美国文学第二部分：超验主义的丰碑艾默生
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第二部分
超验主义的丰碑艾默生
Ralph Waldo Emerson
：
The Great New England Transcendentalist
1.
New England Transcendentalism and the Romantic Age
Even
after
the
13
colonies
gained
independence
from
English
control,
despite
their
political independence, Americans acknowledged much the same literary canon as the
British.
Educated
Americans
in
the
new
Republic
were
more
familiar
with
Greek,
Roman and European history and literature than with American writers of the colonial
and
Revolutionary
eras.
Educated
American
children
learned
Greek
and
Latin
literature in childhood. In 1820 it was still possible for a British critic, Sydney Smith,
to ask, “Who reads an American book?” Smith, like many other Europeans, wondered
why
any
intelligent
person
would
want
to
bother
reading
books
from
such
an
unformed, uncultured, unsophisticated place as America.
But
after
the
Thirteen
States
gained
independence,
geographically
the
new
nation
expanded quickly. For instance, in 1803,
the U.S. purchased the Louisiana Territory
from
France,
and
this
vastly
enlarged
the
US
territory.
By
1821
ten
new
states
had
joined
the
original
thirteen.
Settlers
moved
west;
roads
and
waterways
improved.
Steamships
created
a
new
network
of
trade
and
communication.
New
factories
and
mills
made
the
nation
less
an
agricultural
economy
and
a
more
urban
and
industrialized society.
As
Americans
continued
to
build
the
nation,
an
increasing
nationalism
developed.
Americans began to call for a literature that would be less dependent upon European
models,
one
that
would
express
their
Americanism.
Such
works
appeared
with
the
publication of
Washington Irving’s Sketch Book
(1820), with “Rip Van Winkle” a
nd
“The
Legend
of
Sleepy
Hollow”
included.
American
literature
of
lasting
value
was
beginning
to
be
created.
In
close
succession,
in
1823
James
Fenimore
Cooper
published The Pioneers, the first
of
his
Leather-stocking novels,
and in
1827
Edgar
Allan Poe’s
first volume of poetry came out.
Why are
these writers and their works so special? That’s because they began writing
about American people in American places dealing with American problems. It is true
that
their
characters
and
settings
were
not
always
American,
and
their
forms
were
usually
British. But in
spite of everything, they
did
take the
first
steps.
They
wrote
about the American wilderness, the Revolution, pioneers, American town and city life.
They
praised
American
heroes
and
American
artists
and
told
American
tales.
Their
subjects were freedom, expansion, the individual
—
definitely not European subjects.
More
remarkable
was
Emerson.
Irving
and
Cooper
had
made
first
steps
towards
Americanism, but they seemed to be still a bit provincial, still under the influence of
English and other European writers. The first steps taken by Irving, Cooper and Poe
had
to
be
lengthened.
The
giant
strides
were
taken
by
Emerson.
In
1837,
Emerson
published his stirring lecture The American Scholar, which was often call
ed America’s
intellectual declaration of independence. Emerson exclaimed,
“
We will walk
on our
own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds.
”
第二部分
超验主义的丰碑艾默生
Ralph Waldo Emerson
：
The Great New England Transcendentalist
The nation listened and took the words to heart. Increasingly, American writers began
to
free
themselves
from
European
models.
During
a
relatively
few
years,
concentrating
around
Boston
and
the
village
of
Concord,
a
number
of
writers
appeared. We now think of them
as
“classic”
writers.
Such
writers
as Ralph
Waldo
Emerson,
Nathaniel
Hawthorne,
Henry
David
Thoreau,
Herman
Melville,
Walt
Whitman,
Emily
Dickinson
，
collectively
brought
about
the
Renaissance
of
New
England.
We say these writers are great because for many readers their work has a vitality and
originality that endures, that transcends time and place.
Ralph Waldo Emerson: The giant of American Transcendentalism
Born in Boston, Ralph Waldo Emerson was the son of a Unitarian minister who died
when Waldo was 8 years old. He attended Harvard, studied theology, and became a
Unitarian minister himself in 1829.
