Essay on Transcendentalism

The 19th century was as a century of changes for the young USA. The faith in dominant Puritan Calvinism was questioned by supporters of more liberal religious practices. Empirical philosophy faced the upcoming Romanticism with its ideal of the intuitive genius. A new breed of American writers took a stand against the traditional classics of the literary canon. The educational system was confronted with the struggle for reformation. Economic changes were felt all over the country; industrialisation became a pressing issue on the political agenda. Capitalist economy started to replace market economy. In short, people were confronted with changes everywhere. Old value systems were not able to provide the necessary security for the individual. Through the gaping vacuum a new movement made its way into the consciousness of America; Transcendentalism. This broad intellectual movement tackled literally all of the listed problems at once. One section that gained the special attention by some of the most prolific representatives was the issue of language.

In 1836 Ralph Waldo Emerson published his highly influential book Nature. If one has to name the essential book for transcendentalist movement, it is this rather slim volume comprising not more than 95 pages in its first print version. With its publication Emerson hit the nerve of the time. The British Romantic poets had published their anthologies and created therein a new view of the world. Nature was now not only a mere field for scientific observation, the artist became part of Nature. His art was a result of this intimate connection between man and nature. People in America endorsed this different perspective. The established Unitarian science was not able to provide a similar perception of nature. In regard to this point, Emerson brought not only over the Romantic era to the USA; he went further by writing a first genuine American response to it. Nature became quickly the basis of Transcendentalism. With Nature, so Geoffrey Moore, ‘the testament of a new intellectual and religious movement had been provided.’1 The fellow critic Joel Myerson sums up its immediate impact as follows: