"e;Self Reliance"e; in Emerson`s and Thoreau`s Work"e;

Seminar paper from the year 1997 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1.0 (A), University of Leipzig, course: Seminar "e;Life in the Woods - Henry David Thoreau"e;, language: English, abstract: The question of the relation between the individual and society is one of the most central questions in the literature of American Transcendentalism. Most of Ralph W. Emerson's Essays deal with it as well as the work of Henry D. Thoreau. Margaret Fullers 'feminist Transcendentalism' propagated emancipation of women from social norms, and George Ripley tried to develop an alternative to society in 'Brook Farm', a social experiment that aimed at giving the individual more freedom in a farm community. The aim of this paper is to uncover the idea behind all these literary and real-life attempts to define the role of the individual within or without society. The key term for this is self- reliance, which basically means idealistic individualism. The paper tries to explain self- reliance as a concept within the broader framework of American Transcendentalist thought. Moreover, I will try to demonstrate where the idea of self-reliance can be found in the work of Henry David Thoreau and how it shapes the relation individual-society therein. The paper is structured as follows:Chapter One is an attempt to define American Transcendentalism as a movement that was deeply individualistic and as a system of ideas which are connected with the idea of individualism. Chapter Two examines the doctrine of self-reliance itself. This is mainly done by examining the essay Self-Reliance by Emerson. Chapter Three asks if the doctrine of self-reliance is reflected in American Transcendental literature. As examples, I chose Walden and Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau. I want to argue that self-reliance has two possible implications, Solitude or Social Commitment, and that both of them can be found in Thoreau's work. Finally, Chapter Four summarises and analyzes the content of the previous chapters. When quoting German texts I decided not to translate them in order to avoid a distortion of their content.