Transcendentalism : A Movement

             Name - Jignesh  K. Panchasara

             Paper - 108: The American Literature 

             Roll No- 8

             Enrollment no-3069206420200013

Email id-jigneshpanchasara5758@gmail.com

             Batch- MA 2020-2022

Submitted to - S.B Gardi Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji  

                             Bhavnagar University.  

  Transcendentalism

  Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement .It is look like a various aspect. Also going beyond the idea of Romanticism.

Transcendentalism= To go above and beyond the limitation of the senses and everyday experiences.

* we can go beyond by depending on our intuition rather than on reason and logic.

Key words: Simplicity but its not simple.

which does not have answer.

The key word for transcendentalism is simplicity.

Transcendentalism - A movement 

• Transcendentalism is a 19th century movement of writers and philosopher in new England
• who were loosely bound together by adherence to an idealistic system of thoughts.
• Based on the belief in the essential unity of all creation the innate goodness of man.
• And the supremacy of insight over logic and experience for the revelation of the deepest truths.

what is Transcendentalism 

It’s all about spirituality. Transcendentalism is a philosophy that began in the mid-19th century and whose founding members included Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. It centers around the belief that spirituality cannot be achieved through reason and rationalism, but instead through self-reflection and intuition. In other words, transcendentalists believe spirituality isn’t something you can explain; it’s something you feel. A transcendentalist would argue that going for a walk in a beautiful place would be a much more spiritual experience than reading a religious text.

*Major Transcendentalist Values*

 The transcendentalist movement encompassed many beliefs, but these all fit into their three main values of individualism, idealism, and the divinity of nature.

 

 Individualism

Perhaps the most important transcendentalist value was the importance of the individual. They saw the individual as pure, and they believed that society and its institutions corrupted this purity. Transcendentalists highly valued the concept of thinking for oneself and believed people were best when they were independent and could think for themselves. Only then could individuals come together and form ideal communities.

 

Idealism

The focus on idealism comes from Romanticism, a slightly earlier movement. Instead of valuing logic and learned knowledge as many educated people at the time did, transcendentalists placed great importance on imagination, intuition and creativity. They saw the values of the Age of Reason as controlling and confining, and they wanted to bring back a more “ideal” and enjoyable way of living.

 

 Divinity of Nature

Transcendentalists didn’t believe in organized religion, but they were very spiritual. Instead of believing in the divinity of religious figures, they saw nature as sacred and divine. They believed it was crucial for humans to have a close relationship with nature, the same way religious leaders preach about the importance of having a close relationship with God. Transcendentalists saw nature as perfect as it was; humans shouldn’t try to change or improve it.

Key Figures in the Transcendentalist Movement

At its height, many people supported the beliefs of transcendentalism, and numerous well-known names from the 19th century have been associated with the movement. Below are five key transcendentalists.

 

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Emerson is the key figure in transcendentalism. He brought together many of the original transcendentalists, and his writings form the foundation of many of the movement’s beliefs. The day before he published his essay “Nature” he invited a group of his friends to join the “Transcendental Club” a meeting of like-minded individuals to discuss their beliefs. He continued to host club meetings, write essays, and give speeches to promote transcendentalism. Some of his most important transcendentalist essays include “The Over-Soul,” “Self-Reliance,” “The American Scholar” and “Divinity School Address.”

 Transcendentalism is a very formal word that describes a very simple idea. People, men and women equally, have knowledge about themselves and the world around them that "transcends" or goes beyond what they can see, hear, taste, touch or feel.

This knowledge comes through intuition and imagination not through logic or the senses. People can trust themselves to be their own authority on what is right. A Transcendentalist is a person who accepts these ideas not as religious beliefs but as a way of understanding life relationships.

The individuals most closely associated with this new way of thinking were connected loosely through a group known as The Transcendental Club, which met in the Boston home of George Ripley. Their chief publication was a periodical called "The Dial," edited by Margaret Fuller, a political radical and feminist whose book "Women of the Nineteenth Century" was among the most famous of its time. The club had many extraordinary thinkers, but accorded the leadership position to Ralph waldo Emerson.

Henry David Thoreau

The second-most important transcendentalist, Thoreau was a friend of Emerson’s who is best known for his book Walden. Walden is focused on the benefits of individualism, simple living and close contact with and observation of nature. Thoreau also frequently opposed the government and its actions, most notably in his essay “Civil Disobedience.”

 

Margaret Fuller

Margaret Fuller was perhaps the leading female transcendentalist. A well-known journalist and ardent supporter of women’s rights, she helped cofound The Dial, the key transcendentalist journal, with Emerson, which helped cement her place in the movement and spread the ideas of transcendentalism to a wider audience. An essay she wrote for the journal was later published as the book Woman in the Nineteenth Century, one of the earliest feminist works in the United States. She believed in  the importance of the individual, but often felt that other transcendentalists, namely Emerson, focused too much on individualism at the expense of social reform.

 

Amos Bronson Alcott

A friend of Emerson’s, Alcott (father of Little Women’s Louisa May Alcott), was an educator known for his innovative ways of teaching and correcting students. He wrote numerous pieces on transcendentalism, but the quality of his writing was such that most were unpublishable. A noted abolitionist, he refused to pay his poll tax to protest President Tyler’s annexation of Texas as a slave territory. This incident inspired Thoreau to do a similar protest, which led to him writing the essay “Civil Disobedience.”

 Conclusion

Transcendentalism is all about spirituality .It can not be achieved through reason and rationalism but instead through reason and rationalism but instead through self reflection and Intuition, in other words Transcendentalist believe spirituality is not some thing explain. It some thing you feel. 

Works Cited

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopedia. "Transcendentalism". Encyclopedia Britannica, 27 May. 2020, https://www.britannica.com/event/Transcendentalism-American-movement. Accessed 28 May 2021.

Sarikas, C., 2021. What Is Transcendentalism? Understanding the Movement. [online] Blog.prepscholar.com. Available at: <https://blog.prepscholar.com/transcendentalism-definition-movement> [Accessed 28 May 2021].

Ushistory.org. 2021. Transcendentalism, An American Philosophy [ushistory.org]. [online] Available at: <https://www.ushistory.org/us/26f.asp> [Accessed 28 May 2021].

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