Samantha Harvey
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780748681365
- eISBN:
- 9780748693887
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748681365.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 19th Century Literature
Transatlantic Transcendentalism: Coleridge, Emerson, and Nature is the first book devoted to the most important transatlantic source for Emerson and the development of American Transcendentalism: the ...
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Transatlantic Transcendentalism: Coleridge, Emerson, and Nature is the first book devoted to the most important transatlantic source for Emerson and the development of American Transcendentalism: the work of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Coleridge's thought galvanized Emerson at a pivotal moment in his intellectual development in the years 1826–1836. Coleridge's discriminating distinctions and definitions, his call for cultivating the art of reflection, and his dynamic intellectual method gave Emerson new ways to think about a central question of Romanticism: what is the relationship between the natural, spiritual, and human worlds? Emerson did not think about Coleridge: he thought with Coleridge, resulting in a unique case of assimilative influence.The emerging field of transatlantic studies has opened new circulatory spaces to reconsider the relationship between Coleridge and Emerson by restoring the intellectual contexts and the rich interplay of ideas across the Atlantic. While Coleridge's thought guided, stimulated, and provoked Emerson to create his most distinctive literary creations, it also shaped several major American intellectual movements. In addition toexamining Coleridge's specific literary, philosophical, and theological influences on Emerson, this bookreveals his centrality for Boston Transcendentalism and the related but lesser-known Vermont Transcendentalism, a movement which profoundly affected the development of modern higher education, the national press, and the emergence of Pragmatism. Transatlantic Transcendentalism dedicates one chapter to each category of the Romantic triad of nature, humanity, and spirit, bookended by two historical chapters about Coleridge's American legacy for Boston and Vermont Transcendentalism. Chapter 4 is dedicated to Coleridge's intellectual method and his practice of “distinguishing without dividing” as dynamic strategies for mediating the Romantic triad.Less
Transatlantic Transcendentalism: Coleridge, Emerson, and Nature is the first book devoted to the most important transatlantic source for Emerson and the development of American Transcendentalism: the work of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Coleridge's thought galvanized Emerson at a pivotal moment in his intellectual development in the years 1826–1836. Coleridge's discriminating distinctions and definitions, his call for cultivating the art of reflection, and his dynamic intellectual method gave Emerson new ways to think about a central question of Romanticism: what is the relationship between the natural, spiritual, and human worlds? Emerson did not think about Coleridge: he thought with Coleridge, resulting in a unique case of assimilative influence.The emerging field of transatlantic studies has opened new circulatory spaces to reconsider the relationship between Coleridge and Emerson by restoring the intellectual contexts and the rich interplay of ideas across the Atlantic. While Coleridge's thought guided, stimulated, and provoked Emerson to create his most distinctive literary creations, it also shaped several major American intellectual movements. In addition toexamining Coleridge's specific literary, philosophical, and theological influences on Emerson, this bookreveals his centrality for Boston Transcendentalism and the related but lesser-known Vermont Transcendentalism, a movement which profoundly affected the development of modern higher education, the national press, and the emergence of Pragmatism. Transatlantic Transcendentalism dedicates one chapter to each category of the Romantic triad of nature, humanity, and spirit, bookended by two historical chapters about Coleridge's American legacy for Boston and Vermont Transcendentalism. Chapter 4 is dedicated to Coleridge's intellectual method and his practice of “distinguishing without dividing” as dynamic strategies for mediating the Romantic triad.
