And fired the shot heard round the world : postcolonial project in Emerson’s transcendentalism

Abstract EN

This paper is concerned with a prominent American poet who lived in an important era in the nineteenth century.

During this period, American nationhood and identity were shaped and articulated by both political institutions and cultural circles alike.

It witnessed the transformation of the United States of America from colonies to empire—a dramatic shift from colonialism to postcolonialism where the cultural, social, and ideological roles and agents are altered.

This paper analyzes how Emerson‟s writings especially his poetry come to emulate what is going on in American social scene in the early and mid-nineteenth century.

Emerson observes and feels the need of intellectuals and literary figures to enter the American life and put their imprints in it.

He attempts to portray and illustrate through transcendental writings how American society and its people should enact the values and attitudes of the “New World” and how they are changed from “colonized” into “colonizer.” But by doing so, Emerson participates in articulating the postcolonial project the U.S.

adopts.