New England Transcendentalism (American Renaissance)新英格兰超越主义（美国文艺复兴）

1、American Romantic Literature (II):New England Transcendentalism (American Renaissance)I. Beginning of an indigenous national literatureAmerican Romanticism entered a new phase around the middle 1830s and culminated around the 1840s in what has come to be known as “New England Transcendentalism” or “

2、American Renaissance” (1836-1855). In 1836, Ralph Waldo Emerson published a book entitled Nature, which says that “The Universe is composed of Nature and the Soul” and that “Spirit is present everywhere.” Nature has been called “The Manifesto of American Transcendentalism” and its voice pushed Ameri

3、can Romanticism into the phase of New England Transcendentalism.” With the publication of Nature and of Emersons “The American Scholar” in 1837, American literature began to enter its formative period of an indigenous national literature, with liberal and nationalistic, among others, as its most dis

4、tinct features.II. Transcendentalism Transcendentalism, as Emerson defined in his essay “The Transcendentalist,” is “idealism; idealism as appears in “1842” when some New Englanders formed themselves into an informal club, which came to be called the Transcendentalist Club, and met to discuss matter

5、s of interest to the life of the nation as a whole. It appeared in A III. Major features of New England TranscendentalismNew England Transcendentalism represented a new way of looking at the universe, man, and the relationship between nature and God. Its major features can be summarized as follows:

6、First, the Transcendentalists placed emphasis on spirit, or the Oversoul, as the most important thing in the universal. The Oversoul was an all-pervading power for goodness, omnipresent and omnipotent, from which all things came and of which all were a part. It existed in nature and man alike and co

7、nstituted the chief element of the universe. This kind of view of the universe represented a new way of looking at the world and was a reaction to the eighteenth-century Newtonian concept of the universe as consisting of matter and a reaction against the popular tendency to get ahead in world affair

8、s to the neglect of spiritual welfare. Secondly, the Transcendentalists stressed the importance of the individual. To them, the individual was the most important element of society. As the regeneration of society could only come about through the regeneration of the individual, his perfection, his e

9、lf-culture, and self-improvement should become the first concern of his life. The ideal type of man was the self-reliant individual whom Emerson never stopped talking about in his life. So people could depend on themselves for spiritual perfection. This new notion of the individual and his importanc

10、e represented a new way of looking at man. It was a reaction as the Calvinist concept that man is totally depraved, sinful, and can not be saved except through the grace of God. It was also a reaction against the process of dehumanization that came in the wake of developing capitalism. The industria

11、lization of New England was turning men into nonhuman. People were losing their individuality and were becoming uniform. By asserting the importance of the individual, the Transcendentalists emphasized the significance of men regaining their lost personality. Thirdly, the Transcendentalists saw natu

12、re as symbolic of the Spirit or God. Nature was, to them, not purely matter. It was alive, filled with Gods overwhelming presence. It was the garment of the Oversoul. they believed that things in nature tended to be symbolic, and the physical world was a symbol of the spiritual. This is in turn adde

13、d to the tradition of literary symbolism in American literature. New England Transcendentalism was important to American literature. It inspired a whole new generation of famous authors such as Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman and Dickinson.IV. American Puritanism and New England Trans

14、cendentalismNew England Transcendentalism was indebted to American Puritanism in two aspects. First, the Edwardian notion of inward communication of the soul with God and divine symbolism of nature all find adequate expression in Emersonian Transcendentalism. Then, the Transcendentalists emphasis on

15、 the individual was directly traceable to the Puritan principle of self-culture and self-improvement as best exemplified by the success story of Americas first self-made man, Benjamin Franklin.V. Major writers of American RenaissanceA. New England Transcendentalist Prose writers1. Ralph Waldo Emerso

16、n (1803-1882) a. A brief introduction:Ralph Waldo Emerson was the most eloquent spokesman of New England Transcendentalism. He was brought up with the Calvinist belief in total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, Gods irresistible grace, and the perseverance of the saints, but he r

17、ejected it after he went to Harvard. He made friends with Coleridge, Carlyle, Wordsworth when he was in Europe and brought with him the influence of European Romanticism when he returned to America. With the people of like minds such as Thoreau, Bronson Alcott, and Margaret Fuller, he formed an info

18、rmal Transcendentalists club, and helped to found the Transcendentalist journal, The Dial, to explain the Transcendentalist ideas. Many writers such as Thoreau, Whitman, and Dickinson were influenced by him. b. Emersons transcendentalist philosophy:As the leading New England Transcendentalist, Emers

19、on effected a most articulate synthesis of the Transcendentalist views. One major element of his philosophy is his belief in the transcendence of the “Oversoul.” His emphasis on the spirit runs through virtually all his writings. In Nature, he said, “Philosophically considered, the universe is compo

20、sed of Nature and the Soul.” He sees the world as phenomenal, and emphasizes the need for idealism. He regards nature as the purest, and the most sanctifying moral influence on man, and advocates a direct intuition of a spiritual and immanent God. He sees spirit pervading everywhere, not only in the

