Transcendental And Anti Transcendental Movements

Transcendental and Anti-Transcendental Movements

During the New England Renaissance period of 1840-1855, literature underwent two very distinct movements known as Transcendentalism and Anti-Transcendentalism. Both movements

were very influential and consisted of authors such as Ralph Waldo Emerson (Transcendentalist)

and Nathaniel Hawthorne (Anti-Transcendentalist). Concentrating their ideas on human nature

and intuition, rather than on logic and reason, both these movements served as a flourishing revolt against previously accepted ideas.

The Transcendental movement focused its ideas on the essential unity of creation, the pure goodness of humanity and in individual intuition as the highest source of knowledge, rather than

sensory experience. Optimism dominated people's thoughts and was shown in the ideas of the

Transcendentalists. The Transcendentalists believed deeply in human potential and in the purity of

Nature. Truth, they believed, was also reflected in Nature and how it made you feel, and Nature

was a reflection of the beauty of human nature. They focused on the possibilities of the human

spirit and the capability of it reaching the "Over Soul". The "Over Soul" is the so-called state in

which all beings (Nature, God, and Humanity) are spiritually united. During this movement,

individualism, self-reliance, and rejection of traditional authority were also highly st...