Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism 

Transcendentalism is a 19th-century school of American theological and philosophical thought that combined respect for nature and self-sufficiency with elements of Unitarianism and German Romanticism. Writer Ralph Waldo Emerson was the primary practitioner of the movement, which existed loosely in Massachusetts in the early 1800s before becoming an organized group in the 1830s.

Transcendentalism has its origins in New England of the early 1800s and the birth of Unitarianism. It was born from a debate between “New Light” theologians, who believed that religion should focus on an emotional experience, and “Old Light” opponents, who valued reason in their religious approach.

These “Old Lights” became known first as “liberal Christians” and then as Unitarians, and were defined by the belief that there was no trinity of father, son and holy ghost as in traditional Christian belief, and that Jesus Christ was a mortal.

Thinkers in the movement embraced ideas brought forth by philosophers Immanuel Kant and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ancient Indian scripture known as the Vedas and religious founder Emanuel Swedenborg.

A TRANSCENDENTALIST is a person who accepts these ideas not as religious beliefs but as a way of understanding life relationships.

The individuals most closely associated with this new way of thinking were connected loosely through a group known as THE TRANSCENDENTAL CLUB, which met in the Boston home of GEORGE RIPLEY. Their chief publication was a periodical called "The Dial," edited by Margaret Fuller, a political radical and feminist whose book "Women of the Nineteenth Century" was among the most famous of its time. The club had many extraordinary thinkers, but accorded the leadership position to RALPH WALDO EMERSON.

Margaret Fuller played a large part in both the women's and Transcendentalist movements. She helped plan the community at Brook Farm, as well as editing The Dial, and writing the feminist treatise, Woman in the Nineteenth Century.

Emerson was a Harvard-educated essayist and lecturer and is recognized as our first truly "American" thinker. In his most famous essay, "THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR," he urged Americans to stop looking to Europe for inspiration and imitation and be themselves. He believed that people were naturally good and that everyone's potential was limitless. He inspired his colleagues to look into themselves, into nature, into art, and through work for answers to life's most perplexing questions. His intellectual contributions to the philosophy of transcendentalism inspired a uniquely American idealism and spirit of reform.

Transcendentalism movement arose as a result of a reaction to Unitarianism as well as the Age of Reason. Both centered on reason as the main source of knowledge, but transcendentalists rejected that notion. Some of the transcendentalist beliefs are:

• Humans are inherently good
• Society and its institutions such as organized religion and politics are corrupting. Instead of being part of them, humans should strive to be independent and self-reliant
• Spirituality should come from the self, not organized religion
• Insight and experience are more important than logic
• Nature is beautiful, should be deeply appreciated, and shouldn’t be altered by humans

Major Transcendentalist Values

The transcendentalist movement encompassed many beliefs, but these all fit into their three main values of individualism, idealism, and the divinity of nature.

 

Individualism

Perhaps the most important transcendentalist value was the importance of the individual. They saw the individual as pure, and they believed that society and its institutions corrupted this purity. Transcendentalists highly valued the concept of thinking for oneself and believed people were best when they were independent and could think for themselves. Only then could individuals come together and form ideal communities.

 

Idealism

The focus on idealism comes from Romanticism, a slightly earlier movement. Instead of valuing logic and learned knowledge as many educated people at the time did, transcendentalists placed great importance on imagination, intuition and creativity. They saw the values of the Age of Reason as controlling and confining, and they wanted to bring back a more “ideal” and enjoyable way of living.

 

Divinity of Nature

Transcendentalists didn’t believe in organized religion, but they were very spiritual. Instead of believing in the divinity of religious figures, they saw nature as sacred and divine. They believed it was crucial for humans to have a close relationship with nature, the same way religious leaders preach about the importance of having a close relationship with God. Transcendentalists saw nature as perfect as it 

was; humans shouldn’t try to change or improve it.

 Romanticism Course  " Part One"

Destined to 2nd Year Students.

Designed by : Dr. SELT Djihad Afaf

A lecturer, UATL.

Definition and Background

Romanticism is a literary, artistic, musical and even political movement that began in the late 18th century,    and lasted until the 19th century—but its influence is still perceptible to this day., Romanticism can be seen as a reaction to the drastic changes in society that occurred during this period, including the revolutions that swept through countries like France and the United States, ushering in grand experiments in democracy.

European Romanticism began as a reaction to the ways in which Industrial Revolution and the Enlightenment had transformed society. The Enlightenment had prioritized reason and rationality over emotion and creativity. The Industrial Revolution had urbanized England. Technology was thriving, science was hastily evoluting, and cities were becoming increasingly swarming. There was a kind of shift of the European societies from the agrarian culture to the industrial one.

