Midterm Ch. 6 Flashcards
What was Emerson’s true vocation?
Lecturing throughout America
Who was described as the 19th century arch-heretic?
Emerson
Who was the philosophical leader of transcendentalism?
Emerson
What does Emerson’s poetry reveal better development in?
Content rather than style
Transcendentalism contradicts Christianity by supporting what three doctrines?
The divinity of men
The irrelevance of the bible
The perfectibility of society
Henry David Thoreau tried what after graduating from Harvard?
Teaching
What was Thoreau’s life characterized by?
Nonconformity
What was the central event of Thoreau’s life?
His residence at Walden Pond.
In “Civil Disobedience”, what ideas represent Thoreau’s view?
The individual is above the state
Ideally, citizens should be neighbors to the state rather than subject to it
A person is justified in breaking any law he considers bad.
What did Thoreau also apply transcendental principles to?
Politics
According to Thoreau what is the best government?
That which governs not at all, or least.
What did Walt Whitman do to Emerson’s ideas?
Extended them to their logical outcomes
Whitman’s most harmful long range effect has been…
To encourage total freedom in poetic content and style
Who has had a strong influence on modern American poetry?
Walt Whitman
What is Whitman’s most central work?
“Leaves of Grass”