Emerson’s dedication to the ministry was to a life of public service through eloquence,
not to a life of preserving and disseminating religious dogma. Emerson’s skepticism
toward
Christianity
was
strengthened
by
his
exposure
to
the
German
“higher
criticism.”
1
In
1832,
for
reasons
of
conscience,
Emerson
resigned
his
ministry
and
sailed to Europe.
In Europe he met the English writers Wordsworth, Coleridge and Carlyle.
After returning from Europe, he settled in the village of Concord, Massachusetts and
began
his
lifelong
career
as
lecturer
and
writer.
It
was
at
Concord
that
Emerson
composed
his
first
book,
Nature
(1936).
His
address
called
The
American
Scholar
(1937) has been an inspiration to generations of young Americans, but Emerson did
not
achieve
national
fame
until
his
Essays
appeared
in
1841.
Then
came
Essays:
Second Series (1844), Representative Men (1849), and The Conduct of Life (1860).
When he was a young man, Emerson began writing journals and taking notes. In his
journals he would write down his daily thoughts and observations. In his note-books
he would put down notes on his wide reading. He called these journals and notebooks
his
“Savings
Bank”,
from
which
he
would
“withdraw”
the
language
and
ideas
for
lectures. With many deliveries, the lectures became polished and improved, then often
became the basis for his essays. And in turn, these essays were important influences
upon so many American writers, including Thoreau, Whitman, Dickinson, and Frost.
Modern literary historians see Emerson as the seminal writer of the century.
1
Higher criticism is t
he name given in the 19th century to a branch of biblical scholarship concerned with
establishing the dates, authorship, sources, and interrelations of the various books of the Bible, often with
disturbing results for orthodox Christian dogma. It was “higher” not in status but in the sense that it required a
preliminary basis of “lower” textual criticism, which reconstructed the original wording of biblical texts from
faulty copies. (
高等考证，指用科学方法对基督教《圣经》各书的作者、写作日期、
写作目 的等所作的考证）
第二部分
超验主义的丰碑艾默生
Ralph Waldo Emerson
：
The Great New England Transcendentalist
Yet Emerson’s great influence extended beyond the literary community and went to
the American people at large. His optimism, his belief in the vast possibilities of mind
and
spirit,
and
his
doctrine
of
self-reliance
well
suited
a
democratic,
progressive
nation.
Nature
is
one
of
Emerson
’
s
best- known
and
most
influential
essays.
It
is
a
lyrical
expression of the harmony Emerson felt between himself and nature.
Nature
Introduction (excerpt)
Our age is retrospective
（回顾的）
. It builds the sepulchers
（坟墓）
of the fathers. It
writes biographies, histories, and criticism. The foregoing generations beheld God and
nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original
relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight
and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs?
Embosomed
（环绕）
for a season in nature, whose floods of life stream around and
through us, and invite us by the powers they supply, to action proportioned to nature,
why should we grope among the dry bones of the past, or put the living generation
into masquerade
（化装舞会）
out of its faded wardrobe? The sun shines to-day also.
There
is
more
wool
and
flax
in
the
fields.
There
are
new
lands,
new
men,
new
thoughts. Let us demand our own works and laws and worship.
Chapter I (Excerpt)
To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society. I
am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me. But if a man would
be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds will
separate
between
him
and
what
he
touches.
One
might
think
the
atmosphere
was
made transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual
presence of the sublime
（崇高）
. Seen in the streets of cities, how great they are! If the
stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore;
and
preserve
for
many
generations
the
remembrance
of
the
city
of
God
which
had
been shown! But every night come out these envoys
（使者）
of beauty, and light the
universe with their admonishing
（微微责备的）
smile.
The
stars
awaken
a
certain
reverence,
because
though
always
present,
they
are
inaccessible; but all natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open
to
their
influence.
Nature
never
wears
a
mean
appearance.
Neither
does
the
wisest
man extort her secret, and lose his curiosity by finding out all her perfection. Nature
never became a toy to a wise spirit. The flowers, the animals, the mountains, reflected