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A Brief Introduction to the Works of
Henry David Thoreau
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Thoreau, Henry David
(b. July 12, 1817, Concord, Mass., U.S.--d. May 6, 1862, Concord), American
essayist, poet, and practical philosopher, renowned for having lived the
doctrines of Transcendentalism as recorded in his masterwork, Walden
(1854), and for having been a vigorous advocate of civil liberties, as evidenced
in the essay "Civil Disobedience" (1849). |
개요
소로 (Henry David Thoreau). 1817. 7. 12 미국 매사추세츠 콩코드~1862.
5. 6 콩코드. 미국의 수필가, 시인, 실천적 철학자.
걸작 〈월든:숲속의 생활 Walden:or, Life in the Woods〉(1854)에서
다룬 초월주의 원칙대로 살면서 평론 〈시민의 반항 Civil
Disobedience〉(1849)에서 주장한 대로 시민의 자유를 열렬히
옹호한 것으로 유명하다. |
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Thoreau was born in 1817 in Concord,
Mass. Though his family moved the next year, they returned in 1823, not to move
again. Even when he grew ambivalent about the village after reaching manhood, it
remained his world, for he never grew ambivalent about its lovely setting of
woodlands, streams, and meadows. Little distinguished his family. He was the
third child of a feckless small businessman named John Thoreau and his bustling,
talkative wife, Cynthia Dunbar Thoreau. His parents sent him in 1828 to Concord
Academy. There he impressed his teachers and so was permitted to prepare for
college. Upon graduating from the academy, he entered Harvard in 1833. At
Harvard he was a good student, but he was indifferent to the rank system and
preferred to use the school library for his own purposes. Graduating in the
middle ranks of the class of 1837, he searched for a teaching job and secured
one in Concord at his old grammar school. But he was no disciplinarian, and he
resigned after two shaky weeks, after which he worked for his father in the
family pencil-making business. In June 1838 he started a small school with the
help of his brother John. Despite its progressive nature, it lasted for three
years, until John fell ill. |
초기생애
소로는 1817년 매사추세츠 주 콩코드에서 태어났다. 그의
가족은 이듬해 이사를 했다가 1823년 콩코드로 돌아와 그곳에
정착했다. 그가 후에 성인이 되어 마을에 대해 애증의
감정을 느꼈다고 하나 그곳의 아름다운 숲, 계곡과 초지에
대해서는 변함없는 애정을 간직했기 때문에 그곳은 여전히
그가 속한 세계였다. 그의 집안은 그리 대단한 가문은
아니었다. 그는 무능한 소규모 사업가 존 소로와 부산하고
수다스런 신시아 던바의 셋째 아이로 태어났다. 1828년
부모는 그를 콩코드 아카데미에 보냈다. 그에게 좋은 인상을
받은 그곳의 교사들 덕분에 그는 대입 준비를 할 수 있었다.
아카데미를 졸업하고 1833년 하버드대학교에 입학한 그는
모범생이었지만 학점에는 무관심했으며, 도서관에서 자기가
원하는 책을 읽는 것을 좋아했다. 1837년 중간 정도의
성적으로 졸업한 뒤 교직을 지원해서 이전에 다녔던
콩코드의 그래머 스쿨에 자리를 얻었다. 그러나 엄격한 교사
역할이 맞지 않아 고민 끝에 2주일 후 그만두었고, 가업인
연필제조업을 꾸려가던 아버지를 돕게 되었다. 1838년 6월 형
존의 도움으로 작은 학교를 세웠는데, 이 학교는 진보적
성격에도 불구하고 3년 동안이나 유지되다가 존이 병에
걸리는 바람에 문을 닫았다.
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A canoe trip that he and John took along
the Concord and Merrimack rivers in 1839 confirmed him in the opinion that he
ought to be not a schoolmaster but a poet of nature. As the 1840s opened, he
took up the profession of poet. He struggled to stay in it and succeeded
throughout the decade, only to falter in the 1850s. |
1839년 소로는 존과 함께 콩코드 강과 메리맥 강을 따라
카누 여행을 하면서 자신은 교사보다 자연시인이 더
어울린다는 확신을 얻게 되었다. 1840년대에 접어들면서 그는
시인의 길을 택했다. 시인으로 남기 위해 부단히 애를 쓴
끝에 1840년대를 성공적으로 보냈으나 1850년대에는 좀
주춤해졌다.
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Sheer chance made his entrance to
writing easier, for he came under the benign influence of the essayist and poet Ralph
Waldo Emerson, who had settled in Concord during Thoreau's sophomore year
at Harvard. By the autumn of 1837, they were becoming friends. Emerson sensed in
Thoreau a true disciple--that is, one with so much Emersonian self-reliance that
he would still be his own man. Thoreau saw in Emerson a guide, a father, and a
friend. |
에머슨과의
우정
소로가 쉽게 시인의 길로 들어서게 된 것은 단순한
우연으로, 그가 하버드대학교 2학년에 재학중일 때 콩코드에
정착한 수필가이자 시인인 랠프 월도 에머슨의 친절한 지도
덕분이었다. 1837년 가을 무렵 그들은 친구가 되었다.
에머슨은 소로에게서 에머슨식의 자기 신뢰를 지닌 진정한
제자를 찾아냈고, 소로는 그로부터 지도자¡¤아버지¡¤친구의
모습을 발견했다.
