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单击此处编辑母版标题样式,单击此处编辑母版文本样式,第二级,第三级,第四级,第五级,#,1,Lecture Seven,New England Transcendentalism,Emerson&Thoreau,2,1.New England Transcendentalism,In 1836,the publication of Emersons,Nature,(his first important philosophical work)pushed American Romanticism into a new age,the phase of New England Transcendentalism.,American Romanticism culminated around the 1840s.,3,New England Transcendentalism is,the summit of American Romanticism,;it is regarded as the“,American Renaissance,”(18361855;not only one of the important signs of the independence of American literature but also a significant phase in the history of American culture.,4,1)The Formation of New England Transcendentalism,What is Transcendentalism?According to Emerson,Transcendentalism is,idealism,;idealism as appears in 1842.,In the 1830s and 1840s,great,religious and ideological changes,were taking place in New England;some sensitive New Englanders formed themselves into an informal club,the Transcendentalist Club,and met there to discuss literature,philosophy and matters of interest to the life of the nation.,5,2)The representative writers of New England Transcendentalism,The club included some thirty men and a couple of women,most of them teachers or clergymen;of these New England Transcendentalists,Emerson(1803-1882),Thoreau(18171862),Bronson Alcott(1799-1888),and Margaret Fuller(1810-1850)were the more famous.,6,3)The major features of New England Transcendentalism,Spirit,or the Oversoul,(,超灵,):most important thing in the universe;an all-pervading power for goodness,omnipresent and omnipotent;from which all things come and of which all are a part;exists in nature and man alike;constitutes the chief element of the universe.,7,Its a new way of looking at the world,and a reaction to the 18th century Newtonian concept of the universe which holds that the universe is made up of matter.,8,Secondly,the Transcendentalists stressed the importance of the individual.The,individual,was the most important element of society;his,self-culture,(,修养,),self-improvement,and,self-perfection,should become the first concern of his life;the ideal type of man is the,self-reliant individual,;people should depend on themselves for,spiritual perfection,;the individual soul communed with the Oversoul and is therefore divine.,9,Its a new way of looking at man,and a reaction against the Calvinist concept that man is totally depraved,sinful and remains in sinhood,and can not hope to be saved except through the grace of God.,10,Thirdly,the Transcendentalists offered a fresh perception of nature as,symbolic of the Spirit or God.,Nature was,to them,not purely matter,but alive and filled with,Gods overwhelming presence;the garment of the Oversoul,;exercises a healthy and restorative influence on the human mind;things in nature tend to become symbolic,and,the physical world is a symbol of the spiritual,.,11,Its a new way of looking at nature and added to the tradition of literary symbolism in American literature.,12,4)The factors which influenced the ideas of New England Transcendentalism,New England,Transcendentalism is a kind of idealism and the product of a combination of the foreign influences and the American Puritanism.,13,Foreign influences:,German and French idealistic philosophy;,Oriental mysticism;,philosophy of the Chinese Confucius and Mencius.,14,Influence of American Puritanism:,Jonathan Edwardss notion of inward communication of the soul with God and divine symbolism of nature all find adequate expression in Emersonian Transcendentalism;in this Edwards was a forerunner of New England Transcendentalism.,15,Emerson recaptured the Edwardian vision and stated his ideas in terms of transcendental idealism,and of Oversoul;what Emerson and his fellow Transcendentalists endeavored to do was in fact primarily to reassert the religious idealism of Puritanism.,16,The Transcendentalists emphasis on the individual was directly traceable to the Puritan principle of self-culture and self-improvement as best exemplified by the success story of Benjamin Franklin.,17,2.Ralph Waldo Emerson,He is an philosopher,poet and prose writer;the most influential among his contemporaries,and the leading figure and most eloquent spokesman of New England Transcendentalism;his,Nature,is called“,the Manifesto,”and“,the Bible”of New England Transcendentalism,.,18,1)Emersons thought:,All the things in the universe are the embodiments of the Oversoul;the soul of man is part of the Oversoul;man is divine.,19,The individual is the most important of all.man can hope to become better and even perfect;he believed“the infinitude of man;men should and could be self-reliant;each man should feel the world as his,and the world exists for him alone;in the main optimistic about human perfectibility.,20,Nature is emblematic of God.It mediates between man and God;nature is the symbol of spirit,and the wholesome moral influence on man and his character.,21,2),Emersons position in American literature:,His greatest contribut
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