As an outcome of these changes, many people felt like humanity was trailing its relationship with the natural world and the sublime. They believed that this whole modernity has affected the human soul and rendered it more selfish.

Many scholars believe that despite the fact that the industrial revolution was an economic success it was also a social failure. This is due to  tremendous vices that were brought to the fore such as child labor, spread of unemployment (because men were replaced by machines) and widening the gap between classes.

Amidst these hard times, appears the effective contribution of the Romanticists: a group of artists, writers, and intellectuals who regarded themselves not only as literary laureates but rather political activists and patriots who celebrated nature, emotion, and the spiritual. They criticized the way society had changed and glorified the past in their work.

One of the most brilliant facets of literature is that it consists a reflective a mirror of life. Europe and America witnessed drastic changes in the late eighteenth century, and the Romantic Era reflected this change.

The Main Characteristics of Romanticism ( The Five I s) :

Imagination
Imagination presides the thought and philosophy of this movement. It is highly stressed on and prioritized over reason. In fact, glorifying imagination comes as a backlash against the rational thinking that characterized the Neoclassical period or “Age of Reason.” Imagination is crucial as it is the basis of creativity which is the origin of all arts.

Individualism
Romantics celebrate the individual. The Romantics avowed the significance of the individual, the unique, and the eccentric.  Their celebration of the individual in this movement is taken to the extreme that it tends to oppose the traditional view of the concept of the hero. The neoclassical representation of the hero outcasts the character of the magnificent and the supernatural. However , it takes a certain degree of strength for a common man to become the archetype of a hero.

Inspiration

The Romantic artists and poets tend to seek inspiration within the broods of nature. For Romantics, nature is often presented as a work of art in itself, created by a divine imagination and uttered through emblematic language.For them, it is the source of serenity and positive influence on the human mind and soul.

Idealism
Idealism is the perception that views perfection in every aspect of life.It refers to the different theories and views that emphasize the spiritual side of humanity, its mindset, and favoring language over matter.

 Idealism is the metaphysical view that associates reality to ideas in the mind rather than to material objects.  It lays emphasis on the mental or spiritual components of experience, and renounces the notion of material existence.  Idealists regard the mind and spirit as the most essential, permanent aspects of one’s being.  The philosophical views of Berkeley, Christian Science, and Hinduism embrace idealist thought as they relate it to the existence of a supreme, divine reality that transcends basic human understanding and inherent sensory awareness.- Omonia Vinieris (2002)

Intuition
Romantics often put a premium on “intuition,” or the inner guts, feelings and instincts, over reason. They believe that knowledge is acquired through intuition more than deduction. William Words Worth summarizes it all as he claims:  “all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.” W.W

 

The  work that marks the beginning of Romanticism in English literature is Lyrical Ballads by William Wo Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge . It was published  in 1798.

The Tragedy of Hamlet : A synopsis

 

The Tragedy of Hamlet that is often shortened to Hamlet, is one of the most controversial plays written by William Shakespeare. The play was published in 1602  , one year before the death of queen Elizabeth the I . Shakespeare’s Chef d’oeuvre  Hamlet is a play that embodies the age of renaissance. It is a play  that encompasses  thoughtful insights about humanist philosophy as well as the mesmerizing Greek tradition of writing that is filled with mythology and fantastic elements. The story starts when Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, is  back home from  England  to mourn the death of his father, King Hamlet, who has died two months earlier. Hamlet is surprised and disturbed  by the marriage of his widowed mother, Queen Gertrude, to his Uncle, King Claudius, who succeeded to throne shortly after the death of his father.

Later on, a ghost has appeared to guards on nightly watch which was seen also by Hamlet’s good friend, Horatio, who was astonished by the resemblance of the ghost to the deceased King Hamlet . Horatio tried to speak to the ghost but it refused. Shortly after that, Horatio asks Hamlet to wait for the ghost and try his chance out, maybe the ghost would finally speak. Indeed, The ghost of his father appears to Hamlet and speaks to him stating that he was murdered by his brother Claudius who poisoned him in the ear. Hamlet is moved and affected by the ghost’s speech and promises to avenge his father’s murder.

Afterwards , Hamlet’s sanity starts to be doubted by all his surroundings .consequently, Laertes, son to the King’s advisor Polonius who  is ordered to leave to France tells Ophelia, his sister, to stay away from Hamlet and orders her to be’ vigilant of Hamlet’s feelings for her. His uncle Claudius and his mother Gertrude are both worried ; Polonius suggests  that Hamlet has gone mad because of Ophelia’s rejection of his feelings.  Nevertheless, Claudius and Polonius decide to spy on Hamlet and Ophelia through employing his childhood friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to spy on him.  However , their  hidden plan is quickly  uncovered by Hamlet.

