He experienced a turbulent period in modern French history (Napoleonic Empire, Bourbon Dynasty, July Dynasty). When I was a child, my grades were not good, and I ranked 32 nd in an exam with only 35 students. Therefore, my parents and teachers have no hope for Balzac, let alone find out that he is a genius. After graduating from Balzac University, he entered a law firm. As his parents hoped, this is an "iron rice bowl". But the young Balzac resigned to concentrate on writing despite his family's opposition. Balzac began his career as a writer in the attic of a slum. The first work, Cromwell's Tragedy, was unsuccessful, and subsequent funny novels and supernatural novels created in cooperation with others did not attract attention. So he became a publisher, set up a printing factory and a lettering factory, all of which ended in losses and debt. This huge debt haunted Balzac like a nightmare until the last moment of his life in 1850. However, he is not depressed. He arranged a small statue of Napoleon in his study and wrote the motto that inspired him all his life: "I will finish what he failed to finish with a pen."
Balzac stumbled forward in life, but he understood life in this collision, and he knew it better than others. 1829 published the novel Huang Dang, which took the first step in realistic creation. 193 1 made him famous for the story of donkey skin. In order to make himself the Napoleon of literature, he created a lot of works with amazing perseverance in the 1930s and 1940s, and wrote 9 1 novels, collectively called "human comedy".
Human comedy can be divided into three categories: custom research, philosophical research and analytical research. The original title was Social Studies. 1842 inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy, Balzac changed his name, that is, taking bourgeois society as a big stage and comparing bourgeois life to a comedy full of ugliness. Balzac wrote in the introduction: "French society will become a historian, and I am only the secretary of this historian." List bad habits and virtues, collect the main facts of passion, describe all kinds of personalities, choose the main events in society, and combine some of the same personality characteristics to form a typical example. In doing so, I may be able to write a history forgotten by historians, that is, the history of customs. " Human comedy is called "social encyclopedia", which truly reflects the social life at that time, describes the doomed demise of the aristocratic class, and exposes the greed and plunder of the bourgeoisie and all social relations based on money. Balzac pays attention to the detailed description of the environment and is good at revealing the soul of characters through their words and deeds. * * * This book has created more than 2,400 characters, and one character often appears in many novels. Among them, the famous chapters are: Shuan Dunman, Gao Laotou, Eugenie Grandet, Loan sharks, Antique Gallery, Nurburgan Bank, Disillusionment, Farmers and so on. In just 20 years, he has to write 4-5 novels every year. He spends at least 18 hours at his desk every day, and his "Saicha Pirodeau" was written in 25 hours. It took rural doctors 72 hours, but the classic "Gao Laotou" with hundreds of thousands of words was completed in three days. Balzac likes to drink strong coffee in order to stay awake when writing. He once said, "I will die of 30 thousand cups of coffee." Sure enough, he died on August 1850 due to early debts and writing difficulties, and chronic coffee poisoning became one of his causes of death.
Shakespeare: English poet and playwright. (1) was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, 1564. Father John is a self-employed man in Warwickshire. He moved to Stratford in 155 1 and engaged in wool, leather manufacturing, grain trading and other industries. Some people say that he is also a butcher. John was the civil administrator of 1565 Stratford and was elected mayor three years later. The eldest son William was sent to a local grammar school to study Latin and ancient history, philosophy, poetry, logic and rhetoric. 13, 14 years old, when his family came down, he may have dropped out of school to help his father take care of the business. 1582 1 1 married Ann Hathaway, the daughter of a wealthy farmer in a neighboring village, and gave birth to Susanna in May of the following year. 1 1 gave birth to twin children Judith (female) and Hamnet (son). Hamnet died at the age of 0. During the period from 1585 to 1592, his life experience is unknown, but there are many legends in later generations. For example, he worked as a country teacher, a policeman and a soldier in a noble mansion. The most popular legend is that he stole the deer of Sir Thomas Luxi, a nearby aristocratic squire, and fled to London. The general estimate of time is 1586.
1592, robert green, a playwright and one of the so-called "great scholars", wrote an article attacking some actors at that time and warning the playwright "Don't trust them; One of them is a nouveau riche crow, who decorates himself with our feathers and raises the heart of the tiger and the wolf with the actor's purse; He wrote several empty poems and thought he could compare with the best writers among you. He is an out-and-out handyman, but he shamelessly thinks that only he in the country can shock the stage. " "The heart of the tiger and the wolf" is a sentence in the next part of shakespeare's Henry VI, while "Shake the Stage" is an allusion to Shakespeare's surname (shake means shock, spear means spear). It can be seen that Shakespeare was quite famous in 1592.
