Emerson-Transcendentalism(常耀信,美国文学,超验主义.爱默生)

1、transcendentalism （1830s-1850s ）,what is transcendentalism? p56,transcendentalism is the summit of the romantic movement in the history of american literature in the 19th century. transcendentalism has been defined philosophically as “the recognition in man of the capacity of knowing truth intuitive

2、ly”. transcendentalists place emphasis on the importance of the over-soul, the individual and nature. the most important representatives are ralph waldo emerson and henry david thoreau.,超验主义(transcendentalism)的核心观点是主张人能超越感觉和理性而直接认识真理，认为人类世界的一切都是宇宙的一个缩影-世界将其自身缩小成为一滴露水（爱默生语）。超验主义者强调万物本质上的统一，万物皆受超灵制约，而

3、人类灵魂与超灵一致。这种对人之神圣的肯定使超验主义者蔑视外部的权威与传统，依赖自己的直接经验。相信你自己这句爱默生的名言，成为超验主义者座右铭。这种超验主义观点强调人的主观能动性，有助于打破加尔文教的人性恶、命定论等教条的束缚，为热情奔放，抒发个性的浪漫主义文学奠定了思想基础。,resources,a. puritan heritage p58at the end of the 18th century people gradually felt boring about the strict calvinism. at the same time with the development o

4、f science and technology, americans suspected the old religion. thus, unitarianism（唯一理教） appeared. it was a developed school from the transcendentalism. it stressed continual progress of mankind rather than old religions mans total depravity”.,resources,b. foreign influencegerman philosophy, especia

5、lly kant（康德）ancient indian and chinese works, such as confucius and menciusp58,oversoul 超灵 and individual soul,the oversoul is an all-pervading power for goodness, omnipresent and omnipotent, from which all things came and of which all were a part. as the individual soul could commune with god, it w

6、as, therefore, divine. with the assumption of the innate goodness of humanity, it held that the individual soul could reach god without the help of churches or clergy.,spirit / oversoul is the most important thing in the universe.,features p57,it exists in nature and man alike and constituted the un

7、iverse. it is omnipresent (present everywhere) and omnipotent (able to do anything),（a new way of looking at the world）,features,the transcendentalists stressed the importance of individualism,the individual soul communed with the oversoul and was therefore divine. the regeneration of society could

8、only come about through the regeneration of the individual. his perfection should be the first concern of his life. the ideal type of man was the self-reliant individual,（a new way of looking at man）,features,nature is the symbol of spirit/the garment of the oversoul,nature was alive, filled with go

9、ds overwhelming presence. the physical world was a symbol of the spiritual. nature could exercise a healthy and restorative influence on the human mind.,（a new way of looking at nature）,significance,a. influenced a large group of writersb. summit of american romanticismc. marked the independence of

10、american literature,transcendentalism: quotes,“the universe is composed of nature and the soul. spirit is present everywhere.”,transcendentalism: quotes,“go back to nature, sink yourself back into its influence and youll become spiritually whole again.”,transcendentalism: quotes,“standing on the bar

11、e ground, -my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, -all mean egotism vanishes. i become a transparent eye-ball.”,ralph waldo emerson 拉尔夫沃尔多爱默生（1803-1882）,poet essayist popular lecturer father of transcendentalism,life,a. born in a clergymans family in new englandb. gradua

12、ted from harvardc. a unitarian ministerd. abandoned unitarianism and went to europe searching for truthe. founded a transcendentalists club and published a journalf. traveled and gave lectures; quite influential,ralph waldo emerson: major works,nature 自然 (1836) ：“the manifesto of american transcende

13、ntalism” and “the bible of new england transcendentalism.” the american scholar 美国学者(1837)： americas declaration of intellectual independence self-reliance 论自助: the importance of cultivating oneself,aesthetics,a. in emersons opinion, poets should function as preachers who gave directions to the mass

14、.b. true poetry should serve as a moral purificationc. the argument (or his thought or experience) should decide the form of the poem instead of traditional techniques.,aesthetics,d. the poets should express his thought in symbols.e. poets should use words for their pictorial and imaginative meaning

15、.f. as to theme, emerson called upon american authors to writer about peculiar american matters.,evaluation to him,he was the first american to call for an independent culture in both nature and the american scholar.(americas declaration of intellectual independence).he called on american writers to

