FCLLI_06

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FUNDAMENTOS CULTURAIS DE LITERATURA EM LÍNGUA INGLESA
Lesson 6: The ideals of Transcendentalism and the affirmation of subjectivity
Lesson 6: The ideals of Transcendentalism and the affirmation of subjectivity
 FUNDAMENTOS CULTURAIS DE LITERATURA EM LÍNGUA INGLESA
Conteúdo Programático desta aula
to define the origins of the transcendentalist movement and its meaning to the affirmation of subjectivity of the north American writers. 
- to discuss the Romantic period with its essay writers and poets 
- to present a brief analysis of the Individualism in the essay Civil Disobedience 
Lesson 6: The ideals of Transcendentalism and the affirmation of subjectivity
 FUNDAMENTOS CULTURAIS DE LITERATURA EM LÍNGUA INGLESA
What was the Romantic movement in America?
The Romantic movement in America, influenced by the romantic movement in western European literature, first appeared in the United States when the country was just becoming culturally self-conscious. This movement in America represented a revolt against political and religious authority and a subsequent revolt against reason. Americans were used to imitate the literary forms popular abroad so the movement was quickly adapted. A continental United States was being formed and 
Lesson 6: The ideals of Transcendentalism and the affirmation of subjectivity
 FUNDAMENTOS CULTURAIS DE LITERATURA EM LÍNGUA INGLESA
its newly found sense of patriotism made the movement
especially appealing. The spirit of Romanticism was very
important to emphasize America ´s denial of European authority
and cultural influence and in the formation of the American
ideals which created the Republic. The Romantic Movement was
a huge social influence which created not only the myth of
pioneering, but the pioneer himself.
Lesson 6: The ideals of Transcendentalism and the affirmation of subjectivity
 FUNDAMENTOS CULTURAIS DE LITERATURA EM LÍNGUA INGLESA
What are the characteristics of Romanticism?
- an intense interest in the emotions, imagination and mystery (supernatural)
- political liberalism
- a great enthusiasm in natural beauty and the ordinary life
- great enthusiasm for exotic and sensational feelings and the picturesque
- Medievalism (lavish fascination for remote times and places in the form of picturesque legends, superstitions and adventures)
- Individualism (individual rights and liberties)
- Humanitarianism (belief in simple sympathy for the joys and sorrows of the common man)
Lesson 6: The ideals of Transcendentalism and the affirmation of subjectivity
 FUNDAMENTOS CULTURAIS DE LITERATURA EM LÍNGUA INGLESA
Did romantic writers prefer freedom to formalism?
In reaction against the neoclassical spirit, the romantic writers preferred freedom to formalism and gave more importance to individualism instead of authority. They exalted the imagination and the innate or intuitive perception of the heart of man. Romanticism looked for a new world of experience, a desire for novelty, a need to live intensively. Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe sought the reality of man in the hidden recesses of the mind and the spirit.
Lesson 6: The ideals of Transcendentalism and the affirmation of subjectivity
 FUNDAMENTOS CULTURAIS DE LITERATURA EM LÍNGUA INGLESA
What is Transcendentalism?
Transcendentalism is an American literary, political, and philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century, centered around Ralph Waldo Emerson. Other important transcendentalists were Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Amos Bronson Alcott, Frederic Henry Hedge, and Theodore Parker. Stimulated by English and German Romanticism, the Biblical criticism of Herder and Schleiermacher, and the skepticism of Hume, the transcendentalists operated with the sense that a new era was at hand. They were critics of their contemporary society for its unthinking conformity, and urged that each person find, in Emerson's words, “an original relation to the universe”. 
Lesson 6: The ideals of Transcendentalism and the affirmation of subjectivity
 FUNDAMENTOS CULTURAIS DE LITERATURA EM LÍNGUA INGLESA
Emerson and Thoreau sought this relation in solitude amidst nature, and in their writing. By the 1840s they, along with other transcendentalists, were engaged in the social experiments of Brook Farm, Fruitlands, and Walden; and, by the 1850s in an increasingly urgent critique of American slavery. The Transcendental movement was a reaction against the conscious Puritan domination and the severe Unitarian rationalism. The transcendentalists intended to make a complete break with tradition and custom, and adopted individualism and self-reliance, trusting the instinctive ideas that appeared in their minds. That is, the transcendental movement showed concomitant interest in education, 
Lesson 6: The ideals of Transcendentalism and the affirmation of subjectivity
 FUNDAMENTOS CULTURAIS DE LITERATURA EM LÍNGUA INGLESA
temperance, abolitionism, women ´s rights and emigration to new countries. Therefore, this movement represented the positive and optimistic side of American Romanticism, which brought new life to American thought. Transcendenlalism was a complex response to the democratization of American life, the rise of science, the new technology, the new industrialism and to the new relationship of man to Nature.
Let´s watch a video about Emerson and Transcendentalism
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZyKyegedYM&feature=related
Lesson 6: The ideals of Transcendentalism and the affirmation of subjectivity
 FUNDAMENTOS CULTURAIS DE LITERATURA EM LÍNGUA INGLESA
What is the difference between Romanticism and Transcendentalism?
Romanticism and transcendentalism are closely related. However, there are certain concepts that are emphasized in both. These may be views on a person’s individuality, nature, philosophies, or spirituality.
