Transcend

ental

Movement

1836-1860

What

does

Transc

endenta

lism

m

ean?

a philosophy which says that

thought and spiritual things are

more real than ordinary human

experience and material things

The term Transcendentalism was

derived from the philosopher

Kant, who called "all knowledge

transcendental which is

concerned not with objects but

with our mode of knowing

objects." Transcendental Period

represented a new way of

understanding truth and

knowledge.

Fam

ous

Wri

ters

Ralph Waldo Emerson - essayist, author,

leading exponent of Transcendentalism

Henry David Thoreau - poet, essayist,

abolitionist; best known for Walden

Walt Whitman - American poet (Leaves of

Grass, etc.), humanist Nathaniel Hawthorne - immensely

influential 19th-century American

novelist Herman Melville - influential novelist,

author of Moby-Dick Amos Bronson Alcott - noted teacher,

author and Utopian; founder of the

Fruitlands; father of children's author

Louisa May Alcott William Ellery Channing - poet (nephew

and namesake of leading Unitarian

preacher Dr. William Ellery Channing)

Fam

ous

Wri

ters

C

ont.

Margaret Fuller - (1810-1850)

journalist, women's rights activist

Orestes Brownson - (1803-1876) New

England intellectual, activist,

preacher and labor organizer; best

known for his affiliation with the New

England Transcendentalists

Frederick Henry Hedge - New England

Unitarian minister who became the

founder of the Transcendental Club

and active in the development of

Transcendentalism Theodore Parker - (1810-1860)

reformer in the Unitarian church, and

an influential Transcendentalist

George Putnam - Unitarian minister

who was co-founder of the famous

Transcendental Club

Popula

r Li

tera

ture Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

American Essayist, Lecturer, and poet who led the transcendental movement

Book; NATURE (1836)- “Can only be understood by a man when he is in solitude…We take nature and beauty for granted”

Speech: The American Scholar (1837)- A speech he gave in Massachusetts when he was invited in recognition of his work “Nature”. “A great scholar should have great knowledge of nature because it helps increase self-awareness.”

He Believed books were harming and that education systems were to be changed.

Popula

r Li

tera

ture

&

Them

es

Margaret Fuller (1810-1850)

American Journalist, Critic, Woman's Right Advocate

Book: Women in the Nineteenth Century(1845)- Expanded version of an essay he had written for the dial in 1843 called “The Great Lawsuit”

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

Philosopher, Poet, Author, Abolitionist, Naturalist, Tax Resister, Historian, and Development Critic

Passage: Civil Disobedience(1849)- Criticizes American Social Institutions, Policies, Slavery, and the Mexican American War

Themes

Some popular and common themes include nature and its meaning, self-wisdom, social reform, self-reliance, and free thought.

Influence s

Transcendent: Beyond the range of normal

or merely physical human experience; to

surpass the ordinary. Transcendentalism

came from a handful of people who were

against the orthodoxy of Calvinism . This

movement was one of the first notable

American intellectual movements, it

influenced a movement who later became

known as the “New Thought” movement, it

“promotes the ideas that Infinite intelligence

or God is everywhere, true human selfhood is

divine and right thinking has a healing

effect”. During the nineteenth century Ralph

Waldo Emerson, a Unitarian minister, along

with other transcendentalists also influenced

Hinduism and Unitarianism (which is a

movement that asserted the unity of God and

rejected the doctrine of Trinity). Ram Mohan

Roy the founder of Brahmo Samaj, in other

words some type of Hindu religion, was

against Hindu mythology and Christian

Trinity. It came to Ram Mohan that

Unitarianism was closest to Christianity

therefore he “strongly [sympathized]”

Unitarians/Transcendentalists.

Chara

cteri

stic s

The people involved in the

Transcendental Movement were called

Transcendentalists. Most of them were

New Englanders, around Boston,

Massachusetts. They believed in living

closer to nature, believed in democracy

and individualism, considered man’s

relationship to God a personal matter

established directly by the individual

himself, proposed self-trust and self-

reliance, and insisted on a complete

break with tradition and custom. They

criticized the government and laws

because during the mid-1800s, they

were dissatisfied and disappointed by

the policies and actions of the U.S

government like the treatment of

Native Americans, War with Mexico,

and the continuing and expanding

practice of slavery.

Chara

ct.

Conti

nued

On the other hand, one the

most famous writers during

this movement, Ralph

Waldo Emerson, urged

“Americans to stop looking

for Europe for inspiration

and imitation and be

themselves” in his speech,

The American Scholar. They

created literature, essays,

novels, philosophy, poetry,

and other writings that

were different from

anything from England,

France, Germany, or

another European country.

Clu

b

During the Transcendental

Movement, a new club was formed. It

was called Hedge’s Club, where

people went to talk about their

frustrations of American culture and

society at the time. Among these

people were: Frederic Henry Hedge,

Ralph Waldo Emerson, George Ripley,

George Putnam, and many more. Well

known journals like North American

Review and the Christian Examiner

refused to accept their submissions.

Since their submissions

were being refused,

they decided to establish their own to

express their ideas. The

named it The Dial, and

the first issue was published on July 1840.

In 1844, they ceased

publication because

they did not have enough money to cover

the production costs.

By : Lizbeth Selvas, Monica Serrrato,

Carlos Rivas & Jonathan “the great” Orellana

http://transcendentalism-legacy.tamu.edu/

http://transcendentalists.com

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ihas/icon/transcend.html

http://www.iep.utm.edu/am-transhtml

http://howlandpak.neomin.org/powpak/cgi-bin/article_display_page.

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