I came across the idea of "Transcendentalism" earlier today and googled it to find out more about it. For basic knowledge on the topic, I clicked on the Wikipedia link :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendentalism
To my surprise, I came across two familiar names which have both been mentioned in class: Emerson and Hawthorne. There is even a section in the article that mentions Hawthorne's novel The Blithedale Romance as responding to the Transcendentalist Movement. I would like to think that perhaps Twain, Emerson, Hawthorne, and many other 19th century authors perhaps have a some sort of similar connection toTranscendentalism. It would interesting to think about this philosophy when reading their work. Just a thought....
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2 comments:
Dave is right to point out (in a comment to his own post) that American Transcendentalism and the thing called "transcendental philosophy" that's associated with Kant are pretty different. It is indeed confusing when two different movements use the same name. But Melissa is correct in surmising that American Transcendentalism is directly relevant to some of the authors we're reading for this class. Great find, Melissa!
I have a dictionary of important theories, concepts, beliefs and thinkers that is called "A World of Ideas." I wish to share the following excerpt commentary on the topic of "Transcendentalism" to respond to this post thread.
"Transcendentalism...was strongly influenced by European Romanticism...They valued intuition over reason and espoused an individualism that stressed fulfillment through self-improvement, self-expression, social responsibility, and communion with nature. Most were active social reformers, agitating above all for the abolition of slavery. The short-lived UTOPIAN community Brook Farm, in WestRoxbury, Massachusetts, was founded by Transcendentalists as an experiment in communal self-reliance and natural harmony."
Bibliography: "A World Of Ideas" by Chris Rohmann (c)1999
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By doing a brief research on Twains' life history, criticism from him or about him, I found him fit the description of a transcendentalist.
But one thing I want to specifically respond is the idea of self-reliance. Some of Twain's quotes respond the notion of criticism somehow conveys to me that he really is self-reliant.
Link: http://www.twainquotes.com/Critics.html
I will leave the above link for academic research access, because I do not want to digress too far to respond this post.
I am curious if there are other transcendentalist who expresses themselves without too much of satirical or cynical elements in their works or criticism.
Thanks for the post.
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