21、 soul of man, but behind nature, throughout nature. In his opinion, man is made in the image of God and is just a little less than Him. God is operative in the soul of man, and therefore man is divine. The divinity of man became a favorite subject in his lectures and essays. For example, he wrote in

22、 Nature about a moment of “conversion” when the soul has completely transcended the limits of individuality and become part of the Oversoul:Standing on the bare ground, my head bathed in the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space, all mean egoism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball; I am n

23、othing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God. -From NatureAnother element of his philosophy is his emphasis on the importance of the individual. To him, the individual, not the crowd, is the most important of all. If man depends on himself

24、, cultivates himself, and brings out the divine in himself, he can hope to become better and even perfect. He always tried to convince people that the possibilities for man to develop and improve himself was infinite. Men should and could be self-reliant. Each man should feel the world as his, and t

25、he world exists for him alone. He should determine his own existence. Everyone should understand that he makes himself by making his world, and that he makes the world by making himself. A third element of his philosophy is his view of nature as symbolic of God. He sees nature as a mediator between

26、man and God. To him, nature is a wholesome moral influence on man and his character, and the world around is symbolic. c. Emersons aesthetics:Emersons philosophy had a significant effect on his aesthetics. To him, true poetry and true art should ennoble. It should serve as a moral purification and a

27、 passage toward organic unity and higher reality. He places emphasis on ideas, symbols, and imaginative words. The argument of the poet should decide the form of the poem instead of the traditional techniques. The poet should express his thoughts in symbols, for symbolism is a universal thing. As to

28、 theme, he called on American authors to celebrate America which was to him a long poem itself, to celebrate the life of today, “the factory village and the railway.” His aesthetics brought about a revolution in American literature in general and American poetry in particular. It marked the birth of

29、 true American poetry and true American poets such as Whitman and Dickinson. d. Emersons influence:Emersons influence on American literature and culture cannot be exaggerated. His call for an independent culture in Nature (1836) and “The American Scholar” played a very important part in the intellec

30、tual history of the nation. What he was trying to say in his writing is that the Americans should write about here and now instead of imitating and importing from other lands. He always called on American writers to write about America in a way particularly American because everything here is worth

31、writing about. Emersons importance in the intellectual history of America lies in the fact that he embodied a new nations desire and struggle to assert its own identity in its formative period.Emersons optimistic philosophy was later challenged by such major writers as Hawthorne and Melville because

32、 he was believed to fail to distinguish between good and evil. He firmly believes that there is a force always at work to make the best better and the worst good. To him, Good is a good doctor, but Bad is sometime a better. Self-reliance (an excerpt) Self-relianceTo be self-reliant, one should: Be a

33、 non-conformist; Oppose to consistency; and Trust himself and make himself.Why should a self-reliant man be a non-conformist? Conformity destroys the integrity of ones mind: “Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of ones own mind” (para. 1, p. 20). Conformity destroys the sacredness of ones na

34、ture: “No law can be sacred to one but that of his nature” (para. 1, p. 20). Conformity can not tell good from bad: “Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to this or that; the only right is what is after ones constitution; the only wrong what is against it” (para. 1, p. 20). Conformit

35、y encourages dependence: One has no obligation to put all poor men in good condition-“I grudge the dollar, the dime, the cent I give to such men as do not belong to me and to whom I do not belong” (para. 1, p. 20). Conformity destroys virtues: “Virtues are the exception rather than the rule. There i

36、s the man and his virtuesMy life is for itself and not for a spectacle” (para. 2, p. 21). Conformity destroys independence: “What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people thinkThe great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude” (

37、para. 3, p. 21). Conformity destroys originality: “Conformity makes one not false in a few particulars, author of a few lines, but false in all particulars” (para. 4, p. 21)Why should a self-reliant man oppose to consistency? Consistency destroys newness: “It is a rule of wisdom never to rely on you

38、r memory alone and one should live ever in a new day” (para. 4, p. 22). Consistency destroys greatness: “A great soul has nothing to do with consistencyTo be great is to misunderstood” (para. 5. p. 22). Consistency violates mans nature: “No man can violate his nature” (para. 6. p. 22) Consistency de

39、stroys the infinite possibilities of mans development: Kind humanity is good, but true humanity is more important-“There is a great responsible Thinker and Actor working wherever a man works; a true man belongs to no other time or place, but is the centre if things. There he is, there is nature. He

40、measures you and all men and all eventsEvery true man is a cause, a country, and an age; requires infinite spaces and numbers and time fully to accomplish his design; and posterity seem to follow his steps as a train of clientsall history resolves itself very easily into the biographies of a few sto

41、ut and earnest persons) (para. 3. p. 23).Self-reliance: Trust thyself and make thyself: “Let a man know his worth, and keep things under his feet” (para. 1, p. 24) A self-reliant man is an individual who can trust himself and make himself.2. Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) a. A brief introduction:He