From the time he left his hometown to 1592, it is said that he once watched horses for aristocratic customers in front of the theater and gradually became a handyman, actor and shareholder of the theater. He began to write plays, mostly adapting old plays or cooperating with other playwrights, and later wrote independently. He has a fellow countryman in London, Shi Jiaofei, who runs the printing and publishing industry. Shakespeare's first work Venus and adonis (1593) was published by Field. This work is dedicated to the young Earl of Southampton, the upstart. His troupe was sheltered by courtiers from 1594, and was called "courtiers' troupe". 1603, James I ascended the throne and changed his name to "Sacrifice to the King". He has a good relationship with some new noble, such as the Earl of Essex. His troupe also performed in Banteay Srei, and went to other provinces in summer or during the epidemic. 1596, he helped his father to apply for and get a "family emblem" (symbolizing the social status of the squire). Presumably, he goes home to visit relatives every year, and buys real estate in his hometown 1597 and in 1602 (127 mu). He spent the last three or four years in his hometown. 1665438+ died on April 23rd, 2006 and was buried in Trinity Church in the town. (2) Creation Shakespeare wrote 37 plays, 154 sonnets, two long poems and other poems in 22 or 23 years. Except for two long poems Venus and adonis and The Shame of Lucretius, which were published by himself before his death, some of his plays were published in quarto. These "pirates" were dictated by some actors in the troupe or taken down in shorthand during the performance. At that time, it was customary for playwrights to sell scripts to the troupe, which had full authority to handle scripts; In order to monopolize as much as possible, the troupe tried to prevent other troupes from getting the script and keeping it secret, so "piracy" appeared. After his death, all Shakespeare's plays were collected into books by fellow actors Haiming and Condell, and published in folio in 1623, named first folio. A total of 36 plays were collected, half of which were unpublished before his death. When a work is created, the performance and publication of a play need to be registered and approved by the government, and the performance and publication dates of Shakespeare's plays are recorded. However, the date of performance and publication does not necessarily coincide with the time of creation. It can be finalized one year, two years or the same year before the performance, or it can be revised after the performance. First folio's plays are not arranged in chronological order, but in three categories: comedy, historical drama and tragedy. From/kloc-0 to the late 8th century, scholars such as Malone began to study the creation age of Shakespeare's plays. After 200 years of exploration, they basically reached a consensus, which became a more reliable basis for studying the evolution of Shakespeare's thought and art (see the attached chronology of Shakespeare's works). The first folio divides Shakespeare's plays into three categories, and later scholars further divide the scripts about Roman history into "Roman plays" and later comedies into "romantic plays" or "legendary plays". During the period of 1850, German scholar Galveston Yunus studied the development of Shakespeare's artistic skills. According to the study of Shakespeare's lines, Shakespeare's plays can be divided into three periods: 1. 1590 to 1600, namely, historical drama and comedy period; 2. 160 1 to 1607, that is, the tragic period; 3. 1608 to 16 12 years, that is, the period of "romantic drama". 1870, British scholars Dawden and Fornier also divided Shakespeare's plays into four periods according to their poetic skills and emotional appeal, that is, the first period was divided into: 1590 to 1596, the early lyric period; 1597 to 1600, historical drama and comedy period. (3) The author's question1In the mid-9th century, some scholars thought that no matter what his background or educational background, he could not have written these works, because Shakespeare's plays reflected a wide range of knowledge (involving law, history, geography, politics, the lifestyle of the court nobles and many other aspects) and achieved high literary achievements. Others think it is edward de vere, the Earl of Oxford, or even Marlowe. However, Shakespeare's plays were collected by two actors in his troupe, and Ben Jonson, a contemporary playwright, also wrote poems for the complete works. This alone makes the skepticism theory untenable. Skeptics completely ignore the author's potential to learn from life and others. (IV) Introduction to the Works The basic idea of all Shakespeare's works is humanism or humanitarianism, which is "love" in his language. His works are various manifestations of the concept of "love". Humanism is the ideological weapon of the emerging bourgeoisie against feudalism. Shakespeare's works reflect the ideals of the emerging bourgeoisie. He has a deep feeling for life, is good at thinking, has a high artistic accomplishment and vivid images of his works; He absorbed new cultures and ideas from European countries, so his works profoundly and vividly reflected the British reality from 16 to 17 centuries, and concentrated the literary achievements of the whole European Renaissance.
