Transcendentalism & Ralph Waldo Emerson: Independence in 19th Century America, Appunti di Letteratura Angloamericana I

Scarica Transcendentalism & Ralph Waldo Emerson: Independence in 19th Century America e più Appunti in PDF di Letteratura Angloamericana I solo su Docsity! 29 novembre + 4 dicembre 2019 Letteratura angloamericana Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) and Transcendentalism In the 19th century there is a search for cultural independence that found expression in the movement of Transcendentalism, a specifically New England movement of the areas of Boston and Concord (Massachusetts). There was a small number of individuals, extremely well educated and many important members were affiliated with the Unitarian church, literal protestants who moved away from Calvinism and encouraged individual freedom of belief. The Transcendentalism wanted people to rely on their intuition. They celebrated individuality and originality. Also there was an emphasis on individuality and originality. We have to create our original ideas without looking back at Europe. The transcendentalist writer is seen as a prophet. Some of the most important works of the 19th century are really close to this Movement (Emerson; “Walden” by Thoreau...). The period in which this movement came to prominence are the 1830-40’, a period of social reforms in America's abolitionism of slavery. This is also a period of feminism and there also was a very important movement called “Temperance” to convince people to give up with alcohol. There was also a growing dissatisfaction with a social inequality inthe USA. There were alternatives to capitalism for example the theories of the French philosopher Charles Fourier with his idea of communal living and work so he imagined the re-organisation of the society in which people from different backgrounds all lived and worked together. There was a health conscience and a number of utopian communities grew up very near to the socialist experience. Transcendentalists were involved in these groups. The most important utopian experience was “Brook Farm” (1841-1847), a social experiment of an ideal community where everybody worked together and shared everything. The leader of this movement was the philosopher and poet Raphael Waldo Emerson; other components were also Thoreau and Alcott. The official organ of this movement was “The dial” edited by Margaret Fuller and other transcendentalists. Fuller also published the essay “The Great Lawsuit” which later became the basis for her book “Woman in the 19th century”. Transcendentalism had great faith on the human potential. Emerson said that he had only one doctrine: “The infinitude of the private man”. One of the most important sources for the transcendentalists was IMmanuel Kant because some transcendentalists knew German and could read Kant (for example, Margaret Fuller), but most ofthem arrived to Kant via Coleridge indirect reading. One of Emerson’s most important essays is “Self reliance” where the idea of self-confidence is important. Emerson is considered an important source of inspiration for the only really philosophical tradition in America's pragmatism. Hawthorne was very skeptical about transcendentalism because they were too optimistic. He and Melville had a rather critical view and a rather dark vision of things. To understand the influence of transcendentalism on literature we must consider that there are two classes of fact: 1. Order of phenomena (what we can experience with our sense: see, hear..). 2. Forces and realities we don't perceive (the meaning of life). - They want to go beyond reality, we need to transcend; move beyond the experience of our senses. - Thoreau: “| hear beyond the range of sound; | see beyond the range of sight”. He passes beyond the range of human experience. 29 novembre + 4 dicembre 2019 In 1836 Emerson publishes an essay called ”Nature” , the manifesto of transcendentalism. In 1837 he publishes “The American scholar” where *scholar” means not student but intellectual. In this essay Emerson puts emphasis on America's cultural need for independence from Europe in literary declaration from Independence. The basis of Emerson’s message was “Self-reliance” (self confidence). Ralph Waldo Emerson with “Nature”, 1836: it is the manifesto of the transcendentalism. Introduction Emerson starts by addressing his American readers and pointing out to them that they look backwards, at the past. His age builds the sepulchres of the fathers and these graves are memorials to the past. This age writes biographies, histories and criticism are not original because based on events of the past so they are not entirely original. When you look backwards and when you read histories and biographies, you inevitably look at the world through someone else’s prospective. This is a way of suggesting the long period of time during which America is so dependent on Europe and the idea of looking at the world through Europeans’ eyes. When we refers to nature and use the expressions “embosomed” the mental association is with a maternal connotation. Then he uses the image of someone who is groping (when you try to find a way because you don't see clearly). Wool and flax, materials that since ancient times have been used to make clothes, clothes used here as a metaphor for ideas. He says “One have the materials, and can make our own clothes” so they have the material to make their own clothes (clothes means ideas). Then he uses the repetition of the adjective “new”. First chapter - “Nature" He defines solitude as state of mind, when you are commune with nature. It means to get in touch with the infinite. He says that we attempt to take the manifestation of nature for granted. We are so accustomed to see the stars every night that we don't pay particular attention. We can see Emerson being part of the romantic movement. He talks about perception, about the invidious response to the natural world and he distinguishes between adult’ prospection and child’s prospection. His romantic view of childhood as the time of life when one is most responsive and also that children have a kind of intuition that the most people lose as they grow up. Transcendentalism always emphasises the correspondence between what is inward and what is outward reality. There's the need to get in touch with our inner child. Nature has a rejuvenating power and he uses the image of a snake: when a snake grows, it discards its entire skin. So people in nature discard their age, they almost forget their age. All we have to do is to look at the world with new eyes and we will find the answers which is around us, not in the past. By saying “A decorum and sanctity reign” he is suggesting that nature possesses an ethical and spiritual quality. By saying “I become a transparent eye-ball; | am nothing; | see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; | am part or particle of God” he is describing a kind of mystical experience of living losing one's identity and becoming one with nature. When one experiences this, then social relations and a family connections become unimportant because the open air puts one in harmony with the infinite and by saying “The pleasure of the recognition” he is saying he's one with nature, and the rules of mortality do not apply. By saying “Yet it is certain that the power to produce this delight, does not reside in nature, but in man,