Emerson as a Public Intellectual: Pursuing Possibilities of a Universal Language Founded on Nature

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K00413
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 02030:English literature and literature in the English language-related
• Research Institution: Mie University
• Principal Investigator: Oda Atsuko 三重大学, 人文学部, 特任教授(教育担当) (80194554)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: Emerson / Public Intellectual / Nature / Representation / Representative Men / Science / Secularity / Goethe

Outline of Final Research Achievements

On the basis of Emerson's original idea of "self-reliance," which made him the first "public intellectual" in America, the primary source is Nature itself, the creative power which he thinks is shared by every private man and ensures his or her infinitude. Our research examined so-called mystic discourses in Emerson's works ranging from Nature (1836) to Representative Men (1850) and found that he is more a naturalist and practical moralist than a mystic.
Our reading clarifies Representative Men to be a biography of Emerson as a naturalist, showing how Emerson's key word, "representative," which is related to the idea of a "public” from which there are no exclusions, comes from Swedenborg's physiology and how his scientific views had developed from Plato, culminating in Goethe's organic view of life.

Free Research Field

アメリカ文学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

アメリカ本国の研究ではあまり論じられないテーマで先行研究も少ないため議論を呼ぶ点もあったが、論文や学会発表を通じて、意味のある視点を提供できたと思う。スコットランド啓蒙主義やイギリス・ロマン派など、エマソンへの影響として周知の事実も科学的な視点から再考することで得た知見は、エマソン以外の研究者にも資することできた。
影響力が大きい割にその影響が認識されることの少ないエマソンの存在の大きさを伝えることに努めた。明治のベストセラー、Self-Helpへのエマソンの影響を論じたのも、日本でも忘れられている、かつてのエマソン人気を知ることには現代の日本にとっても意味があると思うからだった。