Transcendentalism
Early American Trancendental Authors
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Emily Dickinson
Resources about the Transcendental Period
1. PBS.org. Thomas Hampson’s I Hear America Sing: The American Renaissance and Transcendentalism. 2 June 2007.< http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ihas/icon/transcend.html >.
This site is an electronic version of the PBS program I Hear America Sing. The linked page in particular looks specifically at the Transcendentalist movement, with additional links to specific writers and artists. The term transcendentalism is used here interchangeably with the "American Renaissance". Includes some of the terms Emerson used in an attempt to better define the movement: “the spark of divinity lies within man; that everything in the world is a microcosm of existence; that the individual soul is identical to the world soul, or Over-Soul”. The page also includes a list of the artists involved with and directly influenced by the movement.
2. Thomas, Joseph. "Encyclopedia of Transcendentalism. (Book review)." Booklist 103.3 (Oct 1, 2006): 74-5. InfoTrac OneFile. Thomson Gale. Mesa Community Col. Lib. 2 June 2007.
This is a brief review of Tiffany Wayne’s Encyclopedia of Transcendentalism. According to Joseph, the book offers a nebulous description of this movement, refusing to limit the broad movement with a “tidy definition”. Instead he quotes Wayne’s desire to explore “the multifaceted cultural context and wide-ranging impact” of Transcendentalism. The encyclopedia includes references to several important writers and thinkers I was unfamiliar with: Caroline Dall, Margaret Fuller, Jean Louis Agassiz, John Brown. The reviewer sees the strength of the encyclopedia as being “its recognition of the influence and productivity of women in the transcendental movement. The encyclopedia gives the movement a surprisingly broad time range, from 1780-1909. However, this period does also explore the influences (a rejection of intellectualism, Unitarianism) and outcomes of the movement. I like book reviews because they give you a thumbnail sketch of something you might not have the time or inclination to read in its entirety. From this review, I gleaned some new names and learned that women played an important role in transcendentalism. I will consider these names rather than the Transcendental rockstars when choosing my author.
3. Gordon Melton, Ed J. The Development of American Religion: an Interpretive View. 7th ed. Detroit: Thompson Gale, 2003. Thompson Gale. 2 June 2007
This website discusses the role of Transcendentalism in religion. The website discusses how before the American Revolution religion was an entity of the state. After that point New England Transcendentalism took on their own personal theories on religion. The source discusses Transcendentalism and religion helping to clearly fit it into this era. This website brought more meaning in helping to understand what Transcendentalism is. It discusses the theme of religion as part of that era. This website is credible as it carries an author, references, and a publisher. This website was accessed through Mesa Community College Thompson Gale Virtual Reference Library.
4. Woodlief, Ann, comp. "The web of American Transcendentalism." www.vcu.edu. Apr. 1999. Virginia Commonwealth University. 02 June 2007 < http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/>.
The purpose of this website is to present the background of Transcendentalism. The website contains information on authors, texts, roots, influences, and criticisms of Transcendentalism. The website contains a list if Transcendentalists including their eras in which they lived. Based on this information one can see if they fit into the era. This resource is helpful in reading, interoperating, and making meaning of the elements such as author, texts, and themes because it has all of these in a list so all you have to do is chose which one to look for. The website is credible for many reasons. There is an author or organization clearly indicated. The website has a page of resources and bibliographies to show where the information came from. Also there are links from reputable sites, such as Virginia Commonwealth University.
5.Lewis, Jone Johnson. “What is Transcendentalism?” __The New York Times Company__. 6 June 2007. < http://womenshistory.about.com/bltranscend.htm >.
This website provides information about important historical events and figures. This page focuses on defining the Transcendental Period. Transcendentalism was a time when authors were attempting to create a uniquely American body of literature. Already independent from England for decades, America now wanted literary independence. In particular, Transcendentalists were looking to define spirituality and religion. This spiritual hunger gave rise to an intuitive perspective, and an interest in looking to nature to find truth. Most Transcendentalists became involved in social reform movements, such as anti-slavery and women’s rights. They believed that everyone had the right to an education and the opportunity to fulfill their human potential.
In addition to defining the period, this resource provided information on transcendental authors and links to other helpful sources. This website is part of the New York Times Company.
6. Price, Matthew. “Our gang and the little woman; American Bloomsbury Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau: Their Lives, Their Loves, Their Work.” Los Angeles Times 17 Dec. 2006: R4.