One of Shakespeare's earliest poems is Venus and adonis, and its theme comes from Metamorphosis written by Roman poet Ovid. It is about Venus, the goddess of love, pursuing young adonis, but adonis did not love her, only loved hunting, and was killed by a wild boar during a hunting trip. Venus was very sad. In the place where adonis died, a flower named Pulsatilla was born in a pool of blood, and Venus brought it back to the island. The theme of this poem is to show that love is irresistible and words are beautiful. After publication, it was very popular. 1602 * * published 7 editions, and 1640 accumulated to 16 editions. Seikst, the son of Tacun, the last king of Rome, ran back from the battlefield, defiled Lucretius, the wife of Corati Nast, recalled her husband to the war, told him to take revenge and killed himself with a knife. Finally, the dynasty was overthrown and an aristocratic Republic was established. The author thinks that Sexter has violated the concept of "honor", and the upstarts should learn from it. The author also appeals for sympathy, compassion and humanity through Lucris. This poem is rather complicated. Sonnets Shakespeare's sonnets *** 154 were written one after another in about six years, with the theme of friendship and love. This kind of poetry introduced from Italy mostly appears in the form of conjoined poems. 1 and 126 the ups and downs of the friendship between poets and aristocratic youth; From 127 to 152, the first poet's love for a black woman; The last two songs end. Before 17, the poet urged young people to get married, and the beautiful things should be passed down from generation to generation, so as to obtain eternal life, which reflected humanists' belief in "man" and hope for new noble. Later, the young man was sometimes indifferent to the poet, sometimes he liked another poet and even seduced the poet's girlfriend, but the poet put friendship first and showed the spirit of reconciliation. The poet poured out his love for the "dark woman", but she was kidnapped by the poet's best friend, and the poet was disappointed. There are rich ideological contents hidden behind these stories-humanists' views and ideals on truth, goodness and beauty, and they also reflect social reality. Although these poems show hope for a better future, they also show disappointment and anxiety caused by disharmony between people. They are not only personal lyricism, but also express an era. Shakespeare's sonnets are not unrestrained, but temperate, thoughtful, analytical, reasonable, vivid, clever in language use and strong in rhythm. There are 9 British historical dramas created in the early stage of historical drama, 8 of which can be summarized as two tetralogy. The first, second and third parts of Henry VI and Richard III; Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, and King John. From the standpoint at that time, the emerging bourgeoisie demanded national reunification and the transformation of feudal kingship in order to facilitate the development of its own class. Although Queen Elizabeth's regime was still consolidating in the 1990s of 16, the issue of succession to the throne became increasingly urgent, and feudal forces at home and abroad were ready to move. The peasant uprising led by Kate 30 years ago is still fresh in my memory. Shakespeare cared about the fate of the nation, and opposed both feudal infighting and peasant uprising, but mainly opposed the former, demanding the consolidation of domestic peaceful reunification under the rule of an enlightened monarch. This is the theme of his historical play. In the first four novels, the first part of Henry VI wrote that Britain was defeated in the Hundred Years' War between Britain and France because of aristocratic discord; The novella writes about domestic aristocratic disputes and civilian uprisings, leading to civil war; The next part is about the feudal civil war in wars of the roses, in which the king belonging to the red rose aristocratic group was killed. Richard III wrote that after the death of Edward IV of England in England, a white rose group, blood aristocrat Richard, ascended the throne by cunning and bloody means, and was quickly killed by the enemy, ending wars of the roses.
