A Study of New England Transcendentalism in Relation to Rationalism, Romanticism and Oriental Philosophy

( Eui Yeong Kim ) 한국현대영어영문학회 2014 현대영어영문학 Vol.58 No.4

In order to correct a few seemingly biased misapprehension and to help better understand the essence of Transcendentalism in New England, this study will begin with a brief discussion of the intellectual, religious, and literary milieu of Europe and New England in the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries. It is only in their lightㅡor as a part of themㅡthat the story of American Transcendentalism can be understood. Then, for the purpose of making amends for some scholars` biased viewpoints on which they perceived the Transcendental movement as a literary phenomenon and regarded it merely as the manifestation of the International European Romantic movement, the study will focus on examining the differences between the Romantics and the New England Transcendentalist. It is because, unlike Romanticism, New England Transcendentalism was not merely a literary movement, nor a religious or social movement. Rather, it was a movement that encompassed the endeavors of a whole generation. Lastly, all the major American Transcendentalists were highly receptive to Oriental philosophy. Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman were the major exponents of Oriental thought in America. In order to explain the root and nature of Orientalism in New England Transcendentalism, a last section of this study will be devoted to the description of the Oriental influences on the Transcendentalists.

A Study of New England Transcendentalism in Relation to Rationalism, Romanticism and Oriental Philosophy

김의영 한국현대영어영문학회 2014 현대영어영문학 Vol.58 No.4

In order to correct a few seemingly biased misapprehension and to help better understand the essence of Transcendentalism in New England, this study will begin with a brief discussion of the intellectual, religious, and literary milieu of Europe and New England in the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries. It is only in their lightㅡor as a part of themㅡthat the story of American Transcendentalism can be understood. Then, for the purpose of making amends for some scholars’ biased viewpoints on which they perceived the Transcendental movement as a literary phenomenon and regarded it merely as the manifestation of the International European Romantic movement, the study will focus on examining the differences between the Romantics and the New England Transcendentalist. It is because, unlike Romanticism, New England Transcendentalism was not merely a literary movement, nor a religious or social movement. Rather, it was a movement that encompassed the endeavors of a whole generation. Lastly, all the major American Transcendentalists were highly receptive to Oriental philosophy. Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman were the major exponents of Oriental thought in America. In order to explain the root and nature of Orientalism in New England Transcendentalism, a last section of this study will be devoted to the description of the Oriental influences on the Transcendentalists.

휘트먼 시의 동양사상(3) : 불성(佛性)과 선정(禪定)

백태효 ( Tae Hyo Paick ) 한국문학과종교학회 2005 문학과종교 Vol.10 No.1

헨리 데이빗 소로우의 『월든』 읽기: 소로우는 초월주의적 이상주의자인가?

김은성 ( Eunseong Kim ) 한국영미문화학회 2017 영미문화 Vol.17 No.4

Henry David Thoreau’s life in the Walden woods is an experiment to live a self-sufficient and independent life, ridding his life of nonessentials. Walden, which records the author’s two years and two months living around Walden pond, is called a cluster of American Transcendentalism. Transcendentalism is based on a theory that a correspondence exists between human spirit and natural objects. Although the theory contributed to forming Thoreau’s transcendentalism and he kept the position for reaching a higher spiritual truth, his own experiences in nature including constant and throughout observations of nature also constituted his transcendental philosophy. Otherness of nature that fascinates him leads to observation of nature. Along with the correspondence with which he discovers the reciprocal harmony between nature and his soul, otherness enlarges Thoreau’s self-awareness. Through the dialectical tension between correspondence and otherness, he realizes that nature is a non-dualistic realm with possibilities of diverse and multiple meanings and values. The natural world offers Thoreau an opportunity for non-dual experiences to transcend distances or gaps between subjects and objects. Nature and his mind become open fields that continue to provide humans with creative resources or what Thoreau calls “the tonic of wildness.” Walden is a project to reorient human cultures. Rather than merely transcending the natural and human worlds, Thoreau roots and involves himself in the both worlds for this project. He is not a transcendental idealist, but must be called a realistic transcendentalist.

Transcendentalist Controversy

Lyoo, Hwang-Tae 동의대학교 인문사회연구소 2004 인간과 문화 연구 Vol.- No.9

The Transcendentalist Controversy in the mid 19th century in America is a conflict in the Unitarian sect. The Unitarians who called themselves liberals challenged the authority of Christianity with the spirit of free inquiry and free expression. Among them more radical Transcendentalist ministers denied the authority of Jesus, the Bible and the church by assailing the miracles in the Bible which were based on the authority of "sense" of John Locke's empiricism. Their new epistemological basis was "intuition" which was originated from German idealism, especially that of Kant. Even though Unitarians had successfully protected their version of Christianity from Theodore Parker's Absolute Religion, it has eventually flowed into Parker's direction to the blink of losing the characteristics of Christianity. It seems to be a sect of humanism. Thus, the main concern will be the matter of its survival as religion. However, there are many positive contributions of the Unitarian tradition to the civilization of America. It is liberalization and democratization in religion with the spirit of Yankee. It contributed to the flowering of American literature and many other fields. It also shows a possibility of the communication between Christianity and eastern religions, especially Zen Buddhism.

초절주의자논쟁

류황태 동의대학교 2004 인간과 문화 연구 Vol.- No.9

John Muir’s Sierra Journal

Kevin Baublitz 한국외국어대학교 영미연구소 2008 영미연구 Vol.19 No.-

This paper will examine John Muir’s observations as described in the classic work of environmental literature My First Summer in the Sierra. Muir’s ideas as to how each part of nature is “hitched together” and man’s connection with it will be explored as this theme is laid out in My First Summer in the Sierra. This paper also takes an in depth look at Muir’s relationship to the transcendental movement as it can be seen in Muir’s writing done while travelling throughout the Sierras. Firstly, it examines how in the American experience, Transcendentalism existed in between Puritanism and Pragmatism in American history and how Muir was heavily indebted to New England Transcendentalist writers. Second, the paper shows how Muir’s life and work clearly demonstrates that both he and Thoreau entrusted themselves to nature more than Emerson. Most objections to viewing Muir in a clear lineage with Emerson are based on the fact that Emerson was more focused on himself, not nature, and that not only was he lacking in physical contact with the wilderness, but his view of it was too cerebral. Finally, this paper attempts to show that most of the Transcendentalist romantic writers when in nature never really saw it, and how it was Muir fully lived in his nature’s gospel.

미국 아동청소년문학을 혁신하기 위하여: 호손의 『아이들에게 들려주는 놀라운 이야기』

양윤정 미래영어영문학회 2015 영어영문학 Vol.20 No.1

This paper aims to demonstrate why Nathaniel Hawthorne's A Wonder Book for Boys and Girls(1851) is a revolutionary work in America’s juvenile literature. Hawthorne began to write juvenile works, publishing “Little Annie’s Ramble” anonymously. He published Grandfather’s Chair Series(1840-41) and Biographical Stories(1842) under his own name successfully, which combined American history with imagination. He could share the childhood concept with the Transcendentalists and be absorbed in the imagination. Having the idea of childhood, he continued to retell classical myths in A Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales. In A Wonder Book, he created a lot of bright children including a youth narrator Eustas Bright who could come in and out a neutral territory between the real world and fairy-land to tell stories full of imagination. It remains an important historical text because it contributed to the shift reading culture that allowed children to read with and for pleasure.

휘트먼의 동양사상에 대한 관심

최희섭(Choi, Hie Sup) 한국동서비교문학학회 2007 동서 비교문학저널 Vol.0 No.17