Transcendentalism

Definition?? Defies definition! A loose collection of eclectic ideas about literature, philosophy, religion, social reform, and the general state of American culture had different meanings for each person involved in the movement

Okay, fine, try to define it… Martin Bickman, University of Colorado http://transcendentalism.tamu.edu/ideas/definitionbickman.html “Beginning as a quarrel within the Unitarian church, Transcendentalism's questioning of established cultural forms, its urge to reintegrate spirit and matter, its desire to turn ideas into concrete action developed a momentum of its own, spreading from the spheres of religion and education to literature, philosophy, and social reform. While Transcendentalism's ambivalence about any communal effort that would compromise individual integrity prevented it from creating lasting institutions, it helped set the terms for being an intellectual in America.”

Which means what, really? Martin Bickman, University of Colorado “Transcendentalism, then, is not as much concerned with a metaphysics that transcends our daily lives but rather with a new view of the mind that replaces Locke's empiricist [knowledge comes from sensory experience], materialistic, and passive model with one emphasizing the role of the mind itself in actively shaping experience.” “The Transcendentalist vision [insisted] that the mind can apprehend absolute spiritual truths directly without having to go through the detour of the senses, without the dictates of past authorities and institutions, and without the plodding labor of [reasoning].”

Characteristics Microcosm/Macrocosm: “the soul of each individual is identical with the soul of the world and contains what the world contains;” applies to nature too Universal soul/ “Oversoul:” shared universal soul – encompassing God, nature, and humanity Natural goodness of humans: human dignity Beauty manifests itself through something done right Nature is essential to those who seek reality and the truth due to its beauty, perpetual wonder, and ‘soothing touch of the Over Soul. Balance: btw evil and good, btw fate and free will

Not really a type of literature… More of a philosophy on how to view the world. There aren’t really Transcendental novels or poems, but there are tracts/guides on how to live a Transcendental life. There are Transcendental ideas in novels and poems, but they mostly stem from an idea on how to live.

Major Players Ralph Waldo Emerson Henry David Thoreau Margaret Fuller Walt Whitman