A Study of the Influence of English Romanticism and Indian Philosophy on Henry David Thoreau and His Work Walden
Abstract
Henry David Thoreau is central to the understanding of the Transcendental movement that enveloped America during the middle of the Nineteenth Century. The writer is a reflection of the whole movement as he studied and took inspiration from the very sources that played a key role in developing the central tenets of Transcendentalism. This movement, later, paved the way for Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and W. B. Yeats in the literary circle. This paper attempts to trace the major sources for Thoreau’s inspiration in writing his most well-known prose piece: Walden. A correlative study of the text with respect to British Romanticism and Indian philosophy has been done to determine the inspirational trajectory for the American philosopher.
Keywords: Henry David Thoreau, Transcendentalism, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walden, English Romanticism, William Wordsworth, Indian Philosophy, Bhagavad Gita.
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References
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2. Bharadwaj, Sundara. The Yogi of Walden: Henry David Thoreau: Bridging the Philosophies of East and West. Mumbai: Indus Source Books, 2010. Print.
3. Bosco, Ronald A., and Joelm Yerson, editors. “Nature (1836).” Ralph Waldo Emerson, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England, 2015, pp. 34–73. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1c84ct8.9. Accessed 28 Feb. 2021.
4. Bose, Amalendu. “The wind from the East.” Ed. M. K. Naik, S. K. Desai and S. T. Kallapur. The image of India in Western creative writing. Dharwar: Karnataka University and Macmillan & Co. 1971.
5. Brooks, Van Wyck. The flowering of New England 1815-1865. New York: The Modern Library, 1936. Print.
6. Canby, Henry Seidel. Thoreau. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1939 Print.
7. Channing, William Ellery. Thoreau: The poet naturalist. Boston: Robert Brothers, 1873. Print.
8. Christy, Arthur. The Orient in American Transcendentalism: A Study of Emerson, Thoreau and Alcott. 2nd ed., New York: Octagon Books Inc., 1963. Print.
9. Cowan, Eric and Lennis G. Echterling. “Nature’s Sage: The Influence of Sacred Indian Literature in Henry David Thoreau’s Walden.” Journal of East-West Thought, vol. 6, no. 4, 2016, pp. 55-69. https://journals.calstate.edu/jet/article/view/41 Accessed 26 Feb. 2021.
10. Cramer, Jeremy S. “Walden: Simple Living Explained - An Elegantly Written Record of Thoreau’s Experiment (2004).” YouTube, uploaded by The Film Archives, 08 Jun. 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKiiOajvC3k.
11. Eliot, T. S. After Strange Gods. London: Faber & Faber, 1934. Print.
12. —. “Tradition and the Individual Talent.” Perspecta, vol. 19, 1982, pp. 36–42. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1567048. Accessed 29 Jan. 2021.
13. Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "The American Scholar." Ed. George L. McMichael, J. S. Leonard, and Shelley Fisher Fishkin. Anthology of American Literature. Boston: Longman, 2011. 969-82. Print.
14. —. Thoreau. Ed. George L. McMichael, J. S. Leonard, and Shelley Fisher Fishkin. Anthology of American Literature. Boston: Longman, 2011. pp. 940-68. Print.
15. Finseth, Ian Frederick. Liquid Fire within Me: Language, Self and Society in Transcendentalism and Early Evangelicalism 1820– 1860. Aug. 1995. University of Virginia, M.A. Thesis. (http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA95/finseth/trans.html) Accessed 22 Feb. 2021.
16. Frothingham, Octavius Brooks. Transcendentalism in New England: A History. Harper & Brothers, 1959. Print.
17. Gupta, R. K. The great encounter--A study of Indo-American literary and cultural relations. New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 1986. Print.
18. Halleck, Reuben Post. History of American Literature. Chennai: Notion Press, 2019. Print.
19. Harding, Walter. Thoreau: Man of Concord. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1962. Print.
20. —.The days of Henry Thoreau. New York: Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 1967. Print.
21. Horton, Rod W. and Herbert W. Edwards. Background of American literary thought. 3rd ed., New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc, 1952. Print.
22. Jackson, Carl T. The Oriental religions and American thought--Nineteenth century explorations. West Port: Greenwood Press, 1981. Print.
23. Keith, Brianne. American Lit 101: from Nathaniel Hawthorne to Harper Lee and Naturalism to Magical Realism, an Essential Guide to American Writers and Works. Avon, Massachusetts: Adams Media, 2017. Print.
24. Lease, Benjamin. Anglo-American Encounters: England and the Rise of American Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981. Print.
25. Macshane, Frank. “Walden and Yoga.” New England Quarterly, September 1964, pp. 322-342.
26. Massey, Shannon. Something Borrowed, Something New: The Successful Marriage Between European Ideals and American Exceptionalism in Transcendentalist Literature. 2017. DePaul University. Accessed 22 Feb. 2021.
27. McGee, Tim. “From Walden, A”. Learnstrong, 10 Jun. 2014, http://www.learnstrong.net/harvard-classics-lectures.
28. McMichael, George L., and James S. Leonard, eds. Anthology of American Literature. 10th ed. Vol. 1. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000. Print.
29. Miller, B. S. “Why did Henry David Thoreau takt the Bhagavad-Gita to Walden Pond?” Parabola, vol. 12, no. 1, 1986, pp. 58-63.
