What is Transcendentalism?

What is Transcendentalism?

Readers have asked this question often. Here's my answer:

When I first learned about Transcendentalism, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau in high school English class, I admit: I couldn't figure out what the term "Transcendentalism" meant. I couldn't figure out what the central idea was that held all those authors and poets and philosophers together so that they deserved this categorical name, Transcendentalists. And so, if you're at this page because you're having difficulty: you're not alone. Here's what I've learned since high school about this subject.

The Transcendentalists can be understood in one sense by their context -- by what they ...

Want to read the rest of this paper?
Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay
and over 50,000 other term papers

the Americans had won independence from England. Now, these people believed, it was time for literary independence. And so they deliberately went about creating literature, essays, novels, philosophy, poetry, and other writing that were clearly different from anything from England, France, Germany, or any other European nation.

Another way to look at the Transcendentalists is to see them as a generation of people struggling to define spirituality and religion (our words, not necessarily theirs) in a way that took into account the new understandings their age made available.

The new Biblical Criticism in Germany and elsewhere had been looking at the Christian and Jewish scriptures through the eyes of literary analysis and had raised questions for some about the old assumptions of religion.

The Enlightenment had come to new rational conclusions about the natural world, mostly based on experimentation and logical thinking. The pendulum was swinging, and a more Romantic way of ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays.
Write better papers. Get better grades.

Already a member? Login

CITE THIS PAGE:

APA
MLA
Chicago
Turabian

What is Transcendentalism?. (2011, April 3). Retrieved June 23, 2018, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/What-is-Transcendentalism/97444

"What is Transcendentalism?." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 3 Apr. 2011. Web. 23 Jun. 2018. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/What-is-Transcendentalism/97444>

"What is Transcendentalism?." Essayworld.com. April 3, 2011. Accessed June 23, 2018. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/What-is-Transcendentalism/97444.

JOIN NOW

Join today and get instant access to this and 50,000+ other essays

PAPER DETAILS

Added: 4/3/2011 02:46:11 PM
Submitted By: busezandar
Category: Education
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 828
Pages: 4

Save |

Report

SHARE THIS PAPER

SAVED ESSAYS

Save and find your favorite essays easier