Transcript Ralph_Waldo_Emerson - Moreau Catholic High School MOODLE

Ralph Waldo Emerson
An American Transcendentalist
Background
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American essayist and poet (1803-1882)
Born in Massachusetts from a long line of
ministers
Father was a Unitarian minister
Major Works Include:
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“Self-Reliance”
“The Over-Soul”
“Love”
“Friendship”
Fate
Nature
Emerson is a key part of the
American Transcendentalist
Movement, which also included:
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William Cullen Bryant
Margaret Fuller
Henry David Thoreau
Walt Whitman
Major Influences to
Transcendentalism:
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Reacting against Deism (belief in a rational
universe, like a clock)
Reacting against empirical/rationalist thought
Influenced positively by British Romanticists
like William Wordsworth, Samuel T.
Coleridge, Lord Byron, and Percy Shelley
Influenced by Hindu and Buddhist thought
Definition and
Major Beliefs of
Transcendentalism
Celebration of
individualism
Beauty and power
of Nature
Over-soul:
connection of all things
Intuition over
reason
Social reform
especially anti-slavery and
for women’s rights
Meditation,
not prayer
Brought to you with love from
your favorite English 11 teacher,
Ms. Dwyer