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Transcendentalism
1800 - 1860
We will walk with our own feet
we will work with our own hands
we will speak our own minds
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Transcendentalism
“Great men are they who see that the
spiritual is stronger than any material
force; that thoughts rule the world.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Journal
What was transcendentalism?
In short, it was a philosophical/ literary
movement of the early nineteenth century,
advocated/initiated by literary greats such
as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David
Thoreau, and the Fireside Poets, to name a
few.
Transcendentalism
• Transcendentalists were well educated
people who lived in the decades before the
American Civil War.
• These people, mostly residing near Boston,
were attempting to create a ‘uniquely
American’ body of literature.
• Americans had won independence from
England several decades before this time. It
was time for literary independence– to
create work clearly different from anything
European.
Facts…
• Believed that everything in the world
was a reflection of the “divine” soul
• The physical world/ environment was
a doorway to the spiritual world
• Used intuition as a guide or a roadmap
for life
• A person is his/her own best authority
More…
• Believed in human perfection and strived
to achieve it by:
– Improving own lives and assisting in
others’ lives (reform movements)
– Established Utopian communities (Brook
Farm, 1841)
– Instigated social change—abolitionism
Review
• Explain the difference between Dark
Romanticism (Gothic Fiction) and
Transcendentalism
• Compare to other movements—like
Puritanism