1. Anti-Transcendentalism

2. Anti-Transcendentalism Reasons and Causes
Opposed the optimism and naïve idealism of the transcendentalists
Dwelt on guilt and remorse over past sins
Discontented with current circumstances in America (poverty/unjust and cruel treatment of factory workers, poor educational system, lack of women’s rights, slavery…) so they focused on moral dilemmas and society’s ills

3. Key Ideas/Philosophy Puritanically dark view of human nature and fate.
People are basically evil and apathetic to matters that don’t affect them.
Nature is indifferent to mankind
It is vast and incomprehensible, a reflection of the struggle between good and evil
It is the creation and possession of God and it cannot be understood by human beings

4. Key Ideas/Philosophy cont…
Belief in the potential destructiveness of the human spirit.
Belief in individual truths, but no universal truths, and the truths of existence are deceitful and disturbing.
Evil is an active force in the universe.
Focus on the man’s uncertainty and limitations in the universe.

5. Transcendentalists vs. Anti-Transcendentalists
Transcendentalists (Emerson, Thoreau) had an optimistic view of nature and human nature
God found in nature, so nature = good
Nature = truth
Anti-Transcendentalists had pessimistic view of nature and human nature
Nature = indifferent to mankind
Human nature = hypocritical, apathetic

6. A House Divided Anti-transcendentalists Realists Experience
Spirituality based on Puritanism/Calvinism
Nature is indifferent; Man is evil
Man’s dark side
Transcendentalists
Idealists/Individualist
Intuition
Everything is a reflection of the divine soul
Nature is good; even Man is good
Man and Nature in partnership

7. Writing Style Man vs. Nature conflicts bring out the evil in humanity
Raw and morbid diction
Focus on the protagonist’s inner struggles
Typical protagonists are haunted outsiders who are alienated from society
Prevalent use of symbolism

8. The Anti-Transcendentalists
Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter
People are hypocrites
Shows pathos for those in society who suffer from being truthful (e.g., Hester Prynne)
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Billy Budd, Redburn

9. Edgar Allan Poe

10. Life Born January 19, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts
Suffered much loss and death early in life
Father- abandoned family
Mother- died soon after father left (tuberculosis)
Wife/1st cousin- died early (tuberculosis)
Disowned by foster father
Failed career in military
Struggled to publish works
Finally succumbed to death (probably alcoholism)
Died October 3, 1849 (age 40)

11. Works Follows the Gothic/Dark Romanticism style Recurring themes:
Questions of death
Effects of decomposition
Premature burial
Reanimation of the dead

12. Works Wrote in reaction/rebellion against Transcendentalism
Sparked the rise of the detective novel
Gained more popularity in Europe than America
Heavily criticized by big-name writers as being too vulgar and empty
William Butler Yeats
Ralph Waldo Emerson

13. Famous Works Poems Tales “Annabel Lee” “The Raven”
“A Dream Within a Dream”
“Eldorado”
“Lenore”
Tales
The Black Cat
The Cask of Amontillado
The Tell Tale Heart
The Masque of the Red Death
The Fall of the House of Usher
The Gold Bug
Murders in the Rue Morgue