Anti-Transcendentalism

1
Anti-Transcendentalism

• 19th century (approx. 1840-1860) literary
  movement that focused on the dark side of
  humanity and the evilness and guilt of sin

2
Reasons / Causes

• Opposed the optimism and naïve idealism of the
  transcendentalists
• Dwelt on guilt and remorse over past sins
• Discontented with current circumstances in
  America (poverty/unjust and cruel treatment of
  factory workers, poor educational system, lack of
  womens rights, slavery) so they focused on
  moral dilemmas and societys ills

3
Literary Works

• Prose (short stories and novels)
• allegory

4
Key ideas / Philosophies

• Belief in the potential destructiveness of the
  human spirit
• Belief in individual truths, but no universal
  truths, and the truths of existence are deceitful
  and disturbing
• Human nature is inherently sinful (original sin)
  and evil is an active force in the universe
• Focus on the mans uncertainty and limitations in
  the universe

5
View of Nature

• Nature is vast and incomprehensible, a reflection
  of the struggle between good and evil
• Nature is the creation and possession of God and
  it cannot be understood by human beings

6
Writing Style

• Man vs. Nature conflicts bring out the evil in
  humanity
• Raw and morbid diction
• Focus on the protagonists inner struggles
• Typical protagonists are haunted outsiders who
  are alienated from society
• Prevalent use of symbolism

7
Nathaniel Hawthorne

• As the moral gloom of the world overpowers all
  systematic gaiety, even so was their home of wild
  mirth made desolate amid the sad forest.
• The Maypole of Merrymount (1836)

8
Herman Melville

• All men live enveloped in whale-lines. All are
  born with halters round their necks but it is
  only when caught in the swift, sudden turn of
  death, that mortals realize the silent, subtle,
  ever-present perils of life. --Moby Dick

9
Melville harshly criticizes capitalism, slavery,
war and imperialism,

• but he shows passionate empathy for classes of
  men who bear the same relation to society at
  large that the wheels do to a coach.

10
A final quote from Melville

• If, at my death, my executors, or more properly
  my creditors, find any precious manuscripts in my
  desk, then here I prospectively ascribe all the
  honor and glory to whaling for the whale ship
  was my Yale College and my Harvard.

11
One Last Dark Soul

• We cant forget Edgar Allan Poe!
• Movie Great books Take NOTES