New England Transcendentalism Summary
5/22/2014
New England Transcendentalism Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, American Romanticism, American Renaissance
New England, What is Transcendentalism?, Transcendental Club
Home > New England Transcendentalism Index > Background Summary
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New England
Transcendentalism
Backdrop to Events
During "The First Great Awakening" (1730 - 1770) a large proportion of colonial
Americans took up with a revitalization of evangelical religious piety. This renewed
Affirmation of Faith had largely arisen to counter the rationalistic currents of the Age of
Enlightenment. The evangelisation associated with the First Great Awakening …show more content…
New England
Transcendentalism
.
Ralph Waldo
Emerson
.
Henry David
Thoreau
.
Margaret Fuller
.
Elizabeth Palmer
Peabody
.
The Brook Farm
Community
This then is the situation where the story of New England Transcendentalism more clearly begins.
Back in the Old World a heady "Romanticism" in arts and letters was displacing neoclassical Enlightenment values. Where "The Enlightenment" saw typical individuals
"Romanticism" saw unique individuals. Where "The Enlightenment" prized rationality and science as routes to progress "Romanticism" preferred emotion, imagination, and intuition. Overall a cultural preference, by the "progressives" of one generation, for a mechanistic and rational world view was increasingly displaced by a cultural preference, as expressed by a more broad group of "progressives" in the rising generation, for a more organic, more emotional, and more imaginative form of society. http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/transcendentalism/transcendentalism.html 1/6
5/22/2014
New England Transcendentalism Ralph Waldo Emerson
Alongside the emergent preference for Romanticism was a form of …show more content…
This alteration was partly a case of Transcendentalism having seemed to say all that it had to say and also a case of the emergence of Social
Realities that channeled people 's attention elsewhere.
There was the dramatic conflict of opinion over the Abolition of Slavery and States
Rights that culminated in the American Civil War. Society, in the north eastern states, was also becoming much more urban and industrialised, there were issues of workers ' rights, womens ' rights, the position of minorities and so forth.
The more innocent times that had allowed Henry David Thoreau to indulge in an idyllic communion with a more natural existence on the shores of Walden Pond and had also allowed (failed) attempts at utopian communal living such as at Brook Farm and Fruitlands were seen as becoming a thing of the past.
People now demanded a social "Realism" in artistic and literary movements.
Romantic literary forms seemed too idealised and grandiose in heroism and tragedy to reflect real life. Imagination was seen as being at odds with a necessity to accurately depict everyday reality and to examine fully ethical dilemmas, choices, and
consequences.
New England Transcendentalism Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, American Romanticism, American Renaissance
New England, What is Transcendentalism?, Transcendental Club
Home > New England Transcendentalism Index > Background Summary
Site Map | Slide Shows | Guest Book | Links | About Us | Download Wisdoms |
New England
Transcendentalism
Backdrop to Events
During "The First Great Awakening" (1730 - 1770) a large proportion of colonial
Americans took up with a revitalization of evangelical religious piety. This renewed
Affirmation of Faith had largely arisen to counter the rationalistic currents of the Age of
Enlightenment. The evangelisation associated with the First Great Awakening …show more content…
New England
Transcendentalism
.
Ralph Waldo
Emerson
.
Henry David
Thoreau
.
Margaret Fuller
.
Elizabeth Palmer
Peabody
.
The Brook Farm
Community
This then is the situation where the story of New England Transcendentalism more clearly begins.
Back in the Old World a heady "Romanticism" in arts and letters was displacing neoclassical Enlightenment values. Where "The Enlightenment" saw typical individuals
"Romanticism" saw unique individuals. Where "The Enlightenment" prized rationality and science as routes to progress "Romanticism" preferred emotion, imagination, and intuition. Overall a cultural preference, by the "progressives" of one generation, for a mechanistic and rational world view was increasingly displaced by a cultural preference, as expressed by a more broad group of "progressives" in the rising generation, for a more organic, more emotional, and more imaginative form of society. http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/transcendentalism/transcendentalism.html 1/6
5/22/2014
New England Transcendentalism Ralph Waldo Emerson
Alongside the emergent preference for Romanticism was a form of …show more content…
This alteration was partly a case of Transcendentalism having seemed to say all that it had to say and also a case of the emergence of Social
Realities that channeled people 's attention elsewhere.
There was the dramatic conflict of opinion over the Abolition of Slavery and States
Rights that culminated in the American Civil War. Society, in the north eastern states, was also becoming much more urban and industrialised, there were issues of workers ' rights, womens ' rights, the position of minorities and so forth.
The more innocent times that had allowed Henry David Thoreau to indulge in an idyllic communion with a more natural existence on the shores of Walden Pond and had also allowed (failed) attempts at utopian communal living such as at Brook Farm and Fruitlands were seen as becoming a thing of the past.
People now demanded a social "Realism" in artistic and literary movements.
Romantic literary forms seemed too idealised and grandiose in heroism and tragedy to reflect real life. Imagination was seen as being at odds with a necessity to accurately depict everyday reality and to examine fully ethical dilemmas, choices, and
consequences.