The Influence of Transcendentalist Philosophy on American Literature Before 1900: A Philosophical Analysis on Personal Identity within the American Community in the Tradition of Ralph Waldo Emer
This paper will reveal the literary influence that Ralph Waldo Emerson had upon nineteenth century American identity. By accessing his major Harvard anniversary speech “The American Scholar", we can deduce his philosophical doctrines on the nature of the American intellectual and literary identity in such authors as Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman.