Parallels, Comparisons, and Contrasts of Emerson’s Nature and Carlyle’s Signs of the Times: Anglo-American Transcendentalism

Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, course: Transatlantic Romanticism, language: English, abstract: Many literary scholars are currently handling the issue of the influence of British Romanticism on American Transcendentalism, and have found many clear connections which the two nations’ philosophies have in common. In this respect, they regard Carlyle’s influence upon Emerson’s writings as noteworthy. Both writers became significant representatives of the Victorian Age due to their numerous achievements in literature at the time. While Carlyle attained great success in New England and became the leader and spokesman of New England Transcendentalists (Thompson 452), Emerson was America’s great philosopher-psychologist-poet of the Self (Mott 61). Both of them came to hold a dominant presence in the still developing culture of a new age and gained significant notoriety within literary circles.