Essay in Transcendentalism
Transcendentalism is a literary movement that has essay-writing at its heart. That's because some of the most important texts of the movement were essays. Go figger! Through the essay form, writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and folks like 'em conveyed some of the most important ideas of the movement.
In essays like Emerson's "Nature" or "Self-Reliance," Transcendentalist writers sought to convince their audiences of their perspective on stuff. The essay form fit this aim because essays could be published in periodicals or delivered as lectures, a double-whammy that helped in reaching wide audiences.
But even though we may not think of the essay as a conventionally "literary" genre, the Transcendentalist writers turned it into an art form. The best Transcendentalist essays are as well crafted and eloquent as any poem or work of fiction out there.
Chew on This
Did you get that Ralph Waldo Emerson is one of the most important Transcendentalist authors and also a brilliant essay-writer? This ShmoopTube clip can tell you a little more about his famous, huge, mind-blowing essay called "Self-Reliance."
Henry David Thoreau's essay "Civil Disobedience" inspired civil rights activists from Martin Luther King, Jr. to Mahatma Gandhi. Why was it so powerful? The stuff he's got to say about injustice and his own imprisonment (check out quotes #3 and 4) is pretty deep.