With: Rebecca Chamberlain
In-Class Workshop Number 1: March 31, 2005
Goal: To create a context for understanding our experience of program themes.
Preparation: Divide into groups of 3-5 people and work on the following questions together.
€ Appoint one person to be the group's scribe. This person will keep track of the discussion and report back to the entire group.
€ Appoint another person to read the workshop questions aloud as the group moves through the worksheet. Make sure that each question is taken in sequence and discussed before moving on to the next.
€ Appoint a third person to keep track of the time, so that you move through all questions in the allotted time.
Your scribe should begin by writing down all group members' names. This sheet which records group responses to each question will be turned in at the end of the workshop. Everyone should also take notes, which are to be dated and placed in your portfolio under ³In Class Workshops.²
PART ONE: Working in Small Groups (120 min. -- 7:00-9:00)
1. (5) Take turns reading lines from the poem, ³ Going to Walden,² by Mary Oliver. Discuss what ideas or reactions come up for you.
Going to Walden
It isn¹t very far as highways lie.
I might be back by nightfall, having seen
The rough pines and the stones and the clear water.
Friends argue that I might be better for it.
They do not hear that far-off Yankee whisper:
How dull we grow from hurrying here and there.
Many have gone, and think me half a fool
To miss a day away in the cool country.
Maybe. But in a book I read and cherish,
Going to Walden is not so easy a thing
As a green visit. It is the slow and difficult
Trick of living, and finding it where you are.
Mary Oliver
2. (10 min.) What ideas or concepts come to mind when you hear the term, ³American Dream?² Is there a ³shadow² side to the American dream? List positive and negative associations; utopian and dystopian images of America.
3. (10 min.) What is your dream for America? Do you think your dream is different than that of mainstream American culture?
4. (5 min.) What are the first ideas that come to mind when you hear the word, ³transcendental?² What about ³transcendental visions.²
5. (5 min.) What attracts you to the transcendentalists? If you don¹t have any idea of who the transcendentalists are, brainstorm with your group about the qualities that you associate with counter-cultural ³hippies.² What are some of the stereotypes that come up for either group?
6. (20 min.) Transcendentalism was a philosophy influenced by German Idealism and Romanticism after it developed in Europe through writings by Kant, Hegel, Goethe, Carlyle, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and others. A reaction to the rationalism of the Enlightenment and the environmental and social abuses of Industrial Revolution, it sought to reconnect humans to the natural world and to recognize the innate nobility (divine nature) in all beings. Working at their peak from the 1830¹s to 1850¹s, a group of young Americans, primarily from New England, that included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and others, gave it literary and intellectual force. Walt Whitman expressed a similar vision in his poetic voice.
Discuss the short reading by the respected American Literature scholar, Perry Miller (attached). List the qualities he gives to the Transcendentalists.
7. (15 min.) There are a number of preconceptions made about the transcendentalists. Some of these include: they went back to the woods to get away; they lived simple lives free from materialism; they cultivated ³self sufficiency² (as opposed to runaway individualism). They were sometimes called ³Boston Brahmans² because they were engaged with eastern philosophy. Because of their idealism, some have suggested ³they had their heads in the clouds.²
However, far from being removed from society, the Transcendentalists took a stand on a number of controversial social and political issues. Thoreau said, ³I never had so many visitors as when I moved to Walden Pond,² and ³Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.² Because of their strong convictions, they were attacked for being social and religious agitators. Part of pre-Civil War society (Antebellum America), some of these included the Abolition Movement to end slavery, the beginning of the women¹s Suffrage Movement, anti-Imperialism (opposing the Mexican-American War), and taking stands against religious, business and political corruption, the abuses industrialization and rampant materialism, and the degradation of the natural world.
How do you think the social and political issues they dealt with reflect or echo some of the issues of the counter-culture of the 60¹s? How about issues transforming America today?
8. (20 min.) Take the packet of pictures out. Each one of the quotes, cartoons, or pictures reflects some aspect of transcendental philosophy or different sides of the American Dream. Based on what you have already discussed, group these into a small number of categories (2-4) and come up with descriptive labels for them. Discuss how they do/do not represent the concepts of ³transcendental visions² and ³American dream.²
Emerson and Thoreau
9. Looking at Quotes and Creating a Skit of Renewal (30 min.)
(30 min.) (15 min.) In the envelope in your packet, you will find a number of quotes by Emerson and Thoreau. You can mark the quotes up, color code them with felt pens. Cut them up and divide the quotes into 3-5 piles. You can use paper clips to group them together. What are the qualities that each group of quotes suggests? Invent a label to describe the philosophic principle of each group. Attach your labels to each group of quotes. Make a list of your titles or labels. (Some qualities that Emerson suggests in his essay on nature are: Nature, Commodity, Beauty, Language, Discipline, Idealism, Spirit, Prospects.)
There are far too many quotes for you to use them all, so you will need to work with your group to pick and choose quotes that appeal to you.
Part 2: Skit of renewal, using the quotes (15 min.) The theme of renewal is at the heart of Emerson and Thoreau¹s moral, metaphysical, and social idealism and their interest in language, culture, and nature. They were not simply interested in being in proper relationship to the past or tradition, but in renewing themselves through words and their experience of the world. Though they responded to the staggering social, political and environmental injustices of their time, they believed that, like nature, we are capable of self-renewal. The Transcendentalists may be throwing us a ball of yarn to show us a way out of the labyrinth or shadow side of the ³American dream.²
Recall Mary Oliver¹s poem, at the beginning of the workshop. She explores the idea of renewal. Going to Walden isn¹t merely a formal pilgrimage, it is ³the slow and difficult/trick of living, and finding it where you are.² The idea of renewal is also in our program title, ³Transcendental Visions: Re-imagining the American Dream.²
Story, Skit, or Ritual of Renewal: Using the quotes from the beginning of the activity, create a group story, skit, or ritual of renewal. You might use the titles or labels you have created, in Part 1, above, to frame your story, skit, or transcendental ritual. Figure out different ways you might read aloud quotes by Thoreau, Emerson (or lines from the Oliver poem. You can create the beginning, middle, and end of a story, and use a narrator, to frame your work. You can create a song, chant, or movement to bring the quotes to life, or to express your group¹s story, skit, or ritual. Use the quotes to explore some aspect of transcendental visions or American dream.
You will have 5 minutes to present your ritual when you return to the large group.
PART TWO: Returning to Large Group (60 min. -- 9:00-10:00)
All groups come together to reenact their stories/skits/rituals and to summarize the discussion for the evening. Each group can perform for 5 minutes.