cost in dollars and cents, but the amount of life that must be exchanged for it.