| No body can define transcendentalism. These people didn't understand the word "brevity." If this is something you're really interested in, follow this link. If you want to get the general idea of transcendentalism, follow this link to (don't turn me in) Wikipedia. The great transcendentalists were Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller. Douglass's ideas, based largely on Benjamin Franklin's ideas may have influenced Emerson, who certainly influenced Twain. (The fancy intellectual, English nerd word for all this is intertextuality -- a favorite topic of mine, so don't get me started.) You are to read this hypertext version of Emerson's "Self-Reliance" in class today. Choose 1-2 of the passages you like that Woodlief has highlighted and re-write them in your own words in the blog comments. Write the original, and then your explanation. This is classwork, not homework. Homework is to read Huck Finn through chapter 14. Use sticky notes to mark anything you think is interesting. |