Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Transcendentalism

From Sugg's essay:

"What then is transcendentalism? What is this force of ideology that shaped America? It begins as a period in history that expressed itself vividly in New England roughly between 1830-1860 (Wilson 2) with revolutionary changes and debates in attitudes towards individualism, nature, religion, philosophy, education, politics, society and culture. Nothing is left untouched and America itself is not left unchanged. There is no specific definition of transcendentalism. It is not limited to the literature or the time, but instead penetrates the American psyche up until today, and is reflected in current writers, poets, and films, like the one being evaluated here, Dead Poets Society, released in 1989, roughly 130 years after the transcendental movement gave way to a new literary period of realism. The transcendentalist writers were rebels who expressed new ideas and new ways of writing on a whole spectrum of principles. It was and remains integral to the energy of being American: rebellious and individualistic. It has also taken on new forms from the original identification of nature and spirituality to political forces of environmentalism, for example or the scientific reasoning of ecology" 

the major principles of transcendentalism: freethinking, self reliance and non conformity, growth and renewal of the individual, revolt against tradition and established institutions, civil disobedience, brotherhood of man, nature and spiritual unity, and educational reform. 


www.transcendentalists.com/what.htm

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