Fall Research Paper: Book Synopsis.

For my book synopsis, I chose "Dead Letters to the New World: Melville, Emerson and American Transcendentalism", a book of literary criticism by Michael McLoughlin. The author studies in depth the emergence of Transcendentalism as a school of philosophy in America in the 19th century, and focuses in particular on Ralph Waldo Emerson, as a leader of the movement, and author Herman Melville, whose relationship with various people in the Transcendentalist movement heavily influenced his …

…grow and change because of the distinctive American qualities that were applied to it, such as a love and reverence for Nature. Getting to see a comprehensive look at the influence that Transcendentalism had on a particular author was also important; by examining the works of Melville and how they changed and were influenced by Transcendentalism, I got to see how Transcendentalism and its ideologies affected American literature and cultural identity in the 19th century.