1. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman
Transcendentalism
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman

3. DEFINITION:
A philosophical and social movement developed in New England around 1836.
Influenced by Romanticism
Teachings:
The “divine” can be found in nature.
All human beings are connected – “Over-soul”
Progressive views on feminism and communal living
Self-reliance and civil disobedience
Individualism and idealism

4. “OVER-SOUL”
Term coined by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
The “Over-Soul” is a spiritual force that transcends and connects nature and all human beings.
Spiritual essence – connects humans with nature and the divine.

5. Writers / Philosophers

6. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Leader of the transcendental movement during the Romanticism Period.
Lecturer (Harvard), ESSAYIST, and poet
“The Over-Soul” / “Self-Reliance”
Mentor and friend of Henry David Thoreau

7. Henry David Thoreau Essayist, poet, philosopher, and ABOLITIONIST
A leading transcendentalist – mentored by Emerson. Attended Harvard.
: He lived in the woods and separated himself completely from society. While in the woods, he wrote his most famous piece of literature, Walden.
“Civil-Disobedience”

8. I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.
- Henry David Thoreau, "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For", in Walden[36]

9. Walt Whitman POET, essayist, and journalist.
Whitman was one of the writers who helped America transition between Romanticism and REALISM.
One of the most famous American poets. He is considered the father of “free-verse”
Leaves of Grass – most famous anthology of poetry.
Leaves of Grass was considered “obscene” when it was first released because of its overt usage of sexuality.