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超验主义:美国精神独立宣言张志刚(大连民族学院外国语言文化系,辽宁大连116600)摘 要:从美国超验主义出现的必然性、原理以及进步意义等方面对超验主义哲学思想进行论述,认为它是美国人民精神独立宣言,指出只有超验主义的出现才使美国真正彻底地完成了独立革命运动。
关键词:超验主义;爱默生;精神独立;美国化;个性中图分类号:B 712.41 文献标识码:A 文章编号:1009-315X (2004)02-0044-04一、引 言 熟悉美国文学的人都知道超验主义,其创始人爱默生是“美国最有影响的思想家”[1](p.43),是“美国文学史上必不可少的人物,其影响自然是巨大的”[2](p.670)。
麦奎德声称:“爱默生对于美国19、20世纪文化影响的独创性和普遍性让我们懂得更多他的精神观和物质观———不管我们是否有意或无意读过其作品。
”[3](p.11)其他国家也感受到其思想的影响。
中国学者钱满书致力于研究爱默生与中国古代思想家之间哲学思想的异同及其相互影响。
她发表了《爱默生与中国》一书,指出超验主义思想在某些方面受到东方哲学的影响。
常耀信教授也指出超验主义的重要性:“超验主义激励了整整一代著名作家,如爱默生,梭罗,霍桑,麦尔维尔,惠特曼,迪金森。
如果没有其推动力,美国历史上最为多产的文学时代之一可能就被剥夺了。
”[4](p.78)超验主义对于美国文学的影响毋庸置疑,爱默生及其追随者将其所倡导的超验主义看作是美国人民精神的独立宣言。
美国国体的独立并不意味着精神方面的独立,只有其在精神方面的独立,才标志着美国在包括文学、艺术等各个领域的真正独立。
因此,超验主义运动是美国独立运动的延续,只有超验主义的出现才是美国真正彻底地完成了独立革命运动。
二、超验主义出现的必然性 美国独立战争后,超验主义的出现是必然的。
这时候,需要出现一种新的思潮以满足新诞生国家的需要。
人们渴望对宗教、社会行为以及文化的重新审视。
爱默生正是在这种社会背景下倡导思想方面的革命,使人民从旧的精神束缚中解脱出来。
超验主义英语
超验主义（Transcendentalism）是一种哲学和文学运动，源于19世纪初美国新英格兰地区的一些知识分子，代表人物包括拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生、亨利·戴维·梭罗、玛格丽特·富勒等。
超验主义强调人的内在精神体验、个性和自由，反对传统、教条和社会规范的束缚，提倡个体的自我实现和追求精神自由。
超验主义的核心理念是“超验”（Transcendentalism），即超越感官经验和理性思维所能及的现实层面，探索和认识超越自我和自然的神秘领域。
超验主义者认为，人类内在的灵性和直觉能够带领人们超越传统的知识和思想框架，获得更深刻的见解和更高的境界。
这种超验主义观点强调人的主观能动性，有助于打破加尔文教的“人性恶”、“命定论”等教条的束缚，为热情奔放、抒发个性的浪漫主义文学奠定了思想基础。
Important Literary TermsTranscendentalism(超验主义): Transcendentalism, which appeared after 1830, marked the maturity of American Romanticism and the first renaissance in the American literary history. The term was derived from Latin, meaning to rise above or to pass beyond the limits. It laid emphasis on spirit and individual and nature.Free verse (自由体诗): Free verse has no regular rhythm or line length and depends on natural speech rhythms and the counterpoint (对照法) of stressed and unstressed syllables.Also called open-form poetry, free verse refers to poems characterized by their nonconformity to established patterns of meter, rhyme, and stanza. Free verse uses elements such as speech patterns, grammar, emphasis, and breath pauses to decides line break, and usually does not rhyme.Emily Dickinson V.S Walt WhitmanShe differs from Whitman in a variety of ways. For one thing, Whitman seems to keep his eye on society at large; Dickinson explores the inner life of the individual. Whereas Whitman is “national” in his outlook, Dickinson is regional.”Dickinson often used variations of meters common in hymn writing, especially iambic tetrameter (eight syllables per line, with every second syllable being stressed). She frequently employed off-rhymes. Dickinson’s short poetic lines, condensed by using intense metaphors and by extensive use of ellipsis (the omission of words understood to be there), contrasted sharply with the style of her contemporary Walt Whitman, who used long time, litter rhyme, and irregular rhythm in his poetry.1.Which statement about Thoreau was NOT right?A.He was a lover of nature.B.He was a particular kind of romantic.C.He was a polemicist.D.He was a thorough transcendentalist.2.Which of the following has been called “the manifesto of American transcendentalism”?A. Divinity School Address.B. Self-RelianceC. NatureD. The American Scholar3. As a philosophical and literary movement, _______ flourished in New England from the 1830s to the Civil War.A. sentimentalismB. transcendentalismC. modernismD. rationalism4. The period before and American Civil War is generally referred to as ________.A. the Modern PeriodB. the Realistic PeriodC. the Romantic PeriodD. the Naturalist Period5. All the following are works by Nathaniel Hawthorne EXCEPT ________.A. The Marble FaunB. TypeeC. The