Transcendentalism
18th century British Romanticism has its great influence to 19th century American Romantic Period or known as Transcendentalism. These two movements share common principles of politic, philosophy and art. The reasons behind the arrival of Romanticism values in America are because of the assertion of Nationalism, opposition of Puritanism and resistance of logic. The Romantic ideas appealed to the revolutionary spirit of America as well as to those longing to break free of the strict religious traditions of early settlement. The Romantics reject rationalism and religious intellect. It appeals to those in opposition of Calvinism, which involves the belief that the universe and all the events within it are subject to the power of God. The Romantic movement give rise to New England Transcendentalism which portrays a less restrictive relationship between God and Universe. The new religion presented the individual with a more personal relationship with God.
Transcendentalism literary movement is much inspired by the Romantic literary movement in British. They share the basic value of Romanticism which the aspiration of Nature. Transcendentalists regard Nature as a source of spiritual guide, instruction, delight, nourishment for the soul, source of inspiration and wisdom. Transcendentalists celebrate man’s connection with nature. Transcendentalists believe men should live surrounded by nature as contrast with the unnatural constraints of society. Transcendentalists view nature as a healing power, nature as a source of subject and image, nature as a refuge from the artificial constructs of civilization. Another principles that inspired by British Romanticism in Transcendentalism are the emphasis of imagination - aspiration after the sublime and the wonderful which transcends mundane limits, the magnitude of overflow emotion, spontaneity and sincerity as markers of truth as Wordsworth's definition of all good poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings", the importance of “The Self” which means celebration of individual, the unique and even the eccentric and the highlight of the supernatural element in the literary work.
American literary figures play an important role in conveying the message of Transcendentalism to the Americans. Novels, short stories, and poems begin to take the place of the sermons and manifestos that are associated with the Transcendentalism principals. Transcendentalists include Ralph Waldo Emerson, Washington Irving, Walt Whitman, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson and many more. Key statements of Transcendentalism doctrine include Emerson's essays, especially “Nature” (1836), “The American Scholar” (1837), “The Divinity School Address” (1838), “The Transcendentalist” (1842), and “Self-Reliance” and Thoreau's "Walden" (1854).
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