第3单元 拉尔夫•华尔多•爱默生
3.1 复习笔记
I. Introduction to author（作者简介）
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) is an essayist, poet, and one of leaders of The Transcendentalism.
拉尔夫·瓦尔多·爱默生（1803-1882），散文家，诗人，超验主义哲学的领导者。
1Life（生平）
Emerson was the descendant of a long line of New England clergymen. When he was still a child, the family fortune fell. He went to Harvard. Later he embraced Unitarianism and became a Unitarian minister to the Second Church of Boston. But not for long, he found the rationality of Unitarianism intolerable and left his job. He went to Europe and brought back with him the influence of European Romanticism. He formed an informal Transcendentalists’ club with some friends and edited for a time the Transcendentalist journal, the Dial, to explain their ideas. He became the most eloquent spokesman of New England Transcendentalism. During his lifetime he was considered one of the two or three best writers in America, and certainly the most influential among his contemporaries. He was the prophet of his age and exerted great influence on Thoreau, Whitman, Hawthorne and others in varying degrees.
爱默生生于新英格兰一个显赫牧师之家。幼年时家道中落。他曾在哈佛大学就读。后接受唯一教教义，并成为波士顿第二礼拜堂唯一教牧师。不久，因对该教一些古板仪式持异议而辞职。赴欧洲旅行时受到欧洲浪漫主义的影响。回国后跟朋友结成非正式的“超验主义俱乐部”，编辑超验主义专刊《日晷》，传播超验主义思想。他是新英格兰超验主义最杰出的代言人。他生前被认为是美国最顶尖的两到三个作家之一，是同时代最富影响力的哲学家和文豪。他是那个时代的先知，对梭罗、惠特曼、霍桑等作家产生了不同程度的影响。
2Major works（主要作品）
Nature《论自然》
The American Scholar《论美国学者》
The Divinity of Address《神学院致辞》
Essays《论文集》
Essays: Second Series《论文集：第二辑》
Representative Men《人类代表》
English Traits《英国特征》
The Conduct of Life 《人生的行为》
Poems《诗集》
May-Day and Other Pieces《五月节》
II. Transcendentalism（超验主义）
1Major features（主要特征）
(1) The Transcendentalists placed emphasis on spirit, or the Oversoul, as the most important thing in the universe. The Oversoul was an all-pervading power for goodness, omnipresent and omnipotent, from which all things came and of which all were a part. This represented a new way of looking at the world. It was a reaction to the eighteenth Newtonian concept of the universe. It was also a reaction against the direction that a mechanized, capitalist America was taking, against the popular tendency to get ahead in world affairs to neglect spiritual welfare.
(2) The Transcendentalists stressed the importance of the individual. To them the individual was the most important element of society. The ideal type of man were the self-reliant individuals. The individual soul communed with the Oversoul and was therefore divine. This new notion of the individual and his importance represented a new way of looking at man. It was a reaction against the Calvinist conception of total depravity, against the process of dehumanization that came in the wake of developing capitalism.
(3) The Transcendentalists offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the spirit or God. Things in nature tended to become symbolic, and the physical world was a symbol of the spiritual. This in turn added to the tradition of literary symbolism in American literature.
(1) 超验主义者强调精神，或超灵，认为这是宇宙间至为重要的存在因素。超灵是一种无所不容、无所不在、扬善抑恶的力量，是万物之本、万物之所属。这是一种新的世界观。他反对10世纪的机械宇宙观，反对美国朝着机械化、资本主义化的方向发展，反对美国人沉湎于发财致富而忽略精神生活的世风。
(2) 超验主义者强调个人的重要性。他们认为个人是社会的最重要的组成因素。理想的人是自立自强的人。个人灵魂与上帝交流，因而具有神性。这种关于人及其重要性的新观点反映出对人的新评价。它反对加尔文教义中的彻底的堕落，反对资本主义上升阶段的非人性化现象。
(3) 超验主义者以全新的目光看待自然，认为自然界是超灵或上帝的象征。自然界万物皆具有象征性，外部世界是精神世界的体现。这又加强了美国文学中象征主义的传统。
III. Selected works（作品选读）
◆Self-Reliance《论自助》
1Main content（主要内容）
It is an essay from Essays. The theme of the essay is about “trusting yourself” and one of the important works that express the ideas of The Transcendentalism. He criticized any form of not being independent. He thought every great man in history is different from ordinary man because they keep being themselves even if they may be misunderstood by others.
《论自助》选自爱默生的《论文集》。这篇文章是表达他的超验主义观点最重要的作品之一。“相信自己”是爱默生的重要观点之一也是这篇文章的主题。他在文中鞭笞了任何形式的随波逐流。他认为历史上的伟人都是坚持自己的想法，尽管有可能被世人误解。
2Analysis（作品分析）
(1) Emerson’s master principle self-reliance is also the main theme of the American Transcendentalist movement This essay provides us sayings as well as builds up new concepts through which the author paves the path for the readers to follow, and furthermore, he tries to force the readers to be self-reliant in order to obtain their self-reliance successfully.
(2) The distinction of Self-Reliance is the elegant style of prose and vivid expression of his thoughts. His words can capture the thoughts of people. He also used a lot of figures of speech to emphasize his ideas.
(3) The idea of abolishing the slaves can be also found in this essay. But he also tells people that love your neighbor not the far-away slaves.
(1) 爱默生在《论自助》中所阐述的观点也是美国超验主义运动的主题。这篇文章也使我们知道了很多新的想法，并使读者意识到自己要自立只有这样才能成功的成为一个独立的人。
(2) 爱默生的不同之处在于他优雅的散文风格及生动表达思想的能力。他的文章能抓住人们的想象。同样他也在文中运用了很多修辞手法。
(3) 虽然他也持有废除黑奴的想法，但是他也告诫人们要爱你的邻居而不是千里之外的黑奴。