Scarlet LetterD. Mosses from an Old Manse6. Which of the following is not a work of Emily Dickinson’s?A. I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died.B. The Raven.C. This is My Letter to the WorldD. I lIke to See it Lap the Miles7. Whitman’s poems are characterized by all the following features EXCEPT ________.A. the strict poetic formB. the free and natural rhythmC. the wwasy flow of feelingsD. the simple and conversational language8. As a philosophical and literary moment, ________ fourished in New England from the 1830s to the Civil War.A. modernismB. rationalismC. sentimentalismD. transcendentalism9. Which book is not written by Emerson?A. The American ScholarB. Self-RelianceC. NatureD. Civil Disobedience10. The finest example of Hawthorn’s symbolism is the recreation of Puritan Boston in ______.A. The Scarlet LetterB. Young Goodman BrownC. The Marble FaunD. The Ambitious Guest11. The chief spokesman of New England Transcendentalism is ________.A, Nathaniel Hawthorn B. Ralph Waldo EmersonC. Henry David ThoreauD. Washington Irving12. Transcendentalists recognized _______as the “highest power of the soul”.A. intuitionB. logicC. data of the sensesD. thinking13. American literature produced only one female poet during the nineteenth century. This was ________.A. Anne BradstreetB. Jane AustinC. Emily DickinsonD. Harriet Beecher14. Captain, My Captain is written for ________.A. LincolnB. WhitmanC. WashingtonD. Hemingway15. Which of the foolowing was written by Thoreau?A. NatureB. Walden.C. The Scarlet LetterD. The Fall of the House of Usher16. Which of the following books is a tremendous chronicle of an appalling voyage in pursuit of a seemingly supernatural white whale?A. The Scarlet LetterB. Moby DickC. The Marble FaunD. Moses from an old Manse17. Ralph Waldo Emerson is the most outstanding of all the _______ writers in _______ literature.A. transcendental/ EnglishB. transcendental/ AmericanC. realistic/ EnglishD. realistic / American18. Edgar Allan Poe occupies an important position in American literature as a poet and a ______.A. short story writerB. novelistC. dramatistD. translator19. In Walden, who urges people to simplify their lives and look to nature for meaning?A. Robert FrostB. Walt WhitmanC. Henry David ThoreauD. Herman Melville20. The setting of the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne id in ________.A. England during World War IIB. Paris during the French RevolutionC. the Middle Ages in ItalyD. Puritan America。
TranscendentalismAbstractA literary and philosophical movement, associated with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller, asserts the existence of an ideal spiritual reality that transcends the empirical and scientific and is knowable through intuition. Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that developed in the 1830s and 1840s in the New England region of the United States with Ralph Waldo Emerson as its leader. With the continuous development, Transcendentalism becomes an important ideological liberation movement in the history of American. It stressed the direct communication between God and human and the divinity in human heart. It is also critical. It aims to build a moral and free world, showing the ideal Utopia life. Its spirit is one of important heritages in America history. Transcendentalism is not about doing what is good or bad for the society, but to break away from what society expects and doing what one believes is right for them.Key Words: transcendentalism; individualism; influence; development超验主义摘要超验主义（英文：Transcendentalism，也叫“新英格兰超验主义”或者说“美国文艺复兴”）是美国的一种文学和哲学运动。
