Transcendentalism

This introductory course examines how the early to mid-nineteenth-century Transcendentalist movement in the United States influenced contemporary religious, social, and literary thought through the lives and writings of prominent New England literati such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller. As well, to better understand the origins of the American Transcendentalist movement we will survey Transcendentalist thought in late eighteenth-century and early nineteenth-century England, Germany, and France. Two short research summaries submitted online (40%), participation (20%), final exam submitted online (40%).