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"Transcendentalism delivered no tidy body of doctrine, no distinctive new aesthetic, and no unified, coherent programme for political action. The men and women who considered themselves part of the transcendentalist movement often disagreed profoundly about such questions as the future of religion, the attitude Americans should take towards British culture, and the respective claims of individualism and collectivism. Transcendentalism was also confined geographically to the relatively small area of the American continent known as New England, its main centres being in Massachusetts (Concord, Boston and Cambridge) with some sympathizers in Maine, Vermont and further afield. It is all the more striking that transcendentalism should have played such a large part in the creation of a distinctly American literary tradition, and that the energy and originality of this loose association of individuals should have prompted historians to adopt such terms as ‘Renaissance’ and ‘Flowering’ to characterize it." |