This article defines the Transcendental Period by looking at the values of the authors during this period. Transcendentalism is described as an “extraordinary creative burst” full of new ideas. Emerson was trying to get beyond a religion fixated on God. Thoreau was exploring the glories of nature as a Naturalist and American original. Fuller tested conventional boundaries intellectually. The period represented a time focused on going beyond, exploring, and finding individual truths. This article put together all of the defining components of the Transcendental Period. It focused on what each main figure contributed to the period. This article was found through the library database and is from the Los Angeles Times.
7. Meese, Elizabeth A. “Transcendentalism: The Metaphysics of the Theme.”
American Literature. Mar1975. Vol. 47. p1. 6 June 2007.http://web.ebscohost.com.ezp.mc.maricopa.edu/ehost/pdf?vid=4&hid=119&sid= ea580f83-9abf-42c5-8174-4a31e4c0c184%40sessionmgr109 .
In this piece for a peer reviewed journal, accessed through MCC’s online database, the author explores transcendentalism as a “philosophical and aesthetic movement,” claiming insufficient attention has been given to the matter. She also makes note of the limitations that Religious and/or political criticism have placed on Transcendentalism, and suggests that placing in within the metaphysical sphere (an idea that seems paradoxical on its own) gives us further insight into individual self consciousness, and a new way of interpreting a period that supposedly has been set in stone. I had a pretty good idea of what transcendentalism was before reading this article, but reading it through aesthetic and metaphysical lenses helped put it into a new perspective. Now, I don’t simply think religious thought when I think about this particular period. Being a peer-reviewed article for a scholarly journal, I found the site to be credible.
8. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. “Transcendentalism.” Feb 6, 2003. 6 June 2007. < http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/transcendentalism/ >.
Stanford University’s online Encyclopedia of Philosophy gives historical and definitional information on the transcendental period. It claims the period to be “an American literary, political, and philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century, centered on Ralph Waldo Emerson.” The page focuses mainly on the experiences and works of Emerson, with a briefer mention of Thoreau. It discusses how the “radical” views of religion and society were received at the time. This website was helpful to me in understanding the highly religious origins of Transcendentalism. I had originally thought the period to be uniquely American, but I found out that its origins lay across the seas in Europe, especially with Calvin and his movement.
9. Campbell, Donna M. "American Transcendentalism." 21 May 2007 Literary Movements. 17 June 2007 < http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/amtrans.htm >.
The purpose of all the American literature pages is to provide useful, interesting, advertising-free information on the subject and to provide links to the best information available for American literature from the earliest days through the 1920s. The site provides an "overview" of "American Transcedentalism," which is brief, well-written, and therefore, comprehensive. The website includes definitions of Transcendentalism in the words (cited) and views of Ralph Waldo Emerson and of other authors, equally significant of the Transcendentalism movement. The website is helpful in providing information about authors and their text for it briefly notes an author's view in the text as well as provide links, for example, to an author's biographical essay or to a website containing the text material. This site is credible as it is up-to-date and the author, and associate proffesor of English, created the website according to specific guidelines required to provide an understandable and navigable website and the information the author provides are cited and links are provided on the basis of "usefulness to students and researchers." -D.R
10. Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia. “Immanuel Kant”. First Search World Almanac. “.
The main purpose of this website is providing users with information, serving people with an online encyclopedia. The criteria used for the literary term is Kant’s Philosophy of transcendentalism. This resource is useful in reading for interpretation. According to Kant, our modes of thinking are analytic
logical and synthetic
fake. Synthetic analysis can’t be arrived at by pure analysis (Kant). The truth is discovered by the analysis of the concept itself (Kant). These two propositions are divided into two other types: empirical and priori. This philosophical position is usually known as transcendentalism. This is a credible website because it gives us the philosophy behind transcendentalism.
11. “Transcendentalism” Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia. June 20, 2007. June 23, 2007. < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendentalism >
Transcendentalism is a movement that originated in New England in the 1830’s. The founding father of the transcendental movement is Ralph Waldo Emerson, whose essay “nature” provided the founding ideas upon which transcendentalism would be founded. Transcendentalists derived much of their thought and ideals from the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Transcendentalists searched for knowledge that came from the inner self and not the senses as was taught by John Locke. Transcendentalism is defined by dates in this article which is accurate. Transcendentalism remains with us today but reached its zenith in Brook Farm, a transcendentalist community in New England. This resource is helpful because it gives readers a frame of reference when they are reading works thought to be transcendental. The time period and several authors who are stated here help the reader know what time period is being defined.
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