4- transcendentalism

1、 American LiteratureThe Romantic Period (1800-1860) IIThe Transcendentalism4.1 Transcendentalism 超验主义Time: 1836-1855 1836, publication of Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson. A whole new way of thinking- “The Universe is composed of Nature and the Soul. Spirit is present everywhere the summit of American

2、Romanticism the phase of New England Transcendentalism / American Renaissance.advocateMagnetic center: an informal discussing club, the Transcendentalist club Members: Some 30 New Englanders unhappy about the materialistic-oriented lifeGathering place: Emersons homeJournal: the Dial 日规/日晷 (1840-1844

3、)Major Concepts This romantic, idealistic, mystical, and individualistic belief was more a cast of thought than a systematic philosophy. the power of intuition 直觉 people can learn things both from the outside world by means of the five senses and from the inner world by intuition. Transcendentalism:

4、 the recognition in man of the capacity of knowing truth intuitively.Spirit / the Oversoul : the most important thing in the universe; Spirit first , matter second. Oversoul 超灵: omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent the significance of the individual as the most important element of society More conce

5、rn for individuals moral development rather than for social progress. self-perfection & self-reliance (heritage of Puritanism)Nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God ,the garment of the Oversoul. (heritage of Puritanism) the unity of humanity and nature Essence of Transcendentalism -Romanticism on P

6、uritan soil.4.2 Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) 爱默生“Father of American Essay”The Concord SageLeader and spokesman of New England TranscendentalismEssayist, poet, philosopher, orator, criticNothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mindLifeBoston, Massachusetts, a line of New England cl

7、ergymen, “genteel poverty” as a childHarvard, reconsidering Calvinist belief, embracing Unitarianism 唯一神教派26, a Unitarian minister, first marriage 29, resigning his job, tour in Europe befriending with Wordsworth, Coleridge, Carlyle 31, back to Concord, Massachusetts 33, Nature, Transcendentalist Cl

8、ub rest of his life, traveling and spreading， the prophet of his ageLiterary WorksAs an essayist: Nature 论自然(1836) Essays散文选：第一集(1841) Essays: Second Series 散文选：第二集(1844) best-known and most influential essays : Nature 论自然; Self-Reliance论自助; The American Scholar 论美国学者(1837): As a poet Poems (1847);

9、May-Day and Other Pieces (1867); Selected Poems (1876) Naturethe bible of New England Transcendentalism a lyrical expression of the harmony Emerson felt between himself and nature, the purest and the most sanctifying moral influence on man “Nature never deceives us; it is always us who deceive ourse

10、lves.”“The landscape belongs to the man who looks at it.”The famous phrase “a transparent eye-ball” Emersons philosophical mentation, the transcendence of the Oversoula transparent eye-ball 透明的眼球Standing on the bare ground, my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space, all mean

11、egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God. 我站在空地上，头沐浴在和煦的空气里，仰望着渺邈无垠的太空，小我的一切都消失了。我变成了一只透明的眼球；本身不复存在；我洞察一切；“上帝” 的精气在我的周身循环；我成为上帝的一部分。extracted from Emersons Essays: First Series (1

12、841). reiterating the emphasis on the independence of the individual. the infinitude of man (self-reliance):If man depends upon himself, cultivates himself and brings out the divine in himself, he can hope to become better and even perfect. main idea : trust thyself and insist on yourself- not to be

13、 a conformist-the terror that scares people from self-trust is consistency. Self-RelianceSelf-Reliance There is a time in every mans education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for the better, for worse, as his portion 每个人在

14、受教育过程中，总有一天会认识到：妒忌是无知，模仿是自杀。不论好歹，每个人都必须接受属于他的那一份， Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist. 任何名副其实的真正的人，都必须是不落俗套的人。For nonconformity the world whips you with its displeasure. 世人用不快来鞭挞不落俗套的人 愚蠢地坚持随众随俗是心胸狭小的幽灵的表现，是低级的政客，哲学家和神学家们崇拜的物件。伟大的人物根本就不会随众随俗。他也许倒更关心自己落在墙上的影子。嘿！把好你的那张嘴！用包装线把双唇缝起来！否则，你若要做一个真

15、正的人的话，今天你想说什么就说什么，像放连珠炮一样；明天你想说什么，照样斩钉截铁地说什么，哪怕跟你今天说的一切都是相互予盾的。哈哈！老妇人，你就嚷嚷去吧！你肯定会被人误解的！误解，恰恰是个傻瓜的字眼。被人误解就那么不好吗?毕达哥拉斯被人误解，苏格拉底、耶稣、路德、哥白尼、伽利略和牛顿，每一位纯粹而又聪明、曾经生活过的人都曾被人误解过。要做个伟人，就一定会被人误解 The American Scholar1837, a speech entitled The American Scholar at Harvard, hailed as “Intellectual Declaration of I

