专八:美国文学简史(三)

Section 2 Summit of Romanticism – American Transcendentalism

I. Background: four sources

1. Unitarianism

(1) Fatherhood of God

(2) Brotherhood of men

(3) Leadership of Jesus

(4) Salvation by character (perfection of one’s character)

(5) Continued progress of mankind

(6) Divinity of mankind

(7) Depravity of mankind

2. Romantic Idealism

Center of the world is spirit, absolute spirit (Kant)

3. Oriental mysticism

Center of the world is “oversoul”

4. Puritanism

Eloquent expression in transcendentalism

II. Appearance

1836, “Nature” by Emerson

III. Features

1. spirit/oversoul

2. importance of individualism

3. nature – symbol of spirit/God

garment of the oversoul

4. focus in intuition (irrationalism and subconsciousness)

IV. Influence

1. It served as an ethical guide to life for a young nation and brought about the idea that human can be perfected by nature. It stressed religious tolerance, called to throw off shackles of customs and traditions and go forward to the development of a new and distinctly American culture.

2. It advocated idealism that was great needed in a rapidly expanded economy where opportunity often became opportunism, and the desire to “get on” obscured the moral necessity for rising to spiritual height.

3. It helped to create the first American renaissance – one of the most prolific period in American literature.