Transcendentalism

[Whifflingpin]

"I want to see threads dedicated to the rise of literary movements such as transcendentalism, romanticism, symbolism, etc."

Would someone start by telling me what is transcendentalism, and who are the most typically transcendentalist writers?

And no, this is not just to help me with an 8th grade assignment :alien:

[chmpman]

Whoohoo!!! My wish answered, and quite quickly at that.

A professor of mine briefly mentioned this movement today, but I'm sure the description I will offer can be elaborated on by some of our more learned forum members.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, and also I believe HD Thoreau would be considered transcendentalists. For one, they believed that literature would truly begin with them, and according to wikipedia:
"Transcendentalism was the name of a group of new ideas in literature, religion, culture, and philosophy that advocates that there is an ideal spiritual state that 'transcends' the physical and empirical and is only realized through a knowledgeable intuitive awareness that is conditional upon the individual. The concept emerged in New England in the early-to mid-nineteenth century."

[Unspar]

Emerson and Thoreau had a small group of buddies who all considered themselves transcendentalists. The only other one I can think of off the top of my head is Margaret Fuller.

To take what chmpman says a bit further, they find the most transcendance in nature writings. Emerson's "Nature," Thoreau's Walden (of course) and "The Maine Woods," and Fuller's Summer on the Lakes are all excellent examples. It's fairly close to Romanticism as well in its use of the sublime and the writers' retreat from industrial society to the natural world.

[Whifflingpin]

Coincidence or what? I happen to have a volume of selections from Thoreau on the table next to my computer. If I didn't always skip introductions, I might have known (since yesterday) what transcend-thingamybob was.

"surely the most important part of an animal is its anima, its vital spirit, on which is based its character and all the particulars by which it most concerns us. Yet most scientific books which treat of animals leave this out altogether, and what they describe are, as it were, phenomena of dead matter." Thoreau

Right, I'd better get reading.

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[Whifflingpin]

"The only other one I can think of off the top of my head is Margaret Fuller."

Aha - but now I know! There are also Bronson Alcott, Ellery Channing, and Nathaniel Hawthorne - though I am not sure if the last is included, or whether he was merely a good friend of Thoreau.

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[Wild Apple]

This is a loaded question that not even the transcendentalists themselves could agree on. But its a favorite topic of mine so I stopped lurking, registered, and came to see if I could help answer it.

Chmpman's wikipedia defenition is a good start.

First thing you should know is Ralph Waldo Emerson was at the center of the movement and was easily the most important member to its survival. That being said, this is what he said transcendentalism is: "It is well known to most of my audience, that the Idealism of the present day acquired the name of Transcendental, from the use of that term by Immanuel Kant, of Konigsberg, who replied to the skeptical philosophy of Locke, which insisted that there was nothing in the intellect which was not previously in the experience of the senses, by showing that there was a very important class of ideas, or imperative forms, which did not come by experience, but through which experience was acquired; that these were intuitions of the mind itself; and he denominated them Transcendental forms."

I'll attempt to add to that in what I know about transcendentalism, in more understandable language:
(1) God is in everything
(2) God (or the "oversoul" as Emerson would put it) manifests particulary in nature
(3) Words are natural and spiritual facts. That is, God manifests in language too.

So it transcends in the sense that the spiritual transcends the material and emprical.

The movement was in centered in the Boston/Concord area in the early 19th century. The most important of them were Emerson, Thoreau and Fuller. But if you are interested in it more, you should also look up Alcott and Ellery Channing.

They rejected most past institutions and structures based on all of these theories. I.E. If God is in us from the start, even without life experience, then what we are now is good and right. To gain knowledge, we let Nature teach us.

Most people consider Emerson's Nature to be the main source of doctrine for the movement but I've also found Thoreau's Life Without Principle is a good accumulation of transcendental ideas.

This is just the tip of the ice berg, I hope others can add to what I've said. Hope it helps.

[Wild Apple]

"The only other one I can think of off the top of my head is Margaret Fuller."

Aha - but now I know! There are also Bronson Alcott, Ellery Channing, and Nathaniel Hawthorne - though I am not sure if the last is included, or whether he was merely a good friend of Thoreau.

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Even though Hawthorne lived in Concord for part of his life and spent time with some of the transcendentalists, he really isn't considered one. I'd group him with Melville in the people who were generally turned off by the idea.

[davoarid]

Transcendentalists are the people who, in response to the question "Are you religious?", undoubtedly reply "No, I'm spiritual."

[Virgil]

Even though Hawthorne lived in Concord for part of his life and spent time with some of the transcendentalists, he really isn't considered one. I'd group him with Melville in the people who were generally turned off by the idea.
Very good posts. I think everyone combined has captured what transcendentalism is, especially Wild Apple. The one poet that no one has listed and is probably the second most important transcedentalist after Emerson is Walt Whitman. Melville and Hawthorne were anti-transcendalists.

[Evergreenleaf]

I really like their idea of truth in nature, but I can't get behind the whole God part. I'm a cynical atheist. ;) Has anybody read Emerson's "Self-Reliance"? Probably many of you have. It's got a lot in it--interesting stuff. It's my favorite of the transcendentalists' work.

[PeterL]

Very good posts. I think everyone combined has captured what transcendentalism is, especially Wild Apple. The one poet that no one has listed and is probably the second most important transcedentalist after Emerson is Walt Whitman. Melville and Hawthorne were anti-transcendalists.

I would think that Emily Dickinson was more of a Transcendentalist than Whitman and a much better poet.

[Virgil]

No. I've actually never heard that Dickenson was interested in transcendentalism. She may have been, I'm not sure. Next time I read her poetry, I'll keep that in mind and check it out. Whitman was a passionate transcendentalist.

[Stismet]

I would think that Emily Dickinson was more of a Transcendentalist than Whitman and a much better poet.

Emily Dickinson was too much of an observer in life to be considered Transcendentalist. While she wrote about nature, she didn't do it from the "Transcendental" point-of-view. Transcendentalism is characterized, like Romanticism, by symbolism and belief in the innate goodness of nature and human nature. Emily Dickinson largely avoids symbolism. And Transcendental works are more passionate and expressive, also because of its roots in Romanticism, while Emily Dickinson abandoned that for ballad form. She was the woman who spent her entire life on the inside, merely looking out. She didn't actually experience nature enough to have a Transcendental mindset.

Whitman and Dickinson are considered to be the first voices of true American literature, and they came between Transcendentalism and Realism, while not truly falling into either category. Of course, they don't fall into Realism at all. Whitman is more of a Transcendentalist than Dickinson because he has focuses on nature very philisophically.