English 205 week 7

Basic Assumption: 

The intuitive faculty, instead of the rational faculty or sensory apprehension, became the means for a conscious union of the individual psyche with the world psyche also known as the Oversoul, life-force, prime mover and God.

Basic Premises: 

1. An individual is the spiritual center of the universe - and in an individual can be found the clue to nature, history and, ultimately, the cosmos itself. It is not a rejection of the existence of God, but a preference to explain an individual and the world in terms of an individual.

2. The structure of the universe literally duplicates the structure of the individual self - all knowledge, therefore, begins with self-knowledge. This is similar to Aristotle's dictum "know thyself."

3. Transcendentalists accepted the neo-Platonic conception of nature as a living mystery, full of signs - nature is symbolic.

4. The belief that individual virtue and happiness depend upon self-realization - this depends upon the reconciliation of two universal psychological tendencies:

a. the expansive or self-transcending tendency - a desire to embrace the whole world - to know and become one with the world.

b. the contracting or self-asserting tendency - the desire to withdraw, remain unique and separate - an egotistical existence.

This dualism assumes our two psychological needs; the contracting: being unique, different, special, having a racial identity, ego-centered, selfish, and so on; the expansive: being the same as others, altruistic, be one of the human race, and so on.

The transcendentalist expectation is to move from the contracting to the expansive. This dualism has aspects of Freudian id and superego; the Jungian shadow and persona, the Chinese ying/yang, and the Hindu movement from Atman(egotistic existence) to Brahma (cosmic existence).  

[from Perspectives in American Literature, http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap4/4intro.html] 

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Emerson & Thoreau

Ralph Waldo Emerson  (1803-1882)  

 READ:  Intro: 778-80, then:  "Nature" 781-810 and "Self Reliance" 824-42

Caricature of Emerson as a transparent eyeball by Christopher Pearce Cranch 

Henry David Thoreau   (1817 - 1862)

READ:  Intro 943-44, "Resistance to Civil Government" 945-60, Walden, 961-76 

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Discussion Board Post：

There has been quite a change in the American sense of Nature: early colonists saw the woods as things to be cleared away so that they could re-establish the agrarian homesteads they had left behind in Europe, and the tribes of native people inhabiting those woods were to be feared and conquered.  By the time of the Romantics (and Transcendentalists were certainly an offshoot of Romanticism), the woods represented "the essential facts of life" and were to be sought out while society was to be avoided.

The way that our cultural percieves and values Nature has enormous consequences:  do we drill a wildlife refuge for oil or invest in alternative sources of energy?  Do we pass laws to protect the environment or make it easier to be used?  Are you willing to pay higher prices for gas in order to cut down on pollution? 

Something entirely different for this week's discussion board:  write a short paragraph about your own feelings about Nature. 

250 words， no work cited

English 205 week7B

· Whitman: Poet of Democracy (1819-1892)

Attached Files:

Song of Myself, Sections 1-21 (1393-1408); 35 (1423-25)  and 52 (1439)

When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed  (1458-65   

  [See attached PowerPoint for more info. about the poem.]

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Discussion Board Post

And I say to mankind, Be not curious about God,

for I who am curious about each am not curious about God,

(No array of terms can say how much I am at peace about God and about death.)

I hear and behold God on every object, yet understand God not in the least,

Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself.

Why should I wish to see God better than this day?

I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment then,

In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass,

I find letters from God dropt in the street, and every one is sign'd by God's name,

And I leave them where they are, for I know that wheresoe'er I go,

Others will punctually come for ever and ever.                                        [Song of Myself, 48]

For DB:  How does the above section of Whitman's poem embody Transcendental principles? 

250 words， no work cited

English 205 week7 comment

(make sure write where is this quote from into beginning of explanation) (you can find a quote from reading in first assignment).

Students will choose a short excerpt / quote from one of the readings of that week, type it in, then add a short (150 words or so) explanation for your choice. Was your selection important because it:

· is an example of beautiful or striking language?

· exemplifies a particular theme or character?

· makes the reader think about something in a new way?

· reflects a particular aspect of French culture?

· was just something that you liked?

For example:

"Whoever gets knowledge from God, science,

and a talent for speech, eloquence,

Shouldn't shut up or hide away;

No, that person should gladly display."  Marie de France

explanation:

In the opening lines to the Prologue to the Lays, Marie de France is providing her readers with an explanation for writing these stories down.  This is a very common and traditional rhetorical move informing readers about the ethos or qualifications of the speaker.  In this case, Marie is claiming that she is knowledgeable and eloquent and that these gifts come from God and therefore should be used.  I think it goes further than that; Marie, like most women of her day,* would have been expected to "shut up" and "hide away" as a matter of course, since women's voices were not welcomed in the public sphere.  By opening her work in this way, she preempts criticism about the appropriateness of her authorship.