《New-England-Transcendentalism美国文学》课件.ppt

2021/2/12 * ③ He was very critical of modern civilization. In his opinion, modern civilization was degrading and enslaving man; modern life has dehumanized man and placed him in a spiritual quandary (awkward or difficult situation); by trying to amass material possessions, man is not really living; he is digging his own grave; spiritual wealth is real wealth. 2021/2/12 * He went to live on Walden Pond just to experiment with a new way of life for himself, and felt that he came out of it a better man, reborn and reinvigorated. And in 1854, he published his masterpiece, Walden, one of the representative Transcendentalist works. 2021/2/12 * ④ Thoreau was a man with a strong sense of justice, and desired that everyone should be treated with justice. For him, to respect justice is more important than to abide by the law. 2021/2/12 * ⑤ Thoreau had utopian political ideas, and held that “that government is best which governs not at all”. ⑥ Thoreau was an active abolitionist and the spokesman of the Abolitionist Movement. 2021/2/12 * 2021/2/12 * Lecture Seven New England Transcendentalism Emerson & Thoreau 2021/2/12 * 1. New England Transcendentalism In 1836, the publication of Emerson’s Nature (his first important philosophical work) pushed American Romanticism into a new age, the phase of New England Transcendentalism. American Romanticism culminated around the 1840s. 2021/2/12 * New England Transcendentalism is the summit of American Romanticism; it is regarded as the “American Renaissance” (1836—1855; not only one of the important signs of the independence of American literature but also a significant phase in the history of American culture. 2021/2/12 * 1) The Formation of New England Transcendentalism What is Transcendentalism? According to Emerson, Transcendentalism is idealism; idealism as appears in 1842. In the 1830s and 1840s, great religious and ideological changes were taking place in New England; some sensitive New Englanders formed them