No abstract

Projecting the relationship Transcendentalism had with Greek and Roman Classics, this article looks at the exposure in Roman and Greek literature Transcendentalists recieved in their education. Though the Classics were central to their curricula, the special interest they showed in exploring it themselves gave them a good command of the subject. Harvard, in fact, provided a great platform to the Classics as many Transcendentalists took up languages and literature and mastered those subjects by the time they left college. The article explains that the women Transcendentalists too got the same level of education despite being excluded from institutions of higher learning. And, as they grew older they read the authors of antiquity as part of their struggle for intellectual autonomy and equality. The article also gives different reasons for the reception of the Classics by the Transcendentalists.

This essay surveys the scholarship on American Transcendentalism for the last fifty years, focusing on its treatment of the place of religion in the movement. It finds that after an initial period when interest in religion, defined in terms of the history of ideas and institutions, was high, the 1970s and 1980s saw a neglect or exclusion of religion as a factor in Transcendentalism. More recently, there has been a resurgence of interest, however, with emphasis on such topics as spirituality and multiculturalism.

No abstract

No abstract