Although King John opposed Catholicism, he murdered the legitimate heir, usurped the throne and caused foreign invasion. Richard II, written in the last trilogy, was indecisive and listened to his minions, unable to maintain the balance among the nobles. His cousin took the opportunity to seize the throne and became Henry IV. Henry IV was nervous all day because of the improper route to the throne. Although the civil strife was put down twice, the prince did not do his business and the future of the throne was still worrying. Later, the prince turned over a new leaf and succeeded Henry V. Henry V used the war against France to solve domestic contradictions and recapture the territory in France. The author pinned the ideals of an enlightened monarch and a national hero on him. The transformation process of Henry V's reform reflects the author's thought of reforming feudal monarchs. Titus Andlau Knicks, a bloody revenge drama based on the story of ancient Rome, is a tragedy in which the protagonist has the overall situation in mind but still cannot avoid infighting. Comedies range from 1593 to 1600. Shakespeare wrote 10 comedy and a tragedy Romeo and Juliet. These comedies have their own characteristics. The earliest "error comedy" was adapted from the "Twin Brothers" by the Roman comedian Plautus, and the comedy effect was caused by mutual misunderstanding. The Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy centering on Falstaff in Henry IV, which reflects the life of citizens. Most comedies in this period were based on love, but The Merchant of Venice went beyond this scope, while Romeo and Juliet with the same theme was written as a tragedy. Although The Taming of the Shrew advocates freedom of marriage, it also shows the author's view that men are superior to women. "Two Gentlemen of Verona" is about the loyalty of love; The futility of love and much ado about nothing focus on opposing asceticism; "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Everyone is Happy" put the love story in the natural environment, while the latter compares the intrigue between nature and the court. Twelfth Night satirizes the hypocrisy of the Puritans through the subplots. Romeo and Juliet describes a pair of young people belonging to two feudal families. They fell in love at first sight, but they couldn't combine. They turned to Father Lawrence, who gave them a private wedding and arranged for them to escape from Verona. However, due to an accidental mistake, they were betrayed. In view of the mistakes caused by the feud, the parents of both sides reconciled. This love hymn has a distinct anti-feudal significance. The Merchant of Venice wrote that the merchant Antonio borrowed cash from Shylock, a Jewish usurer, in order to help his friend Bassanio get married. Shylock pretends not to accept the loan interest out of jealousy. If he doesn't repay the contract, he can cut Antonio a pound of flesh. Antonio is really late. On the day of the trial, Bassanio's fiancee pretended to be a lawyer and defeated Shylock in court. The play advocates kindness, friendship and sincere love through three interlaced story clues. Tragedy From 160 1 to 1607, Shakespeare wrote the so-called "four great tragedies", five plays and two comedies based on Greek and Roman stories. During this period, the ideological depth and realism of drama were greatly enhanced. Even in the so-called "comedy", love shows a dark side. In "All shall be well, Jack shall have Jill", Helena's love for bertram is hit by the latter's concept of social status, but she does whatever it takes to achieve her goal. Anzhelu in Measure for Measure (please go to the urn) broke the law and got love. In troilus and Cressida and Antony and Cleopatra, the authors have doubts about love and honor.
Julius Caesar reflects the struggle against centralization; Cory Ollanu tells the story of betrayal and destruction of Roman aristocrats because of their arrogance. Shakespeare's tragedies are great because they are highly summarized. Hamlet is a tragedy of a humanist thinker. My father was killed by his uncle and my mother married his uncle. My father's dead soul demanded his revenge. Such a simple event prompted him to consider the whole society and the times, found that "the whole times are out of tenon" and decided to undertake the heavy responsibility of "reorganizing Gankun". But he single-handedly confronted the dark forces and was outnumbered, and finally failed. The hero of Othello is an ideal figure created by the author. He is frank, trusting and fierce. He was at the mercy of Machiavelli's schemer Iago and killed his beloved wife. Timon of Athens wrote that false friendship turned Timon into a complete misanthrope. King Lear is full of philosophical significance. Many people (including Tolstoy) think that King Lear's plot to split the country is not credible. However, it has the strongest generalization and deals with the contradiction between authority and love; The contradiction between authority and social justice; The contrast between "sincere" love and hypocritical love; The question of good and evil between human nature and nature. The script mainly describes the process of King Lear's transformation from a feudal monarch with absolute authority to a "man" in the eyes of humanists, and the medium of this transformation is sympathy. Macbeth's hero is a Scottish general who, driven by ambition, kills the kind king. In a broader sense, the script discusses the process of human nature changing from good to evil. Macbeth is a hero who has made great achievements. There is a good side to his character. Because of the temptation of the witch and his wife, his ambition to do great things turned into ambition. Once the ambition is realized, it will inevitably lead to a series of new crimes and eventually lead to extinction.
