Transcendentalism Questions
Bring on the tough stuff. There's not just one right answer.
- Many of the most famous Transcendentalist works are essays. Can an essay be "literary" in the same way that a poem or a novel is?
- The Transcendentalists weren't so much a clearly organized movement or group, but rather an affiliation of writers and thinkers with similar views. To what extent can we group these writers together, given that the contrasts between them are as important as the similarities?
- Many Transcendentalist writers—like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman—are also associated with American Romanticism. How can we draw a distinction between these two movements? Is it necessary to do so, or can we just start calling it Transromandentalism? Unless that sounds too much like tooth care across the ancient Roman empire.
- Moving right on. Transcendentalism was a movement that melded religious and literary ideas. What does the movement suggest about the relationship between literature and religion?
- Many important Transcendentalists were also social reformists who campaigned for the abolition of slavery and for women's rights, among other issues. Why were social and political reform so central to Transcendentalism as an ideology and a way of life? What's that trying to transcend?
- It's debatable whether Walt Whitman, one of the most important of American poets, can be considered a Transcendentalist. What about his writing suggests that he might belong amongst these nature-lovin', essay-crankin' folk? What about his writing challenges the view that he was a Transcendentalist?
- Although the Transcendentalists didn't have an official leader, Ralph Waldo Emerson is generally considered to be the man who was at the center of the movement. To what extent can the development of Transcendentalism be attributed to Emerson's influence alone, as opposed to the influence of a "group" of writers? In other words, where's Waldo?
- In what aspects of contemporary American culture can we see the influence of Transcendentalism?
- Transcendentalism was a movement that was very much tied to a specific place: New England, and particularly Massachusetts, where most of the Transcendentalist writers lived and worked. Considering how geographically particular the movement was, can it be considered an "American" literary movement, or would it be more accurate to speak of it as a "New England" literary movement?
- Why do you think Transcendentalism's emphasis on finding God through contemplation of nature was so darn controversial?