Culture in the Preaching and Lecturing of Ralph Waldo Emerson

FAIN: FT-14005-78

David M. Robinson
Oregon State University (Corvallis, OR 97331-8655)

To study Emerson's notion of culture, and how it developed as a central theme in the ideas of the American transcendentalists. Emerson used the word culture in a more horticultural sense to suggest that the culture of the soul was analogous to the culture of a plant or garden. The idea of culture will be traced to the development of Emerson's career as a lecturer, noting especially its contribution to the waning of his early optimism into a deeper sense of tragedy.