A few  days later a troupe of players visit town which inspires hamlet to visualize his father’s murder and thinks of  hiring these actors to  perform a play that recounts and realizes the ghosts speech. Indeed, hamlet organizes everything and asks the actors to perform murder scene in which a king is being poisoned in the ear by his brother who is driven by greed of succeeding to the throne. He orders Horatio to observe Claudius’ reaction during the play. Claudius cannot endure watching the play and angrily leaves which proves Hamlet’s doubts and that he is the murderer of his father.

Hamlet follows Claudius to the chapel while he is kneeling down to pray. He is driven by a strong desire to kill him instantly, but then refrains from doing that because Claudius is in mid-prayer, and if he kills him he will therefore go to heaven. Hamlet then decides to wait until Claudius commits a sin which would guarantee that he will go to hell. After that hamlet decides to speak to his mother Gertrude an argument starts , the curtain moves and hamlet rushes to kill the one behind it thinking that it would be his uncle Claudius, but then discovers that he killed Polonius mistaking him for being his uncle.

Later on , some news suggest that Fortinbras, Prince of Norway, whose father’s lands were seized by the late King, decides to go to Denmark in order to claim back the land. Claudius asks Hamlet and his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to depart to England having a letter with them that contains an order for Hamlet’s execution during the trip. Nevertheless, while at sea, Hamlet soon realizes that they are plotting against him and switches the orders, causing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to be executed and Hamlet returns safe to Denmark. When he arrives at Elsinore he finds out that Ophelia has gone mad because of grieving her father. Laertes, then,   returns from France and is told that Hamlet has killed his father, Polonius. Claudius convinces Laertes to have a  duel with Hamlet and poisons the tip of Laertes foil.  He prepared a poisned drink for Hamlet in case Laertes loses the duel they are interrupted by . Gertrude  who announces the death of  Ophelia  who has drowned. In the graveyard, Hamlet reminisces on a friend of his whose skull he has found. When arrives with Ophelia’s corpse arrives , Laertes and Hamlet argue and start fighting. In the mid of their  duel, Gertrude  drinks from  the poisoned chalice and falls dead immediately. Hamlet  gets wounded by the poisoned foil and swhitches it to stab alerts who denounces Claudius’s plan to kill hamlet . He rushes and stabs Clausius and asks his friend Horatio to tell his story . The play is concluded with the scene of The Norwegian forces arriving at Elsinore picturing  Prince Fortinbras seizing  control of Denmark.

Drama of The Renaissance

the  Renaissance

Hello everyone and welcome again!  This time’s topic is about drama of the renaissance  

1. Historical Background

The renaissance is one of the widely acknowledged periods in the European history and civilization, it is known as an intellectual movement that started in the 14^th century and lasted until the16th one. The term is of French origins literarily means “Rebirth”. The term Renaissance was first used retrospectively by the Italian art historian Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) in his book Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, published in 1550.  The renaissance period is mainly characterized by a surge of an immense interest in the Classical Antiquity’s thought, intellect and values.

 Italy is the cradle of the renaissance and from Italy it spread to the other European countries, actually, it is important to explain why the Renaissance began in Florence, and not elsewhere in Italy. Scholars had observed many characteristics unique to Florence’s cultural life and that is what might have caused this movement. Others emphasized the role of the Medici, “a banking family and later ducal ruling house”, in patronizing and activating arts. Lorenzo de Medici (1449-1492) played the role of catalyst for a huge amount of arts patronage. He used to encourage the men of his country to commission works from Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, and Michelangelo Buonarroti. They were the leading artists of Florence. The renaissance brought with it revolutionary advancements and changes in science, literature and Arts. There were so many factors that stimulated these changes atop which overseas explorations, substitution of the Copernican for the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, the demise of the feudal system, the revival of the classical Antiquity as well as the rise of the humanist philosophy.

