Topics for final exam

American Early Romanticism

In the 18^th century in England, as in other European countries, there sprang into life a public movement known as the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment, on the whole, was an expression of struggle of the then progressive class of bourgeoisie against feudalism. The Enlighteners fought against class inequality, prejudices and other survivals of feudalism. They attempted to place all branched of science at the service of mankind by connecting them with the actual needs and requirements of people. The problem of men comes to the fore superseding all other problems in literature. The Enlighteners prove that man is born kind and honest and if he becomes depraved, it is only due to the influence of corrupted social environment.
Fighting the survivals of feudalism, the enlighteners at the same time were prone to accept bourgeois relationships as rightful and reasonable relationships among people. The English writers of the time formed two groups. The first – hoped to better the world simply by teaching (Defoe). The other – openly protested against the vicious social order (Swift, Fielding, Sheridan, Burns).

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   American Transcendentalism
   

In the 18^th century in England, as in other European countries, there sprang into life a public movement known as the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment, on the whole, was an expression of struggle of the then progressive class of bourgeoisie against feudalism. The Enlighteners fought against class inequality, prejudices and other survivals of feudalism. They attempted to place all branched of science at the service of mankind by connecting them with the actual needs and requirements of people. The problem of men comes to the fore superseding all other problems in literature. The Enlighteners prove that man is born kind and honest and if he becomes depraved, it is only due to the influence of corrupted social environment. Fighting the survivals of feudalism, the enlighteners at the same time were prone to accept bourgeois relationships as rightful and reasonable relationships among people. The English writers of the time formed two groups. The first – hoped to better the world simply by teaching (Defoe). The other – openly protested against the vicious social order (Swift, Fielding, Sheridan, Burns).

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  Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) Walden,
  
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  or, Life in the Woods
  
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  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) Nature
  
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  Walt Whitman (1819-1892) Leaves of Grass
  

In the nineteenth century, Transcendentalism transformed the American literary landscape. Authors such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller embraced the new European philosophy of Transcendentalism and created a literary movement that emphasized the importance and equality of every living entity. Using the philosophical underpinnings of European Transcendentalism, these intellectuals, along with many others, were not only writers but also the visionaries and philosophers of their time. Emerson absorbed the knowledge of the European philosophers, particularly Immanuel Kant, as well as Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Johann Goethe (Holman and Harmon 509), realizing the significance in this new form of thinking and introducing it to American readers, writers, and thinkers. Bringing Transcendentalist thought to the United States, Emerson influenced those around his Concord home, particularly Thoreau and Fuller, to embrace his new view of life. Transcendentalism became important to Walt Whitman many years later, showing Emerson’s continual sculpting of America’s literary landscape. The American transcendentalist movement began in 1836 with the publication of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Nature.” As a transcendentalist, Emerson presents the idea that Americans need to stop looking to society for answers to their problems and turn to nature. After reading Emerson’s essay, people wanted to know more about the new philosophy. So, they met at Emerson’s house to discuss new thoughts, and every time they met, the “group seemed in general harmony in their conviction that within the nature of human beings there was something that transcended human experience—an intuitive and personal revelation” (Holman and Harmon 509). In his later essay “The Poet,” Emerson presents the observation that Americans needed to take steps to create a truly American literature because American authors had been following in the footsteps of European writers for far too long. One of the major tenets of Transcendentalism is that individualism and self-reliance are better than following than the thoughts and beliefs of others, and Emerson used this philosophy to transform the literary terrain. He argued that Americans would have to define their own forms of literature and find ways to represent the uniqueness of the American landscape, as well as American individualism.

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