The Cultural Exchange Study of American Transcendentalism

The Cultural Exchange Study of American Transcendentalism

Abstract

As an identity of a group and a society, culture develops as the society evolves. In this process, the communication between different cultures plays an important role in accelerating culture development and diversifying the world civilization. The communication between American transcendentalism and traditional Chinese culture played the important role mentioned above. As a school of thought that originated in American, transcendentalism has a profound influence on American religion, philosophy, politics, literature and art. Some thought of transcendentalism related closely with traditional Chinese which has a long history. Basing the research of transcendentalism on a trans-culture prospective will help us understand transcendentalism as well as the process of culture diversification better.

This paper talked about the transcendentalism and traditional Chinese culture on the base of comparative literature, studied the reason why eastern and western culture can relate to each other and finally drew a conclusion that the two ideologies are similar in the thought of unity and the “one” of cosmos, attitude to nature and attitude towards material life. Through this comparison, this paper defines the influence Oriental culture had made in American transcendentalism, analyzes this classic case in culture exchange and establishes a foundation for further study on culture communication.

Key words: Culture Exchange Study; Comparative Literature; Chinese Cultural; Transcendentalism;
美国超验主义的跨文化研究

摘要

    文化，是辨识一个社会，一个群体的标签，它伴随着社会进步的进程而发展。这其中，不同文化间的交流显得尤为重要，这种交流不仅促进了彼此文化的发展，更使人类文明更加多元化。美国超验主义与中国传统文化之间的交流正是这样。超验主义，作为起源于美国本土的哲学、政治、文学、艺术思潮，其主要思想正与远在大洋彼岸、历史悠久的中国传统思想联系紧密。将对超验主义思想的研究建立在跨文化的基础上，有助于我们更清晰的理解超验主义，并对世界文化多元化的进程有更深刻的认识。... [continues]

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