The American Scholar

E29158

The American Scholar is a landmark 1837 address-turned-essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson that helped define American intellectual independence and the philosophy of Transcendentalism.


Statements (47)
Predicate Object
instanceOf essay
public address
alsoKnownAs The American Scholar (essay)
The American Scholar address
associatedWith Boston intellectual culture
Harvard University
author Ralph Waldo Emerson
callsFor break from European cultural dominance
creation of a distinct American culture
centralTheme American intellectual independence
relationship between individual and nature
self-reliance in thought
the role of the scholar in society
countryOfOrigin United States
date 1837
deliveredAt Harvard College
deliveredIn Cambridge, Massachusetts
deliveredTo Phi Beta Kappa Society
describesScholarAs Man Thinking
emphasizes direct experience
individualism
intuition
moral responsibility of the intellectual
firstDeliveredAs oration
genre literary criticism
philosophical essay
historicalSignificance called the intellectual Declaration of Independence for America
influenced American Renaissance
American Transcendentalist movement
American literary nationalism
influencedBy German Idealism
Immanuel Kant (indirectly, via Transcendentalism)
Romanticism
keyConcept correspondence between nature and mind
unity of all knowledge
language English
laterPublishedAs essay
movement Transcendentalism
opposes mere bookish learning
originalForm public lecture
period 19th-century American literature
philosophicalOrientation Transcendentalist philosophy
relatedWorkByAuthor Nature (Emerson essay)
Self-Reliance
structureIncludes analysis of the duties of the scholar
discussion of the influences on the scholar
year 1837

Referenced by (4)
Subject (surface form when different) Predicate
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
notableWork
The American Scholar ("The American Scholar (essay)")
alsoKnownAs
Nature (essay)
relatedWorkByAuthor

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