John Muir and the Botanical Oversoul
The relation of influence between Ralph Waldo Emerson and John Muir helps to illuminate Muir's characteristic brand of nature religion, namely his mysticism. This relation is especially clear, I argue, in both Emerson and Muir's writing on their mystical affinities for plant life. Applying...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
MDPI
[2019]
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In: |
Religions
Year: 2019, Volume: 10, Issue: 2, Pages: 1-13 |
Further subjects: | B
Mysticism
B Ralph Waldo Emerson B John Muir B Plants B Harold Bloom B literary influence B nature writing |
Online Access: |
Volltext (doi) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
Summary: | The relation of influence between Ralph Waldo Emerson and John Muir helps to illuminate Muir's characteristic brand of nature religion, namely his mysticism. This relation is especially clear, I argue, in both Emerson and Muir's writing on their mystical affinities for plant life. Applying Harold Bloom's renowned theory of literary influence, I draw lessons from Emerson and Muir's mystical writings to highlight the ways in which Muir acquired from Emerson the plant-related vocabularies and practices that came to mediate his nature-inspired mysticism and also how Muir can be said to have surpassed Emerson's own mystical example, thus opening new vistas of consciousness in human-plant relations in the nineteenth-century American religious experience. |
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ISSN: | 2077-1444 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Religions
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.3390/rel10020092 |