The tragedy written by Shakespeare is the result of his in-depth thinking on the major issues of his time, and it is the most vivid representation of the emerging bourgeois ideology. It is difficult to bridge the contradiction between humanistic ideal and reality in later creation. The theme of Shakespeare's later works is forgiveness and reconciliation. Prince Tyr Perikles (it is generally acknowledged that the first two scenes were not written by Shakespeare), cymbeline and Winter's Tale are all about parting and reunion. Fraud, defense and reconciliation. The main work in the later period is The Tempest, with concentrated plots. Prospero, Duke of Milan, was expelled by his younger brother and fled to a desert island with his youngest daughter Miranda. He used magic to take the ship of the king of Naples, the usurper's brother Antonio and the prince of Naples to a desert island, forgave Antonio, restored his title, and the prince married Miranda and returned to Italy together. Prospero's treatment of the aborigines on the island reflects the colonial process of capitalism. The play also clearly puts forward the humanist idea of an ideal country. The whole play ends with preaching tolerance and forgiveness. Henry VIII consists of several fragments, one of which is generally considered to be Shakespeare's handwriting. Through the tragedies of the three characters, they show their hope for a new generation of rulers. (V) Evaluation of Shakespeare in Past Dynasties Revolutionary mentors Marx and Engels spoke highly of Shakespeare on many occasions and acknowledged his important role in the history of drama development. In his letter to Fifi Lasalle on April 1859, Marx criticized the creative method of "Xi Schleswig successfully turned the individual into a simple mouthpiece of the spirit of the times" and put forward an important argument of "Shakespeare". In a letter to La Salle on May 18 of the same year, Engels praised "the perfect combination of vividness and richness of Shakespeare's drama plots", criticized the creative method of "forgetting the real things for the sake of thought" and praised the "Falstaff background" in Shakespeare's historical plays. Criticism of Shakespeare in each era reflects the literary viewpoint of that era, and also reflects some characteristics or aspects of Shakespeare's works. Ben Jonson, Shakespeare's contemporary playwright, called him "the soul of the times", but criticized him for his lack of "art". This comment set the tone for criticizing romanticism before19th century. From the middle of17th century to18th century, under the influence of classicism, critics all admitted that Shakespeare was talented, but they had no idea about the law of creation. Voltaire called him a drunken savage. Shakespeare not only failed to observe the "three unifications", but also mixed comedy scenes in his tragedy. During the German Hurricane Movement, Lessing and Goethe broke through the shackles of classicism and gained inspiration from Shakespeare's reflection on "nature" (reality). The Romantic Period, critics further saw the depth of thoughts and feelings in Shakespeare's plays and the achievements of Shakespeare's poems, especially interested in the analysis of characters. The representative figures of this period are the German schlegel brothers and Coleridge of England, which reached its peak in Bradelet, England in the early 20th century. /kloc-Russian revolutionary democratic critics, represented by belinsky and Dobro Lyubov in the 9th century, emphatically pointed out that Shakespeare's plays truly reflected life, especially the characters were deeply portrayed, so as to open up a realistic road. Since romanticism, most comments have affirmed Shakespeare. Tolstoy disagreed; Tolstoy also pointed out from a realistic point of view that the plots of Shakespeare's plays are not credible, and the characters are successful because the materials on which he is based are themselves good. In the 20th century, Shakespeare criticism in the West experienced several stages, but it was mainly the alternation of two schools and their variants, which could be called "objectivism" and "subjectivism". The former studies from external angles, such as stage skills and drama traditions at that time, Shakespeare's adaptation of old plots and specific historical events at that time; The latter studies from the perspectives of poetic language, "image", psychology and philosophical thought. The most extreme criticism in the 1960s was to regard Shakespeare as an absurd writer and compare him with the contemporary absurd playwright Beckett. After the October Revolution, Marxist Shakespeare criticism in the Soviet Union and European and American countries made a new evaluation of Shakespeare's plays from the materialist dialectical point of view, based on Lenin's reflection theory, and in connection with the reality of class struggle in history and the social role of literature. After liberation, China also made many achievements in Shakespeare studies. Generally speaking, Marxist Shakespeare criticism is still developing. (6) Shakespeare's name in China was 1856, which was introduced by missionaries. Representatives of China's ideological circles in the late Qing Dynasty, such as Yan Fu, Liang Qichao and later Lu Xun, also mentioned Shakespeare's name in their translations. Shakespeare's works were first introduced through1Shakespeare Tales translated by the younger brother of British essayist Lamb in the early 9th century, and published by Shanghai Dawen Society 1903. The translator is unknown, including 10 stories. At the same time, Lin Shu and Wei Yi translated all 20 stories in the story collection and published them in 1904, entitled "English Poets Singing Bian Yanyu". Shakespeare's plays were first staged in China, and most of them were adapted from this book. Shakespeare's plays did not begin to be translated and introduced in vernacular Chinese and scripts until 19 19 after the May 4th Movement. Tian Han translated Hamlet by 192 1 and Romeo and Juliet by 1924. In the 1920s and 1930s, there were many translations of Shakespeare's plays. During the period of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, translation and introduction continued, especially Cao Weifeng and Zhu Shenghao, who insisted on systematic translation under difficult conditions. Translated by Cao Weifeng 1 1 species, published from 1942 to 1944. After the victory of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, the Complete Works of Shakespeare translated by Cao was published 10. Zhu Shenghao translated 3 scripts from 1935 to 1944, and published 27 scripts from 1947.
