爱默生课件

Ralph Waldo Emerson （1803-1822）
“American Confucius‖
——Abraham Lincoln
第一组：殷明雄、李雪云、殷惠敏、张艳、孙梳
目录
The literature of American Romanticism
An introduction to Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Oversoul
In New England transcendentalism, a spiritual essence or vital force in the universe in which all souls participate and that therefore transcends individual consciousness. 超灵在新英格兰超验论中，代表宇宙中的精神本质或生命 力，在这里所有的灵魂都参与进来，从而超越了个人意念 的范围
Poetry: The Rhodora
Appreciation of his major works
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The literature of American Romanticism introduction：
1、 The Romantic Period, one of the most important periods in the history of American literature It stretches from the end of the 18th century to the outbreak of the Civil War.

introduction
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803--1882)

"The reward of a thing well


done is to have done it"
----R.W. Emerson
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.Son of a New England clergymen(牧师） .Went to Harvard,reconsider Calvinist (加尔文教派教 徒)belief,embraced Unitarianism（神教派） .Became a Unitarian minister to the second church of Boston.
Edgar Allen Poe -- Gothic tales哥特式小说
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1.Biographical introduction 2.Major works 3.Emerson's thoughts 4.Emerson's influence
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Biographical
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Distinct Feature of American Romanticism
1、It was the expression of ―a real new experience‖; 2. It tended to be didactic because of Puritan influence; 3. It was both imitative and independent
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The romanticism in literature
Literature ceased to be primarily didactic, a servant of politics and religion. The romantic values were prominent in American politics, art, and philosophy until the Civil War.
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Background
Foreign influence： Romanticism emerged in England from 1798 to 1832.it added impetus to the growth of Romanticism in American. In England the general features of the works of Romanticism is dissatisfaction with bourgeois society British Romanticism inspired the American imagination. Thus American Romanticism was in a way derivative
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Major writers of this period Poets: Henry Wordsworth Long Fellow, Edgar Ellen Poe, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson Fiction: Washington Irving-- comic fables James Fenimore Cooper -- frontier adventures Nathaniel Hawthorne -- psychological romances
Themes: home, family and children, nature, idealized love; Apathy to major problems of American life Technique: stanza forms, British English, stereotyped metaphors, explicit and superficial symbolism
Thoughts
① All the things in the universe are the embodiments of the Oversoul; the soul of man is part of the Oversoul; man is divine. ② The individual is the most important of all. man can hope to become better and even perfect; he believed ―the infinitude of man; men should and could be self-reliant['selfri'laiənt] 自力更生的; each man should feel the world as his, and the world exists for him alone; in the main optimistic about human perfectibility可完美性. ③ Nature is emblematic[,ɛmblə'mætɪk. 象征的 of God. It mediates between man and God; nature is the symbol of spirit, and the wholesome moral influence on man and his character.
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He is an philosopher,poet and prose writer,the most influential among his contemporaries,and the leading figure and most eloquent spokesman of New England Transcendentalism
started with the publication of Washington Irving's The Sketch Book
ended with Whitman's Leaves of Grass.
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American romanticism
2. It was a rebellion against the objectivity of rationalism. For romantics, the feelings, intuitions and emotions were more important than reason and common sense; 3. The writers emphasized individualism, placing the individual against the group. They affirmed the inner life of the self, and cherished strong interest in the past, the wild, the remote, the mysterious and the strange
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Emerson’s Influence
His greatest contribution to American literature and culture lies in the fact that he firmly advocated the establishment of an independent national literature and culture. His ―The American Scholar‖ (a speech made in Harvard College in 1837, published in 1838) has been regarded (first by Oliver Wendell Holmes) as ―America’s Declaration of Intellectual Independence.re《论自然》
works
The American Scholar《美国学者》