American Renaissance in Literature Flashcards
Renaissance Definition
rebirth, renewal
How old is the United states at this time?
50 years old
What churches oppose puritans?
Unitarian churches
Differences from Puritain beliefs
Individual can communicate with God directly
God is revealed through nature
All individuals have free will
All individuals possess a basic goodness
Historical context
country no longer occupied with revolution, frontier survival, or territory growth
industrialization created more leisure time
Concerns of the country
Higher education
development of the mind
slavery
Significance of 1850-1855
Numerous major literary works written:
Moby Dick
Scarlet Letter
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Walden
Relevance of Civil Disobedience
man’s responsibility to break laws that are unjust
Author of Civil Disobedience
Thoreau
Relevance of Walden
man’s escape from the world to find a union with nature and a simpler life
Author of Walden
Thoreau
Relevance of Self-Reliance
the necessity for man to think for himself and remain uninfluenced by the opinions of others
Author of Self-Reliance
Emerson
Relevance of the Scarlet Letter
anti-puritan statement that shows the survival of the individual and the destruction of one who tries to conform with puritan beliefs
Author of the Scarlet Letter
Hawthorne
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Married for a short time and then went to Europe to find answers
Discovered transcendentalism through Kant
Opposed slavery
Friends with Thoreau
Sparked American intellectual life
Henry David Thoreau
naturalist, philosopher, and writer
Attended Harvard
Only 2 works published in his lifetime
Thoreau’s two works
Walden
A Week on the Concord and Merrimac
Transcendentalism
a philosophy that advocates rising above the earthly confusion to become more connected with intuitive thought and the supreme being
Where does man get ideas according to transcendentalism?
Result of direct revelation from God
Immediate inspiration from God
God’s Imminent prescience in the spiritual world
6 Transcendental Beliefs
Individual human being is good
Humans have free will
Individuality and self reliance important
Spiritual reality over material world
Man must be close to nature in order to transcend
Spiritual reality and guidance from within
What causes man’s corruption?
Society
1897
Emerson’s “The American Scholar” published
What did “The American Scholar” do?
created a new attitude in the country
declaration of independence for the mind
