Baker English 227 Project
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Transcendentalism was a new way of thinking that poked its head out of the ground in the 19th century in New England. It was initially a protest of the general state that society and culture were in at the time. This new way of thinking affected such areas as religion, culture, philosophy and literature. Some authors that were part of the transcendentalist movement in American literature are Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and William Henry Channing, just to name a few.
Transcendentalism: The Metaphysics of the Theme
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In this essay, Elizabeth Meese argues that readers have only read the works of transcendentalist authors in certain ways up to this point, but if readers were to employ and embrace a metaphysical point of view, they could see these works in other ways than before and more clearly as well. This is a good idea for the most part since finding newer and more clear ways of understanding a very crucial part of American literary history is an all around good thing. The only down side to this would be the possibility of misconstruing the meanings of these very important works, but then again that is always a concern when attempting to find a meaning in a transcendentalist work.
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Transcendentalist Catalogue Rhetoric: Vision Versus Form
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In his essay, Lawrence Buell makes the point that both Walt Whitman and Ralph Waldo Emerson use catalogue in their works to express transcendentalist thought, Whitman through his poetry and Emerson through his essays. Whitman's work is used to show the examples while Emerson's work is used to show the theories. This process actually works very well to make this point. Whitman's poetry shows good examples of transcendentalism and Emerson, being one of the most well known transcendentalist authors, has very clear transcendentalist theories in his essays.
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Walden Pond
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Walden Pond is located in Concord, Massachusetts and was the home of the famous transcendentalist, Henry David Thoreau for an alleged period of two years, two months and two days. While at Walden Pond, Thoreau wrote his work entitled "Walden." This book was about his times at Walden and also expressed his views on society and culture. Walden Pond represented a place away from society where Thoreau could express himself in an environment where he felt at peace with his transcendentalist nature.
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William James and Emerson
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This article explores the relationship between William James and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Despite the fact that their philosophies had what is widely believed to be somewhat contrasting viewpoints, James had quite a bit of respect for Emerson. In his personal library, James had Emerson's essays and had annotated them and made several notes on the flyleaves of the books. This mutual respect and clearly in depth reading of Emerson's work by James causes me to think that these the philosophies of William James may be influenced by those of Ralph Waldo Emerson in a very slight degree in some sort of fashion or form.
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Transcendentalism and Psychotherapy: Another Look at Emerson
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Bridges toys with the idea that Emerson was not so much the next person in line to sit on the throne of philosophy, but a visionary ahead of his time on the subject of "selfhood." This theory is very interesting because it takes Emerson somewhat out of the spotlight as the "king of transcendentalists" and makes him an outcast who's ideas would not be realized to be of any consequence until much later. I personally have a hard time looking at Emerson in this light due to his massive impact on the transcendentalist movement, though when he is looked at as a predecessor to psychotherapists and theologians, one could see the reasoning behind this idea as well.
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Channing and Transcendentalism
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Arthur Ladu brings up the point that many before him have also brought up - William Henry Channing was at the forefront of the transcendentalist movement. This point is extremely valid simply due to the fact that when looked at closely, it seems that Channing's Unitarian ideas gave way to some transcendentalist ones, especially toward the end of his life when he seemed to be a little kinder to the idea of transcendentalism. Even the face of transcendentalism, Ralph Waldo Emerson, recognized Channing's work to be of importance to the world.
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All of these sources tie together in one main point - transcendentalism was a movement started and fueled by many different people, not just one person. Of course some people had a much larger hand in it than others and some people receive much more credit than others, regardless of whether it is deserved or not. The main thing though is that transcendentalism was a very widespread thing throughout all of New England and the general ideas, philosophies and theories that make up what everyone recognizes transcendentalism as are a collaboration of the ideas, philosophies and theories of many different transcendentalists.
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