常耀信《美国文学简史》笔记和考研真题详解(新英格兰超验主义 爱默生 梭罗)【圣才出品】

第4章新英格兰超验主义•爱默生•梭罗

4.1 复习笔记

In 1836 Emerson’s Nature came out which made a tremendous impact on the intellectual life of America. Nature’s voice pushed American Romanticism into a new phase, the phase of New England Transcendentalism, the summit of American Romanticism.

1936年爱默生的《论自然》问世，它如平地惊雷，震撼了美国文化思想界。《论自然》把美国浪漫主义推向了一个新的阶段，即它的高潮阶段——英格兰超验主义阶段。

I. New England Transcendentalism（新英格兰超验主义）

In the 1830s and 1840s some New Englanders , not quite happy about the materialistic-oriented life of their time, formed themselves into an informal club, the Transcendentalist Club, and met to discuss matters of interest to the life of the nation as a whole. They expressed their views, published their journal, the Dial, and made their voice heard. The club with a membership of some thirty men and a couple of women included Emerson, Thoreau, Bronson Alcott, and Margaret Fuller. Most of them were teachers or clergymen, radicals who reacted against the faith of Boston businessmen and the cold, rigid rationalism of Unitarianism. The word

“Transcendental” was not native to America; it was a Kantian term denoting, as Emerson put it, “Whatever belongs to the class of intuitive thought.”

19世纪三、四十年代一些新英格兰人对当时盛行的物质主义极其不满，他们聚集在一起组成非正式的“超验主义俱乐部”，讨论文学、哲学及国家生活的形势趋向。他们出版专刊《日晷》向世人宣传他们的主张。俱乐部成员约有三十几个男性和两个女性。其中包括爱默生、梭罗、阿尔科特及富勒等人。他们多为教师或牧师。他们针砭波士顿人的信条，抨击唯一神论理性主义的冷酷、古板。“超验主义”一词并非美国本土词汇，它是个康德哲学词汇。它如爱默生所说，表示“任何属于直觉意识范畴的思想”。

1. Major features（主要特征）

(1) The Transcendentalists placed emphasis on spirit, or the Oversoul, as the most important thing in the universe. The Oversoul was an all-pervading power for goodness, omnipresent and omnipotent, from which all things came and of which all were a part. This represented a new way of looking at the world. It was a reaction to the eighteenth Newtonian concept of the universe. It was also a reaction against the direction that a mechanized, capitalist America was taking, against the popular tendency to get ahead in world affairs to neglect spiritual welfare.

(2) The Transcendentalists stressed the importance of the individual. To them the individual was the most important element of society. The ideal type of man were the self-reliant individuals. The individual soul communed with the Oversoul and was therefore divine. This new notion of the individual and his importance represented a new way of looking at man. It was a reaction against the Calvinist

conception of total depravity, against the process of dehumanization that came in the wake of developing capitalism.

(3) The Transcendentalists offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the spirit or God. Things in nature tended to become symbolic, and the physical world was a symbol of the spiritual. This in turn added to the tradition of literary symbolism in American literature.

(1) 超验主义者强调精神，或超灵，认为这是宇宙间至为重要的存在因素。超灵是一种无所不容、无所不在、扬善抑恶的力量，是万物之本、万物之所属。这是一种新的世界观。他反对10世纪的机械宇宙观，反对美国朝着机械化、资本主义化的方向发展，反对美国人沉湎于发财致富而忽略精神生活的世风。

(2) 超验主义者强调个人的重要性。他们认为个人是社会的最重要的组成因素。理想的人是自立自强的人。个人灵魂与上帝交流，因而具有神性。这种关于人及其重要性的新观点反映出对人的新评价。它反对加尔文教义中的彻底的堕落，反对资本主义上升阶段的非人性化现象。

(3) 超验主义者以全新的目光看待自然，认为自然界是超灵或上帝的象征。自然界万物皆具有象征性，外部世界是精神世界的体现。这又加强了美国文学中象征主义的传统。

2. Sources（理论来源）

New England Transcendentalism was the product of a combination of foreign influence and the American tradition.

(1) Idealistic philosophy of Germany and France.

(2) Oriental mysticism.