The role & sovereignty of nature & our uncontained imagination expands previous understandings of human nature itself; in a sense it becomes the new universe for humanity to discover & investigate as a way to realize the limitations of rational thinking.
To reform society young thinkers must engage in their own intellectual growth. The antagonist, the villain is themselves. And, if they remain passive and nonresponsive to change, they cannot experience growth and change.
It is nature, not industry, that liberates and is supreme. And, by experiencing the sublime & the vastness of reality we in turn discover a more authentic & democratic self.
Authors like Emerson, Douglass, Harper, Whitman and Dickinson emphasize both the need and ebb and flow where transformation seems quite resistant to one’s will for reform. How do these authors rely on our imagination to live a more deliberate life? How is our subjectivity our enemy?
Work with at least 3 authors & interpret how each of them argues for self-reflections of the natural realm as a way to engage in intellectual metamorphosis.
In a 300-450 work short essay, work with at least three authors to demonstrate what makes their work ‘gothic’ and nonconformist.
