Introducing 

Prezi AI.

Your new presentation assistant.

Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.

Loading…
Transcript

Transcendentalism 1830 - 1860

Transcend Definition

Major Beliefs Continued

Historical Context

To go beyond the limits of something. To triumph over the something negative and restrictive.

Specifically these writers & poets were influenced by:

  • Push for educational and social reform
  • All adults should be educated
  • Formal training for all teachers
  • Create museums
  • Reform society and fix problems they saw

4) "The Oversoul"

  • This is the belief that nothing exists independently. Everyone and everything is part of a divine whole called the oversoul. It connects everyone and everything. You search to be in contact with this in order to find truth.

5) Nature - Simplifying your life and becoming in tune with nature helps you connect with the oversoul and ultimately divine truth

The quest for utopia (perfect society) was very prevalent.

They believed that perfect people and societies were possible.

Major Beliefs Continued

Major Beliefs

Transcendentalism Definition

Individuality

  • We are NOT just cogs in a machine (as rationalist believed) but souls that were undefinable and part of the divine oversoul. This defied the cold and calculated idea that we can be fully explained.
  • Self -reliance was important and it was encouraged to defy tradition and conformity in all of its forms.
  • We need to trust ourselves more often.

1) Idealism - They believed that people are inherently GOOD. Humans are capable of achieving perfection if they are willing to fight for it. This required a lot of self-reflection

2) Intuition - Instincts, genuine feeling, and connection are more important than logical reasoning.

3) Religion was an individual experience between a person and God. Formal religious ceremonies were disliked because it went against this notion.

A movement in literature and philosophy that said that intuition and self awareness were more important than logical reasoning. They believed that all things were part of a divine whole and that in order to understand yourself and truly connect with the universe you had to transcend (or rise above) normal every day experience.

How are the different from the Gothic Romantics?

1) Transcendentalists had extreme idealism when it came to both society and individuals

2) Transcendentalists were fascinated with the "awe" of the Sublime instead of the terror.

3) Transcendentalists focused on the good inside of each person.

VS.

Henry David Thoreau

Transcendentalist are the Extreme Romantics

If you take all of the positive beliefs of the Romantics and kicked it up a couple of intensity levels you would get the Transcendentalists.

A piece of writing can be Romantic and not Transcendentalist BUT if it is Transcendentalist then it MUST be Romantic.

Walt Whitman

Ralph Waldo Emerson

1819 - 1892

1803 - 1882

- Late transcendentalist.

-

Learn more about creating dynamic, engaging presentations with Prezi