From the late period of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression to the eve of liberation, there were Joumio and You translated by Cao Yu, Wang Lijun translated by Sun Dayu and Shang Lai translated by Shakespeare. After liberation, especially in 1950s, many new versions appeared, such as Hamlet translated by Bian, Henry IV translated by Hua, Richard III translated, Catch the Wind and Catch the Shadow, Merchant of Venice, Henry V and so on. On the occasion of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth, Zhu Shenghao's translation was published in volume 1 1, entitled Shakespeare's Plays. Since then, the translation has been completely revised, and all the scripts and poems that were originally missing have been translated, which was published in 1978 and named The Complete Works of Shakespeare. After the rise of drama, Shakespeare's plays were staged in China. Up to 20 foreign plays can be found in the early dramas before the May 4th Movement, all of which are Shakespeare's works. After the May 4th Movement, Shanghai Theatre Association and Nanjing Theatre School staged The Merchant of Venice at 1929 and 1937 respectively. 1937 Shanghai Amateur Experimental Troupe performed Romeo and Juliet. During the Anti-Japanese War, Shakespeare's plays were also staged in the rear area, with Othello in Chongqing and Romeo and Juliet in Chengdu. Shakespeare's plays staged after liberation include Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, Much ado about nothing, Merchant of Venice, Macbeth and Tit for Tit, Much ado about nothing and Romeo and Juliet.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803- 1882)
Thinker, essayist, poet. 1803 was born in a pastor's family in Boston on May 25th. 1882 died in Concord, Massachusetts on April 27th. /kloc-graduated from Harvard College at the age of 0/7. /kloc-entered Harvard theological seminary in 0/826 and was allowed to preach the following year. 1828 became the pastor of the second church in Boston, belonging to the only dominant monotheistic Sect in New England at that time. Later, because he disapproved of some teachings of this sect, he gave up his priesthood and traveled to Europe in 1833. He visited Landauer, Coleridge and Wordsworth, pioneers of the romantic movement, and became intimate friends with Carlisle, deeply influenced by Kant's transcendental philosophy. After returning to China, he published the book Nature on 1836, which contains almost all the seeds of his important thoughts. 1837 On August 30th, Emerson delivered a speech entitled "On American Scholars" in the American Students' Union, attacking the phenomenon that money worship and capitalist division of labor alienated people into things in American society and emphasizing the value of people. It is pointed out that the task of scholars is to reveal the truth freely and bravely from the skin, so as to inspire, improve and guide people; He called for national pride and opposed blindly following foreign theories. This speech was a sensation and had a great influence on the rise of American national culture. It was praised by Holmes as "our declaration of independence in thought".
1On July 5th, 838, Emerson delivered a famous speech entitled "Speech at the Theological Seminary" at Cambridge Theological Seminary, which was protested and attacked by Calvinists and the only sect in New England. Emerson's philosophical thought maintains the positive elements of the monotheistic school's emphasis on human value, and at the same time absorbs European idealism transcendentalism and develops into a transcendentalist view. Its basic starting point is to oppose authority and cherish intuition; Its core is to advocate that people can transcend feeling and reason and directly know the truth. This view is helpful to break the shackles of theology and foreign dogma at that time, establish national culture, embody the spirit of the times, and provide theoretical basis for the development of American political democracy and economic capitalism.
From 1836, Emerson, alcott, ripley and others met irregularly in Concord to discuss "the bad situation of theology and philosophy", which can be said to be the starting point of the Transcendentalism movement. They founded the quarterly Japanese Regulations (1840- 1844), published literary works and advocated educational, ethical and political reforms. Emerson was the chief editor and the main representative of transcendentalism.
Emerson's works are mostly prose, and his important works are On Self-help and On Oversoul, which are included in Essays (184 1) and Essays: The Second Series (1844) respectively. Two volumes of poetry were published in 1847 and 1867 respectively. There are also representative figures (1850) and English figures (1856).