Approaches to Teaching the Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Editors: Mark C. Long, Sean Ross Meehan
- Pages: 233
- Published: 2018
- ISBN: 9781603293747 (Paperback)
“The collection addresses diverse settings and pedagogical approaches beyond the traditional ones, and the roster of contributors includes some of the very best Emerson scholars. I learned something new and valuable about Emerson from every essay.”
—Robert D. Habich, Ball State University
A leader of the transcendentalist movement and one of the country’s first public intellectuals, Ralph Waldo Emerson has been a long-standing presence in American literature courses. Today he is remembered for his essays, but in the nineteenth century he was also known as a poet and orator who engaged with issues such as religion, nature, education, and abolition.
This volume presents strategies for placing Emerson in the context of his time, for illuminating his rhetorical techniques, and for tracing his influence into the present day and around the world. Part 1, “Materials,” offers guidance for selecting classroom editions and information on Emerson’s life, contexts, and reception. Part 2, “Approaches,” provides suggestions for teaching Emerson’s works in a variety of courses, not only literature but also creative writing, religion, digital humanities, media studies, and environmental studies. The essays in this section address Emerson’s most frequently anthologized works, such as Nature and “Self-Reliance,” along with other texts including sermons, lectures, journals, and poems.
Branka Arsić
Dan Beachy-Quick
Martin Bickman
Corinne E. Blackmer
Ronald A. Bosco
Michael P. Branch
Jean Ferguson Carr
Nels Anchor Christensen
John Michael Corrigan
David O. Dowling
Susan L. Dunston
Amy Earhart
Leslie Elizabeth Eckel
Meredith Farmer
Anne Fountain
Herwig Friedl
Len Gougeon
Jennifer Gurley
Christoph Irmscher
Andrew Kopec
Carolyn R. Maibor
T. S. McMillin
Saundra Morris
Wesley T. Mott
Todd H. Richardson
David M. Robinson
Ned Stuckey-French
Acknowledgments (ix)
PART ONE: MATERIALS
Editions and Texts (3)
Critical Reception (7)
Critical Studies (8)
Intellectual and Critical Contexts (9)
Digital Resources (11)
PART TWO: APPROACHES
Introduction: Learning from Emerson (15)
Approaching Emerson as a Public Intellectual
Emerson the Orator: Teaching the Narratives of “The Divinity School Address” (24)
Emerson the Essayist in the American Essay Canon (31)
Politically Ethical Aesthetics: Teaching Emerson’s Poetry in the Context of Diversity in the United States (37)
Teaching Emerson’s Philosophical Inheritance (46)
Emerson and the Reform Culture of the Second Great Awakening (53)
The Turbulent Embrace of Thinking: Teaching Emerson the Educator (59)
Emerson the Author: Introducing The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson into the Classroom (65)
Teaching Emerson’s Essays
Once More into the Breach: Teaching Emerson’s Nature (75)
“The American Scholar” as Commencement Address (82)
The Divine Sublime: Educating Spiritual Teachers in “The Divinity School Address” (87)
Experimenting with “Circles” (93)
Beyond “Mendicant and Sycophantic” Reading: Teaching the Seminar Studies in American Self-Reliance (98)
The Ideals of “Friendship” (104)
In Praise of Affirmation: On Emerson’s “Experience” (110)
Teaching Emerson’s Other Works
Teaching Emerson in the Nineteenth-Century Poetry Course (119)
Teaching Emerson’s Antislavery Writings (125)
Teaching the Practical Emerson through the Sermons and the Early Lectures (131)
Emerson, Gender, and the Journals (136)
A Natural History of Intellect? Emerson’s Scientific Methods in the Later Lectures (142)
Emerson across the Curriculum
“These Flames and Generosities of the Heart”: Emerson in the Poetry Workshop (148)
Between the Disciplines and beyond the Institution: Emerson’s Environmental Relevance (153)
Emerson in Media Studies and Journalism (159)
Emerson and the Digital Humanities (164)
Emerson around the World
Emerson’s Transatlantic Networks (169)
Teaching the Latin American Emerson (175)
Emerson and Nietzsche (181)
Emerson in the East: Perennial Philosophy as Humanistic Inquiry (187)
Notes on Contributors (193)
Survey Participants (197)
Works Cited (199)
Index (215)