42、nry David Thoreau was a friend and faithful follower of Emerson. He was an active Transcendentalist. In 1845, with the permission of Emerson, he went to build a cabin on a piece of Emersons property on Walden Pond, and moved in on July 4 to live there in a very simple manner for a little over two ye

43、ars for the simple reason that he wanted to move away from the rush and bustle of American social life which was, to him, getting more and more sadly materialistic-oriented. He later put his experience on Walden Pond into his book, Walden. He did not escape from his society, but was intensely involv

44、ed in the life of his day instead. He did not like the way a materialistic America was developing and was vehemently outspoken on the point. He hated the human injustice as represented by the slavery system and was known to have helped at least one African American to get free. b. Thoreaus works and

45、 themes:As an author, Thoreaus reputation mainly rests on two books, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, and Walden (1854), and a lot of journals and essays. As Thoreaus masterpiece, Walden is a great Transcendentalist work. It is a faithful record of his reflections when he was in solitary

46、communication with nature. It can be read on more than one level. But it is, first and foremost, a book on self-culture and human perfectibility. It is a book about man, what he is, and what he should be and must be. Thoreau has faith in the inner virtue and inward, spiritual grace of man. He holds

47、that the most important thing for men to do with their lives is to be self-sufficient and strive to achieve personal spiritual perfection.Walden (an excerpt)B. Novelists of American Renaissance:1. Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) a. A brief introduction:Nathaniel Hawthorne was the greatest American w

48、riter in the first half of the nineteenth-century. He was a classmate of Wadsworth Longfellow and developed a friendship with Franklin Pierce, the fourth President of America. He published his first tale in 1830. Seven years later, he published his Twice-Told Tales, a collection of short stories. An

49、other collection of short stories, Moses from an Old Manse came out in 1846. He did not gain fame or fortune until 1850 when his masterpiece The Scarlet Letter was published. One year later, another novel, The House of the Seven Gables came out, to be followed by The Blithedale Romance in 1852 and T

50、he Marble Faun in 1860. b. Hawthornes sense of sin and evil and his black vision:All his life, Hawthorne seemed to be haunted by his sense of sin and evil in life. Reading his tales and romances, one cannot but be overwhelmed by the “black” vision which these works reveal. Evil exists in the human h

51、eart and everyone possesses some evil secret. Evil seems to be mans birthmark. Although Hawthorne is ambiguous and his tales are often capable of more than one interpretation, he is certainly at his best when writing about evil. Most of his works deal with evil one way or another. The blackness of v

52、ision has become his trade mark. It illustrates the influence that the Calvinist doctrine of “original sin” and total depravity had upon him. It also explains Hawthornes aloofness from Emersonian Transcendentalist optimism and his skepticism about it. To Hawthorne, sin will get punished one way or a

53、nother. He believed that “the wrong-doing of one generation lives into the successive one,” and that evil will come out of evil though it may take many generations to happen. So he was said to be often troubled by the thought that the decline of his familys fortune had to do with the sins of his anc

54、estors (some of his ancestors were men of prominence in the Puritan theocracy of seventeenth-century New England, and one of them was a colonial magistrate, notorious for his part in the persecution of the Quakers, and another was a judge at the Salem Witchcraft Trial in 1692).One source of evil in

55、Hawthorne is overweening intellect. The tension between the head (intellect) and the heart (warmth and feeling) constitutes one of the elements which make his writings enchanting. His intellectual characters are usually villains, dreadful because devoid of fellow feeling. Chillingworth in The Scarle

56、t Letter is just one of Hawthornes chilling, cold-blooded human animals. c. Hawthornes aesthetics:Hawthornes aesthetics is well expressed in his attempt to create “a neutral territory, somewhere between the real world and the fairy-land where the Actual and the Imaginary may meet, and each imbue its

57、elf with the nature of other.” Thus he took a great interest in history and antiquity. To him these furnish the soil on which his mind grows to fruition. So he believed that romance was the predestined form of American narrative. It is not only “the poverty of material” in America that led him to wr

58、ite romances rather than novels; it is also because of his Puritan prudence - romance allowing him to treat physical passions obliquely and to avoid violating the human heart. His thinking and aesthetics found full expression in his masterpiece, The Scarlet Letter. d. Hawthornes influence:Hawthornes

59、 influence has been great. H e. The Scarlet Letter The Scarlet Letter fully expresses Hawthornes thinking and aesthetics. It is set in the seventeenth century. The story is simple but very moving. An aging English scholar sends his beautiful young wife, Hester Prynne, to make their new home in New E

60、ngland. When he comes over two years later he is bewildered to see his wife in pillory, weari9ng a scarlet letter A on her breast, holding her illicit child in her arms. Determined to find out who her lover is, the old scholar disguises himself as a physician and changes his name to Roger Chillingwo