II. Defining Renaissance:

It is during this period that people started to boldly share their ideas and think outside the box, they defied religious verdict and ideology through confronting the church and discerning its deceptive nature. W. R. Goodman defined the Renaissance as follows:

The Renaissance was in essence an intellectual rebirth. It showed itself in the effort of the individual to free himself from the rigid institution of the Middle Ages, feudalism, and the church; and to assert his right to live, to think, and to express himself in accordance with a more flexible secular code.[1]

Indeed , relying on Goddman’s definition, the renaissance freed the human mind   from the constrains of religion.

also  M. H. Abram stated that:

The Renaissance involved a rebirth of letters and arts stimulated by the recovery and study of text from classical antiquity and the development of new aesthetic norms based on classical model. It also unleashed new ideas and new social, political, and economic forces that displaced the otherworldly and communal values of the Middle Ages, emphasizing instead the dignity and potential of the individual and the worth of life in this world.[2]

 III. Famous Figures in Literature

In literature, the major literary figures of this age were: Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio, Machiavelli, and Sanazzaro from Italy; Erasmus from Netherland; Montaigne and Rabelais from France; Lope de Vega and Cervantes from Spain; Sir Thomas More, Sir Thomas Wyatt, Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney, Shakespeare and Sir Francs Bacon from England.

 VI. Characteristics of the Renaissance :

The renaissance period  in brief was characterized by mainly 4 important traits :

1. The revival of the classical Antiquity

Which is shown vehementy through the revival of the old forms of arts mainly sculpture

2. The rise of the logical thinking and favouring it over emotions

Which paved the way towards many thinkers of the experimental school in philosophy such as David Hume and John Locke

3.  the rise of the humanist philosophy

The term humanism was coined in the nineteenth century. It referred mainly to the new conception of man in the Renaissance. The idea of an individual was a vital element of this conception.¹⁷

J. A. Cuddon maintained that humanism as “a European phenomenon was a more worldly and thus more secular philosophy; and it was anthropocentric. It sought to dignify and ennoble man”. Humanism, according to him, helped man to be civilized and to make him realize his potential powers and gifts, and to reduce the difference between potentiality and attainment.

The study of Greek has an important role in Italian humanism; some have argued that the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 caused the escape of many Greek scholars to Italy taking their manuscripts with them and that is what promoted the interest in the classical past and particularly in Plato’s works which were imperfectly known previously.[3]

Francesco Petrarca was one of the earliest important Italian humanists. He revived interest in Cicero as a model for prose style, and he was also the author of some significant works in Latin and Italian. His Florentine followers, Giovanni Boccacio, Collucio Salutati, Leonardo Bruni, Poggio Bracciolini, and Lorenzo Valla, carried on translating of important classical works in order to recover the missing manuscripts from classical antiquity.

4.  Elizabethan Golden Age :

 The reign of Queen Elizabeth I was one of the great periods of English history, perhaps the greatest one. It was known as the Elizabethan Age. In this age, England became a unified nation that was able to be firm and stable against the states like Spain which was planning to attack England. It was an age of great and famous men, of explorations and discoveries, of poetry and music, of revival of learning, and above all mature drama. English drama reached its climax, “a height which has never been surpassed.” ^[4]“The chief literary glory of the great Elizabethan age was its drama, but even before it several plays appeared which showed that a great development had taken place.”[5]

V. Elizabethan Drama  

Elizabethan drama was preliminarily influenced by three elements; the native tradition, the Latin and Italian drama. These elements could be found in almost every Elizabethan plays. The mystery, miracle, morality, and interlude represented the development of the native tradition. Seneca was the model for tragedy, and Plautus and Terence supplied the hinterland suggestions for comedy.[6]English tragedy, in particular, was not developed out of liturgical plays, but from Seneca’s model. His tragedies were marked by fear, exaggerated character-drawing, violence and rhetorical language supported by emotional hyperboles. His impact was felt for the first time in the Latin plays of the universities in general and Cambridge in particular. He became the first classical playwright and all his works had been translated into English. Many of the future dramatists such as Marlowe and Peele were students in the university when Seneca’s impact was strong. Gorboduc was the first English play that embodied Seneca’s form.

During the reign of queen Elizabeth I drama flourished due to:

v The social welfare people lived in which allowed them to enjoy entertaining spectacles of drama

v The queen’s personal interest and appreciation for art especially drama

v The rise of acting companies and acting as a profession

v The playwrights were mostly writing their plays under royal patronage which made them productive.

---

[1]2. W. R. Goodman, History of English Literature.Vol. 1, (Delhi: Doaba House,

2009), pp. 285-286.

[2] M. H. Abrams, ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature .^5thed., Vol.1,

(USA: WW. Norton & Company, Inc., 1987), p. 240.

4. Denys Hay, The Italian Renaissance in Its Historical Background,

[3] Richard Dutton, p. 29.

[4] R. F Clarke, p. 30.

[5] G. C. Thornley and Gwyneth Roberts

[6] William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, ed. Praveen Bhatia, p.18.