Leaves of Grass : Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism

Matthew Klein 11/2/04

Transcendentalism means, according to The Harper Dictionary of Modern Thought a "a miscellany of beliefs united by the contention that living processes are not to be explained in terms of the material composition and physico-chemical performances of living bodies." In other words, transcendentalism is the belief that materialistic valued items can not explain the reasoning of all thoughts. A belief that can only be explained by words, faith, and truth. The idea of transcendentalism, however, was popular enough to make a movement that was dedicated to the study and attempt to explain the true meaning behind the act.

In the times of the Mexican-American War, there was the beginning of a literary uprising that voiced the majority who felt that there was no reason to be fighting in another's country. This movement manufactured literature that evolved literature from anti-war to environment, philosophy and even to psychology. From the pre-civil war until long after the post civil war, there was the continuance of this thinking and has contributed a mass amount of literary input to American literature.

In the early 1830s, in the New England area, more specifically Massachusetts, there was the beginning of a new artistic movement. This movement directly began effecting literary minds in New England and immediately induced the publishing of the literature from brilliant founders of the new movement.

The first major author that began writing was Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson wrote the book entitled Nature, which was an extreme observation of philosophy, religion, and literature in 1836. And after his short, but very major role in the transcendentalism, he managed to have a massive influence on other followers of the movement.

Because of Emerson, the rise of two new literary minds rose to the surface of the movement and extended the reign of transcendentalism. These two writers are known as Henry David Thoreau and Margaret Fuller. Thoreau began his writing in 1845 with the publishing in his Walden. Thoreau then, after getting a little criticism for Walden, began writing literature that would go against war and slavery in America prior to the Civil War. Margaret Fuller, similar to Thoreau, was also influenced by Emerson and was encouraged to have input on The Dial, which was a journal filled with philosophical essays on literature including her famous article The Greatest Lawsuit: Men versus Men, Women versus Women. in 1843. She kept writing later in life and remained an active feminist of the transcendental movement. She would be one of the last authors of the great literary movement in the pre-civil war era but there would be more in the post-civil war. One particular author that participated in the Civil War continued the transcendental movement while incorporating his experiences was Walt Whitman.

Walt Whitman began his transcendental writing in 1855, but continued his writings after serving in the Civil War as a field-surgeon, with Leaves of Grass. In his first writings, he made it clear that the works of Emerson, too, influenced him. Whitman had many connections with several transcendentalists including: Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry Blake. He did not continue all of his writings, but he did continue his own influence on future writers and followers to transcendentalists.

Whitman did not, nor did any other transcendental author, write merely one famous title. Between Emerson, Thoreau, and Fuller, there was a plethora of literary treasures that to this day are considered some of the greatest pieces of America's literature. Modern literary geniuses still study the works of all these authors and, of all the authors, Walt Whitman has become the gem. Volumes upon volumes of Whitman's work define the elements of American transcendentalism.

Transcendentalism is a movement that has faded over the decade, but has remained a respected literary movement to this day. It is all due to the works of those writers from New England with the building blocks of American literature.