16、ndependence”.Emerson called on American writers to write about America in an American way : everything here ,common or low as they may be, is worth writing about, for we are great in our own way. a new nations desire and struggle to assert its own identity in its formative period. Literary Nationali

17、sm- cultural independence and literary identity Emersons casual style a series of short, declarative sentences, which are not quite logically connected but will flower out into illustrative statements of truth and thoughts. repetition of his ideas in various ways, sentence by sentence, paragraph by

18、paragraph, gaining momentum as his thoughts soarHenry David Thoreau (1817-1862) 梭罗Advocate of New England Transcendentalismthe answer to Emersons plea for an “American Scholar”: loving nature, breaking convention, living in new waysThe prophet of Non-Violence Movementsage writer and philosopher A vo

19、ice speaking ahead of his timeLife1817, Concord, Massachusetts, pencil-makers family 17-20, Harvard20, friendship with Emerson, Graduated from Harvard, back to Concord2124 Unsuccessful running of a private school2426, Emersons student and handyman2829 cabin on Walden Pond 3045, lack of an occupation

20、, never married, living in obscurity 45, death an eccentric and a loafer in his time obscure in the whole 19th Century, steadily-rising reputation in 20th CenturyRelations with Emerson Emerson ,a great thinker. Thoreau, a great experimentalist“it required rare decision to refuse all the accustomed p

21、aths and keep his solitary freedom at the cost of disappointing his family and friends . . .”-EmersonEmerson criticized Thoreaus lack of ambition: instead of engineering for all America, he was the captain of a huckleberry party.“ “He had many virtues but he did not do justice to his own talent, i.e

22、. he wasted his life.”- Emersons speech at his funeralLiterary Works Civil Disobedience / Resistance to Civil Government (1849) 消极反抗 “论公民的不服从权利” jailed for refusing to pay a poll-tax of 2 dollars, later wrote Civil Disobedience advocating passive resistance to unjust laws of society. (Mahatma Gandhi

23、)A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849) 康科德河和梅里麦克河上的一星期 Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854)瓦尔登湖Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854)a series of 18 essays, a faithful record of his reflections when he was in solitary communion with nature (2 years and 2 months)a book on self-culture and huma

24、n perfectibilitythe importance of self-reliance, solitude, contemplation, and closeness to natureWalden, or Life in the Woods (1854)prophet of individualism in American literature “Civilized man is the slave of matter” critical of modern civilization which was degrading and enslaving man.-minimizing

25、 his own needs on Walden Pond. “Simplicity, Simplify ”a therapy for the fatal modern craze for monetary success in the wake of modern mechanization and commercializationWalden, a series of 18 essays*经济篇(Economy)* 我的生活所在；我的生活追求 (Where I Lived, and What I Lived For)* 阅读(Reading)* 声音 (Sounds )* 孤独 / 寂寞

26、(Solitude)* 访客(Visitors)* 种豆(The Bean-Field)* 村子(The Village)*湖(The Ponds)* 贝克田庄(Baker Farm)* 更高的法则 (Higher Laws)* 禽兽为邻(Brute Neighbors)* 室内取暖(House-warming)* 昔日的居民 ；冬天的访客(Former Inhabitants; and Winter Visitors)* 冬天的禽兽(Winter Animals )* 冬天的湖(The Pond in Winter)* 春天(Spring )* 结束语(Conclusion)a major

27、thematic concern : regeneration Walden unfolds in a single year, and progresses through summer and autumn to winter, and finally to a climax in the renascence of spring.-living on Walden was an experiment with a new way of life; he came out of it a better man, reborn and reinvigorated.“live delibera

28、tely, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”“I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude” Thoreaus calm trust in the future and his ardent belief in a new generat

29、ion of men: the book concludes on a clear note of optimism and hope. “The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.” 使我们失去视觉的那种光明，对于我们是黑暗。只有我们睁开眼睛醒过来的那一天，天才亮了。天亮的日子多着呢。太阳 不过是一个晓星。 我到林中去，因为我希望谨慎地生活，只面对生活的基本事实，看看我是否学得到生活要教育我的东西，免得到了临死的时候，才发现我根本就没有生活过。我不希望度过非生活的生活，生活是这样的可爱；我却也不愿意去修行过隐逸的生活，除非是万不得已。我要生活得深深地把生命的精髓都吸到，要生活得稳稳当当，生活得斯巴达式的，以便根除一切非生活的东西，划出一块刈割的面积来，细细地刈割或修剪，把生活压缩到一个角隅里去，把它缩小到最低的条件中，如果它被证明是卑微的，那末就把那真正的卑微全部认识到，并把它的卑微之处公布于世界；或者，如果它是崇高的，就用切身的经历来体会它，在我下一次远游时