美国文学 超验主义

Important terms (1)
Although transcendentalism was never a rigorously systematic philosophy, it had some basic tenets that were generally shared by its adherents. The beliefs that God is immanent in each person and in nature(每人都有内在的神性) and that individual intuition is the highest source of knowledge led to an optimistic emphasis on individualism, self-reliance, and rejection of traditional authority.
Important features of New England Transcendentalism (2)
It was also a reaction against the process of dehumanization (磨灭人性)that came in the wake of developing capitalism. The industrialization of New England was turning men into nonhumans. People were losing their individuality and were becoming uniform. The Transcendentalists saw the process in progress and, by trying to reassert the importance of the individual, emphasized the significance of men regaining their lost personality.
Important terms (2)
Individualism claims the ability to oppose “authority”, and to all manner of controls over the individual (反对一切压抑个人的支配行 为), especially when exercised by the political state or “society”. It is thus directly opposed to collectivism (集体主义), social psychology and sociology, which consider the individual’s rapport to the society or community.
Important terms (2)
Individualism: Individualism is a moral, political, and social philosophy, which emphasizes individual liberty, the primary importance of the individual, and the “virtues of self-reliance”. It assumes that a person can be socially and culturally free of upbringing.
Important features of New England Transcendentalism (3) Thirdly, the Transcendentalists offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God (自然是超灵或上帝的体现). Nature was, to them, not purely matter. It was alive, filled with God’s overwhelming presence. It was the garment of the Oversoul (自然是超灵的外衣). Therefore it could exercise a healthy and restorative influence on the human mind (自然能够影响人类心灵的健康和恢复). What the Transcendentalists seemed to be saying was, “Go back to nature, sink yourself back into its influence, and you’ll become spiritually whole again.”
Important features of New England Transcendentalism (2)
The ideal type of man was the self-reliant individual whom Emerson never stopped talking about all his life. The Transcendentalists like Emerson and Thoreau were telling people to depend upon themselves for spiritual perfection if they cared to make the effort because, in their opinion, the individual soul communed with the Oversoul and was therefore divine. Now this new notion of the individual and his importance represented, obviously, a new way of looking at man.
Important terms (1)
Transcendentalism derived some of its basic idealistic concepts from romantic German philosophy, and from such English authors as Coleridge, and Wordsworth. Its mystical aspects were partly influenced by Indian and Chinese religious teachings.
New England Transcendentalism
Important terms (1)
Transcendentalism : Transcendentalism is philosophical and literary movement that flourished in New England from about 1836 to1860. It originated among a small group of intellectuals who were reacting against the orthodoxy(正统的)of Calvinism and the rationalism of the Unitarian Church(唯一神论 教派), developing instead their own faith centering on the divinity of humanity and the natural world.
Important features of New England Transcendentalism (1)
Firstly, the Transcendentalists placed emphasis on spirit 精神, or the Oversoul 超灵, as the most important thing in the universe. The Oversoul was an all-pervading power for goodness (超灵是善良的体现), omnipresent and omnipotent (无处不在，无所不能), from which all things came and of which all were a part. It existed in nature and man alike and constituted the chief element of the universe. (是宇宙构成的主要元素)
Important features of New England Transcendentalism (2)
Secondly, the Transcendentalists stressed the importance of the individual. To them the individual was the most important element of society. As the regeneration of society (社会的再生)could only come about through the regeneration of the individual, his perfection (自我完善), his self-culture (自我休 养)and self-improvement, and not the frenzied effort to get rich, should become the first concern of his life.
Important terms (1)
The ideas of transcendentalism were most eloquently expressed by Ralph Waldo Emerson in such essays as Nature (1836), and Self- Reliance and by Henry David Thoreau in his book Walden.
Important terms (3)
American Renaissance : The name is given to a flourishing of distinctively American literature in the period before the Civil War. This renaissance is represented by the work of Ralph Waldo Emerson, H. D. Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Walt Whitman. Its major works are Hawthorne’ s The Scarlet Letter ( 红字，1850 ) , Melville ‘s Moby-Dick (白鲸， 1851 ) ,and Whitman’s Leaves of Grass (草叶集， 1855). The American Renaissanc manifestation of Romanticism(浪漫主义的延续), especially in Emerson’ s philosophy of Transcendentalism.