ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Transcendentalism is a philosophy that emphasizes the soul’s inborn knowledge of ultimate realities of the universe, and emphasizes the soul’s transcendence in life as the fundamental goal of man. They believed the mind to be creative in forming its perception.

Detailed explanation-2: -Transcendentalism attracted such diverse and highly individualistic figures as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Orestes Brownson, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, and James Freeman Clarke, as well as George Ripley, Bronson Alcott, the younger W.E. Channing, and W.H. Channing.

Detailed explanation-3: -Key transcendentalism beliefs were that humans are inherently good but can be corrupted by society and institutions, insight and experience and more important than logic, spirituality should come from the self, not organized religion, and nature is beautiful and should be respected.

Detailed explanation-4: -Individualism. Transcendentalists believe that society and its institutions-particularly organized religion and political parties-corrupt the purity of the individual. They have faith that people are at their best when truly self-reliant and independent.