16、 write about america in a way peculiarly american. emersons aesthetics places emphasis on ideas, symbol, and imaginative words, which brought about a revolution in american literature in general and in american poetry in particular.,evaluation to him,he embodied a new nations desire and struggle to

17、assert its own identity in its formative period. in modern times he is sometimes dismissed as having no sense of evil, and his optimistic philosophy as so much transcendentalist folly.,limitation,his reputation fell in the 20th century because he firmly believed human and human society could be bett

18、er. it seemed that he had no sense of evil and too opitimistic about human nature and the society. somebody once called this kind of optimism transcendental folly.* 爱默生的散文富于哲理，多格言警句，在中国有多种译文。中国著名的女作家张爱玲曾经翻译过爱默生的散文，目前她的译本已由三联书店出版。,textual study nature 自然,quotes,to go into solitude, a man needs to ret

19、ire as much from his chamber as from society. i am not solitary whilst i read and write, though nobody is with me. but if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. the rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and what he touches. one might think the atmosphere was

20、made transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime.,textual study,self-reliance 论自助,introduction,self-reliance is widely considered to be the definitive statement of ralph waldo emersons philosophy of individualism and the finest example of

21、his prose. emerson was known for his repeated use of the phrase trust thyself. self-reliance is his explanationboth systematic and passionateof what he meant by this and of why he was moved to make it his catch-phrase.,theme: individualism,emerson calls on individuals to value their own thoughts, op

22、inions, and experiences above those presented to them by other individuals, society, and religion. this radical individualism springs from emersons belief that each individual is not just unique but divinely unique; i.e., each individual is a unique expression of gods creativity and will. further, s

23、ince emersons god is purposeful, he molded each individual to serve a particular purpose, to do a certain work that only he or she is equipped to carry out.,henry david thoreau (1817-1862),schoolteacher, essayist, poet one leader of transcendentalism most famous for walden and civil disobedience,lif

24、e,a. born in a common family in new englandb. graduated from harvard, but only stayed at home and helped family businessc. a friend of emersond. active in social life and had a strong sense of justice (example: he once refused to pay a poll-tax of 2 dollars because he felt the tax was unfair, and th

25、us he was jailed. and later he wrote an essay named civil disobedience which advocated passive resistance to unjust laws and influenced gandhi in india.甘地的非暴力不合作运动)f. not successful as a writer and lived in obscurity all his life,walden,walden,沃尔登湖是一本静静的书，是一本超凡入圣的书，是一本节约简朴的书，被誉为美国环境运动的思想先驱。梭罗(181718

26、66)是美国19世纪著名的作家。他在沃尔登湖畔独自生活了920天后，走出森林，在一间小木屋里完成了沃尔登湖这部作品。,thoreau: walden 瓦沃尔登湖,in 1845 thoreau built himself a small cabin on the shore of walden pond, near concord; there he remained for more than two years, wishing to lead a life free of materialistic pursuits. he supported himself by growing ve

27、getables and by surveying and doing odd jobs in the nearby village. he devoted most of his time to observing nature, reading, and writing, and he kept a detailed journal of his observations, activities, and thoughts. it was from this journal that he later distilled his masterpiece, walden.,thoreau:

28、walden 瓦尔登湖,his thought about this experience was developed in the journals over a period of years, and the result is walden, a series of 18 essays describing thoreaus idealistic creed as affected by and expressed in his life at the pond. walden, or life in the woods is still well known as thoreaus

29、crowning achievement, almost a century and a half has passed since its first publication.,thoreau: walden 瓦尔登湖,walden presented thoreaus unusual interests in nature and showed his individualism which inherited from american puritanism. the book described the authors extremely simple life and regener

30、ation he experienced when he lived near the walden pond. comparing with emerson who was a great thinker, thoreau was a great experimentalist who put emersons transcendental doctrines into practice in the actual life.,textual study thoreau: walden 瓦尔登湖,“i went into the woods because i wished to live

31、deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life and see if i could not learn what it has to teach, and not, when i came to die, discover that i had not lived.” but lo! men have become the tools of their tools. we are so degraded that we cannot speak simply of the necessary functions of human

32、 nature.,textual study thoreau: walden 瓦尔登湖,“heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.” “we live meanly, like ants; though the fable tells us that we were long ago changed into men . it is error upon error and clout upon clout, and our best virtue has for its occasion a superfluous and evitable wretchedness. our life is frittered away by detail. .” “why should we live with such hurry and waste of life?” “simplicity, simplicity, simplicity. i say, let your affairs be as two or three a