Does Emerson have the right to tell us how to live? Is the heart of Walden the writing or the time Thoreau spent at the pond? Is there a danger in basing antislavery views on a conviction that one has direct knowledge of the divine? Does Transcendentalism's literary value depend upon its spiritual value? We will be grappling with the paradoxes, assaults, and inspirations of Transcendentalism through readings of Emerson's major prose writing, from Nature to "Illusions"; Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience," Walden, and A Week on the Concord and Merrimack River; Margaret Fuller's Summer on the Lakes and Woman in the Nineteenth-Century; and a range of minor writings, a number of them on the projects in community living at Brook Farm and Fruitlands. We will also examine the skeptical analysis of Transcendentalism offered in Nathaniel Hawthorne's Blithedale Romance and Louisa May Alcott's story, "Transcendental Wild Oats." In addition we will be reading a range of modern criticism on the Transcendentalists, including Barbara Packer, Stanley Cavell, and Christopher Newfield. Because Transcendentalism includes elements of philosophy, literature, and social movement, the question of critical methodology is particularly pertinent to its study. Can philosophical, literary, and political strands be disentangled, or must Transcendentalism be studied as a single cultural formation? Through a series of short projects students will build toward a significant final paper combining research and close reading. This discussion seminar is designed to develop skills in researching criticism and argument development, with work over the semester leading toward a significant final paper of twenty pages. Format: discussion/seminar. Requirements: two 5-page papers toward a final 20-page paper. Enrollment Limit: 15 (expected: 15). (1700-1900)