30. Miller, Perry, ed. The American Transcendentalists: Their Prose and Poetry. New York: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1957. Print.
31. —. “Thoreau in the Context of International Romanticism.” The New England Quarterly, vol. 34, no. 2, 1961, pp. 147–159. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/362523. Accessed 28 Apr. 2021.
32. More, Paul Elmer. Shelburne essays on American literature, edited by Daniel Aaron. Harcourt: Brace & World Inc, 1963. Print.
33. Motwani, Kewal. Manu--A study in Hindu social theory. Madras: Ganesh & Co., 1934. Print.
34. Müller F. Max. India: What can it teach us? New York: Longman Green and Co., 1999. Print.
35. —. The six systems of Indian philosophy. New Delhi: Associated Publishing House, 1982. Print.
36. Paul, Sherman. The shoes of America: Thoreau’s inward exploration. New York: Russell and Russell, 1971. Print.
37. Ramachandran, T. P. The Indian philosophy of beauty. Madras: University of Madras, 1979. Print.
38. Raeder, Samatha. Thoreau’s Biophilia: The Influence of Hindu Scriptures on Walden’s Portrayal of Nature and the Divine. 2017. University of Michigan, B.A. Thesis. (https://lsa.umich.edu/content/dam/english-assets/migrated/honors_files/Raeder%20Thesis.pdf) Accessed 01 Mar. 2021.
39. Reid, John T. “Thoreau and India.” The American Review Supplement. October, 1962. Print.
40. Rokugawa, Makoto. "Romanticism and the Transcendentalist Thoreau in Walden." 長野工業高等専門学校紀要 5 (1973): 207-217.
41. Rosenblum, Nancy L. “Thoreau’s Democratic Individualism.” A Political Companion to Henry David Thoreau, edited by Jack Turner, The University Press of Kentucky, 2014, pp. 15-38.
42. Roy, Amitabh. “Transcendentalism and Thoreau: A Critical Reading of Walden.” Indian Journal of Applied Research, vol. 5, no. 9, 2015, pp. 1-2. IJAR.
43. Sanborn, Franklin Benjamin. Henry David Thoreau. Chelsea House Publishers, 1980. Print.
44. Smith, Lorrie. “‘Walking’ from England to America: Re-Viewing Thoreau's Romanticism.” The New England Quarterly, vol. 58, no. 2, 1985, pp. 221–241. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/365514. Accessed 28 Jan. 2021.
45. Smith, Duane E. “Romanticism in America: The Transcendentalists.” The Review of Politics, vol. 35, no. 3, 1973, pp. 302–325. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1406035. Accessed 12 Jan. 2021.
46. Sultana, Sabera and Md. Mohiul Islam. “Investigating American Romanticism: A Comparative Study.” IOSR Journal Of Humanities and Social Science (IOSR-JHSS), vol. 21, no. 4, 2016, pp. 58-65. IOSR Journals.
47. Thoreau, Henry David. Journal Volume I 1837- 1844. Ed. John C. Broderick. Princeton University Press, 1981. Print.
48. —. Thoreau: A week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Walden, The Maine woods, Cape Cod. Ed. Robert F. Sayre. New York: The Library of America, 1985. Print.
49. —. Thoreau writings, familiar letters and index. Ed. Sanborn F. B. New York: AMS Press, 1968. Print.
50. —. The correspondence of Henry David Thoreau. Ed. Walter Harding and Carl Bode. Washington Square: New York Press, 1958. Print.
51. —. The heart of Thoreau’s Journals. Ed. Odell Shepard. New York: Dover Publications, 1961. Print.
52. —. The Journal of Henry D. Thoreau. Ed. Bradford Torrey and Francis H. Allen. New York: Dover Publications Inc., 1962. Print.
53. —. Walden and Civil Disobedience: Authorised texts, background, reviews and essays in criticism. Ed. Owen Thomas. New Delhi: Prentice-Hall of India (P) Ltd., 1986. Print.
54. —. “Walking”. Ralph Waldo Emerson: Nature - Henry David Thoreau: Walking. ed. John Elder. Boston: Beacon Press, 1991. Print.
55. Vivekanand, Swami. "The Mahabharata." 1 Feb. 1900, The Shakespeare Club, PAsadena, California.
56. West, Stephen. “Episode 83 - Henry David Thoreau.” Philosophise This, 5 Jun. 2016, https://www.philosophizethis.org/podcast/henry-david-thoreau.
57. Wood, Barry. “Thoreau’s Life at Walden Pond.” YouTube, uploaded by UHouston, 10 Feb. 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=464a_VYqU0Y.
58. Wordsworth, William. “Written in London. September, 1802 by William...” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45565/written-in-london-september-1802.
59. Yeats, William Butler. Collected Poems. Ed. Augustine Martin. London: Vintage Books, 1992. Print.
Published
2022-02-20
How to Cite
Joshi, S. “A Study of the Influence of English Romanticism and Indian Philosophy on Henry David Thoreau and His Work Walden”. Contemporary Literary Review India, Vol. 9, no. 1, Feb. 2022, pp. 137-66, https://www.literaryjournal.in/index.php/clri/article/view/1041.
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Research Papers
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