美国文学简史chapter11.pptx

美国文学简史chapter11.pptxRalph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
Emerson’s Early Life
Born on Election Day in 1803 in Boston, MA.
Born on the same street as the birth home of Benjamin Franklin.
Father was a famous minister who encouraged young Ralph to pursue philosophy at a young age.
Teacher and Priest
After graduation, Emerson became a school teacher in suburban Boston.
1823 graduated from seminary school and became a priest to follow in the footsteps of his father.
Ralph Waldo Emerson and Transcendentalism
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
The British critic Matthew Arnold said the most important writings in English in the 19th century had been Wordsworth's poems and Emerson's essays.
Emerson
His wife, Ellen Tucker, died tragically young from tuberculosis(肺结核), leaving Emerson a legacy that allowed him to spend the rest of his life traveling, lecturing, and writing.
Nature (1836), a major contribution to American Romanticism and Transcendentalism, appeared anonymously and was favorably received among his friends.
Emerson
Originally an address to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard in 1837, The American Scholar was a radical document in its time, a blow against an educational system that favored rote死记硬背 learning, declamation, and a prescribed curriculum for all undergraduates.
Emerson
Later in the century, an American educational revolution brought concentration choices and elective courses to our college and universities. This reform was inspired in great part by Emerson's pronouncements about scholarship, about the idea of an education, and about the nature of thinking itself.
Much of his spiritual es from his readings in Eastern religion, especially Hinduism(印度教), Confucianism(儒家思想,儒教), and Islamic Sufism (伊斯兰教的苏菲派)(即Islamic mysticism神秘主义).
The Founder of Transcendentalism: Ralph Waldo Emerson