Romanticism started in Europe during the 18th century. It is an artistic, intellectual, and literary movement that shaped the start of the Industrial Revolution. The movement emphasized an aesthetic experience identifying new emotions as anxiety, awe, terror, and horror.
Lesson 6: The ideals of Transcendentalism and the affirmation of subjectivity
 FUNDAMENTOS CULTURAIS DE LITERATURA EM LÍNGUA INGLESA
Transcendentalism also started during this period. The term is coined from “transcendental” philosophy by Immanuel Kant. The transcendentalists have a strong faith in the power of divinity, nature, and individualism. However, these beliefs are relative to that of the romantics. Moreover, the transcendentalists believe that God is the center of the universe and respect should be given to Him. Ralph Waldo Emerson is one of the most popular transcendentalists even to now. He believes that wisdom and self-realization are the keys for growth. This concept also relates with good and bad. The lack of self growth and terror amongst fellows generates evil, and happiness and generosity are the good results of an act. Romantics believed in this concept as well; however, they likely stressed the power of good in preventing evil. 
Lesson 6: The ideals of Transcendentalism and the affirmation of subjectivity
 FUNDAMENTOS CULTURAIS DE LITERATURA EM LÍNGUA INGLESA
What are the philosophical and literary sources of
Transcendentalism?
Neo-platonism- predominance of the spiritual values over the
material through absolute Good, Truth and Beauty. It established
the relationship between man ´s spiritual and material natures.
German Idealism (Kantian Understanding)- German idealism was a
theological, philosophical movement that emerged in Germany in
the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It reacted against
Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and was closely linked with both
romanticism and the revolutionary politics of the Enlightenment
Lesson 6: The ideals of Transcendentalism and the affirmation of subjectivity
 FUNDAMENTOS CULTURAIS DE LITERATURA EM LÍNGUA INGLESA
 Oriental Philosophy (Brahamanism)- meditation, introspective diary-keeping. Certain Eastern mystical writings
contributed to a sort of indistinct mysticism that helped to overcome the weak spots in a subtle and unsystematic philosophy.
Lesson 6: The ideals of Transcendentalism and the affirmation of subjectivity
 FUNDAMENTOS CULTURAIS DE LITERATURA EM LÍNGUA INGLESA
What are the transcendental beliefs?
Transcendentalism left great marks in the American culture:
Belief in the OVERSOUL- Man has an inner nature which presents the easiest access to the Oversoul which exists in all men.
Divinity of the individual- Man is divine because he is derived from the Oversoul.
Perfectability and goodness- The Oversoul is defined by goodness. So man and the universe are good and perfect.
Lesson 6: The ideals of Transcendentalism and the affirmation of subjectivity
 FUNDAMENTOS CULTURAIS DE LITERATURA EM LÍNGUA INGLESA
Organicism- If everything ids derived from the Oversoul, the world is harmonious and perfect. The universe works in a perfect system.
Optimism- The emphasis on man ´s intelligence and ability and his belief in salvation for all men.
Break with tradition- man believes in himself and should be able to create something by himself.
Correspondences- belief in the correspondence between the tangible world and the human mind and identity of moral and physical laws because man and Nature are derived from the Oversoul.
Let´s take a look at a video about Thoreau`s life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XP2T1FMtnA&feature=related
Lesson 6: The ideals of Transcendentalism and the affirmation of subjectivity
 FUNDAMENTOS CULTURAIS DE LITERATURA EM LÍNGUA INGLESA
CivilDisobediencehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfhQpbJreEY
Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau.
 Imprisonment was Thoreau’s first direct experience with state power and, in typical fashion, he analyzed it:
The State never intentionally confronts a man’s sense, intellectual or moral, but only his body, his senses. It is not armed with superior wit or honesty, but with superior physical strength. I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest.
Lesson 6: The ideals of Transcendentalism and the affirmation of subjectivity
 FUNDAMENTOS CULTURAIS DE LITERATURA EM LÍNGUA INGLESA
 The opening sentence of "Civil Disobedience" sets the tone by paraphrasing the motto of The United States Magazine and Democratic Review – “That government is best which governs least.” Then Thoreau carries this logic one step further:
Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe, – “That government is best which governs not at all;” and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient....
Lesson 6: The ideals of Transcendentalism and the affirmation of subjectivity
 FUNDAMENTOS CULTURAIS DE LITERATURA EM LÍNGUA INGLESA
  Perhaps the best description of Thoreau’s ideal relationship occurs in his description of “a really free and enlightened State” that recognizes “the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived.” It is a state that “can afford to be just to all men, and to treat the individual with respect as a neighbor,” allowing those who did not embrace it to live “aloof.”
    The only political duty of a man is to correct any injustice he directly causes and to deny his cooperation to other injustice. This is the conclusion at which Civil Disobedience arrives.  If I have unjustly wrested a plank from a drowning man, I must restore it to him though I drown myself....
Lesson 6: The ideals of Transcendentalism and the affirmation of subjectivity
 FUNDAMENTOS CULTURAIS DE LITERATURA EM LÍNGUA INGLESA
 	If I devote myself to other pursuits and contemplations, I must first see, at least, that I do not pursue them sitting upon another man’s shoulders. I must get off him first, that he may pursue his contemplations too. 
	 In short, Thoreau believed the state should never rank above the individual conscience or the business of living. But if the state demands a person’s first allegiance by asking him to violate his conscience and participate in an injustice, the person should disobey – not through violence but by removing his cooperation.