美国文学简史（五）

Section 2  Summit of Romanticism – American TranscendentalismI. Background: four sourcesII. AppearanceIII. FeaturesIV. InfluenceV. Ralph Waldo EmersonVI. Henry David Thoreau

 美国文学简史之超验主义

Background: four sources

1. Unitarianism（上帝一位论；唯一神教派）
> Fatherhood of God（神为万人之父）> Brotherhood of men（人类乃兄弟之亲）> Leadership of Jesus> Salvation by character (perfection of one’s character)> Continued progress of mankind> Divinity of mankind> Depravity of mankind

2. Romantic Idealism            Center of the world is spirit, absolute spirit (Kant)

3. Oriental mysticism（东方神秘主义）Center of the world is “oversoul”（ 超灵）

4. PuritanismEloquent（雄辩的） expression in transcendentalism（超验论，超越主义）

Appearance

1836, “Nature” by Emerson

Features

> spirit/oversoul> importance of individualism> nature – symbol of spirit/GodGarment（外观，外表） of the oversoul> focus in intuition（直感，直觉） (

（非(反)理性主义） and subconsciousness（下意识的；潜意识的）)

Influence

> It served as an ethical（伦理的，道德的） guide to life for a young nation and brought about the idea that human can be perfected by nature. It stressed religious tolerance, called to throw off shackles of customs and traditions and go forward to the development of a new and distinctly（独特的） American culture.

>  It advocated idealism that was great needed in a rapidly expanded economy where opportunity often became opportunism, and the desire to “get on” obscured the moral necessity for rising to spiritual height.>  It helped to create the first American renaissance – one of the most prolific（富于创造力的；多产…的） period in American literature.

本文为节选，来源：沪江英语

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