Málstofa A: Assignment 2 A Presentation

Málstofa A:Assignment 2

A PresentationAn Outline for an MA Theses

Henry David ThoreauAn Article on Transcendentalism

Þorgerður Ásdís Jóhannsdóttir

Henry David Thoreau1817-1862

Thoreau can be labelled with many titles.

• an author - an essayist• a poet - a surveyor• a naturalist• a businessman – a tax

resister – an abolitionist• a philosopher – a transcendentalist

A man of many faces ...


Henry David Thoreau Life

• Thoreau was born in Concord Massachusetts on the 12th of July in1817

• He died there on the 6th of May in 1862


Henry David Thoreau Education

Concord Academy 1828-1833

Harvard University 1833-1837


Henry David Thoreau Life and Work

• A teacher• A poet – an author - an essayist – a

surveyor - a philosopher and a transcendentalist

• A naturalist• A tax resister• An abolitionist• A businessman


Literary Works Books EssaysWalden- Thoreau's 1845 experiment in living well The Maine Woods – Three excursions to Maine in the 1840's and 50's Cape Cod-trips to the Cape from 1849 to 1857 are narrated as a single visit A Yankee in Canada-An 1850 visit to Canada

Civil Disobedience - Thoreau's influential 1849 essay on following your own conscience. Life without Principles - In 1854, Thoreau railed against a culture whose primary focus is financial. Slavery in Massachusetts - Also in 1854, Thoreau attacked the support of slavery in his home state. A Plea for Captain John Brown - Brown tried to ignite a slave rebellion; Thoreau responded in 1859.Succession of Forest Trees - 1860: "Convince me that you have a seed ... I am prepared to expect wonders."Walking - 1862: Thoreau describes "wildness" as a treasure to be preserved, rather than plundered.

Henry David Thoreau The Book

• Thoreau’s retreat into a simple life in solitude in a small cabin at Walden Pond in 1845 -1847

• his research on man’s life in close connection with nature

• built on Thoreau’s journals • an environmental

philosophy -a research on sustainable life

• ideas that have attracted many people and still do

Walden Pond – The Cabin


Thoreau's sister, Sophia, drew this of his one room cabin at Walden Pond.

Walden is a book about ...

Henry David Thoreau The Essay

Civil Disobedience• Thoreau's influential

1849 essay on following your own conscience

• written after Thoreau’s imprisonment after refusing to pay taxes

• a protest against slavery and the Mexican- American War

Civil Disobedience


• nonviolent resistance• civil resistance• respectful disagreement

Under the Influence of Civil Disobedience

Mahatma Gandhi


Martin Luther King

Under the Influence of Civil Disobedience

The Hippies of the Sixties


The American Transcendentalists

The Contemporaries in Concord• R.W. Emerson• N. Hawthorne• B. Alcott • L. M. Alcott• H.D. Thoreau• M. Fuller


A Quote from Susan Cheever’s book

The American Bloomsbury “What was it about the time and place- the mid nineteenth century in a landlocked town west of Boston – that caused this sudden outbreak of genius? Was it a political climate so heated that 80% of the electorate turned out to vote? Was it that most of these people drank little, ate scant vegetarian diet, and were always terribly worried about money? Was it their devotion to family? Or was it just something in the air?”Þorgerður Ásdís Jóhannsdóttir

A Quote from Susan Cheever’s book

The American Bloomsbury• Another quote from

the same book where Dr. William Foege is cited :

“Genius clusters may not be a random as genius may attract genius”.


American Transcendentalism

• An American literary, political, and philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century centered around Ralph Waldo Emerson

• A movement stimulated by German and English Romanticism

• Operating with the sense that a new era was at hand


American TranscendentalismBackground

• German philosophy• English Romanticism• Theological debates• Social criticism• Existential questions

on:• man (women)• nature (earth)• God (universe)

Famous Philosophers:• Schleiermacher• Herder• Hume• KantFamous English

Romantics• S.T. Coleridge• T. Carlyle• W. Wordsworth


Ireland – Thoreau1870 – 1930

• Thoreau may have caught the interest of the Irish people because of their struggle to separate themselves from England, both politically and nationally.

• Thoreau’s presentation of simplicity and freedom may have appealed to the Irish in their fight against the imperial and industrial England


Ireland - ThoreauWilliam Butler Yeats

1865-1939Under the Influence of Thoreau• familiar with Walden• The Lake Isle of Innisfree

1888• a reflection of childhood

residence in Sligo• has a direct reference to

Walden


Iceland - Thoreau

Influence from Thoreau is to be seen in Iceland

as well as worldwide It is to be seen in:• the arts • in the environmental movements• in the crave for sustainability• in political protests – the fight for social

justice Þorgerður Ásdís Jóhannsdóttir

Icelandic ArtistsUnder the Influence of

Thoreau?• an Icelandic eccentric• an example of civil protest• an example of a retreat

into solitude and simple life

• lived in the mountains in Hellisheiði

• an example of a self-made artist

• a weaver

Óskar Magnússon 1915-1993


Icelandic ArtistsUnder the Influence of

Thoreau?• an educated artist• a weaver• active in the sixties• active in the movement

for women’s rights• retreated from the city • a gardener• a journal writer• a true Thoreau candidate?

Hildur Hákonardóttir 1938-


The EndSomething to think about

• Can the influence of Thoreau be seen in today’s

people and places?• Are we are still asking the same questions

as the Transcendentalists of the 19th century?

What is: man – nature – God? man – earth – universe?

How does this all make a sense?Has man become the master of it all?


Documents

Málstofa A: Assignment 2 A Presentation