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With his magnetism Emerson attracted
others to Concord. Out of their heady speculations and affirmatives came New
England Transcendentalism. In retrospect it was one of the most
significant literary movements of 19th-century America, with at least two
authors of world stature, Thoreau and Emerson, to its credit. Essentially it
combined romanticism with reform. It celebrated the individual rather than the
masses, emotion rather than reason, nature rather than man. It conceded that
there were two ways of knowing, through the senses and through intuition, but
asserted that intuition transcended tuition. Similarly, it conceded that matter
and spirit both existed. It asserted, however, that the reality of spirit
transcended the reality of matter. It strove for reform yet insisted that reform
begin with the individual, not the group or organization. (see also Index:
American Renaissance) |
에머슨의 사고방식에 이끌려 많은 사람이
콩코드로 모여들었다. 그들의 현명한 사고와 확신이야말로
뉴잉글랜드 초월주의의 초석이 되었다. 돌이켜보면 그것은
19세기 미국에서 최소한 두 사람의 세계적 작가 소로와
에머슨의 명성을 바탕으로 생겨난 가장 중요한
문예운동이었다. 그것은 본질적으로 낭만주의와 개혁을
조화시켰다. 대중보다는 개인을, 이성보다는 감성을,
인간보다는 자연을 예찬했다. 또한 지식을 얻게 되는
경로로는 감각과 직관 2가지가 있음을 인정했지만, 직관이
교육보다 우월하다고 주장했다. 이와 마찬가지로 정신과
물질은 공존하지만 정신의 실재는 물질의 실재를
넘어선다고 역설했다. 또 개혁을 위해 분투했지만 개혁은
단체나 조직이 아닌 개인에서 시작되어야 함을 강조했다. |
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In Emerson's company Thoreau's hope of
becoming a poet looked not only proper but feasible. Late in 1837, at Emerson's
suggestion, he began keeping a journal that covered thousands of pages before he
scrawled the final entry two months before his death. He soon polished some of
his old college essays and composed new and better ones as well. He wrote some
poems--a good many, in fact--for several years. Captained by Emerson, the
Transcendentalists started a magazine, The
Dial; the
inaugural issue, dated July 1840, carried Thoreau's poem "Sympathy"
and his scrap of essay on the Roman poet Aulus Persius Flaccus. |
작품활동
시인이 되고자 한 소로의 희망은 에머슨과의 관계 덕분에
적절할 뿐 아니라 가능성도 있어 보였다. 1837년 후반부터
에머슨의 제안에 따라 일기를 쓰기 시작했는데, 죽기 2개월
전까지 계속 쓴 분량은 수천 페이지에 이른다. 대학시절에
썼던 몇 편의 글을 다듬고 더욱 훌륭한 새 글도 썼으며
수년에 걸쳐 몇 편의 시도 썼다. 에머슨의 지도 아래
초월주의자들은 잡지 〈다이얼
The Dial〉을 창간했는데, 1840년 7월에 발행한 창간호에
소로의 시 〈연민 Sympathy〉과 로마 시인 아울루스
페르시우스 플라쿠스에 대한 평론 발췌문이 실렸다.
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The
Dial published more of Thoreau's poems and then,
in July 1842, the first of his outdoor essays, "Natural History of
Massachusetts." Though disguised as a book review, it showed that a nature
writer of distinction was in the making. Then followed more lyrics, and fine
ones, such as "To the Maiden in the East." There followed another
nature essay, remarkably felicitous, "A Winter Walk." The
Dial died with the issue of April 1844. Before it expired, however, it let
Thoreau publish a richer variety of writing than any other magazine ever would. |
그후에도 〈다이얼〉지에 소로의 시가 계속 실렸고, 1842년 7월에는
자연에 관한 첫번째 수필 〈매사추세츠의
자연사 Natural History of Massachusetts〉가 실렸다. 서평 형식을
취하긴 했지만, 이 글은 뛰어난 자연작가가 탄생했음을
보여주었다. 그후로는 여러 편의 서정시를 발표했는데, 그중
훌륭한 작품으로는 〈동부의 처녀에게 To the Maiden in the East〉
등이 있다. 뒤이어 발표한 또다른 자연 수필 〈겨울 산책 A
Winter Walk〉에서는 자연에 대한 적절한 표현이 돋보인다. 1844년
4월호를 끝으로 〈다이얼〉지는 폐간되었다. 그러나 이
기관지를 통해서 소로는 어떤 잡지보다 더 풍부하고 다양한
작품들을 발표했다. |
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In 1840 he fell in love with and
proposed marriage to an attractive visitor to Concord named Ellen Sewall. She
accepted his proposal but then immediately broke off the engagement at the
insistence of her parents. Thoreau remained a bachelor for life. During two
periods, 1841-43 and 1847-48, he stayed mostly at the Emersons' house. |
1840년 그는 콩코드를 방문한 매력적인 여인 엘런 시월과
사랑에 빠져 청혼했다. 그녀는 이를 받아들였지만 그녀의
부모가 반대하는 바람에 그들의 약혼은 곧 깨졌다. 1841~43,
1847~48년에는 거의 에머슨의 집에 머물렀다. |
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Yet in spite of Emerson's hospitality
and friendship, Thoreau grew restless; his condition was accentuated by grief
over the death in January 1842 of his brother John, who died of lockjaw after
cutting his finger. In 1842 he stayed on Staten Island as tutor in the household
of Emerson's brother, William, while trying to cultivate the New York literary
market. His literary activities went indifferently, however, and the effort to
conquer New York failed. Confirmed in his distaste for city life and
disappointed by his failure, he returned home to Concord in late 1843. |
그러나 에머슨의
보살핌과 우정에도 불구하고 소로는 점차 안정을 잃었고,
1842년 1월 형 존이 손가락을 자른 뒤 발병한 파상풍으로
사망하자 그 슬픔 때문에 상태가 악화되었다. 1842년
스테이튼 섬에서 에머슨의 형 윌리엄 집에 가정교사로
머무르면서 뉴욕 문학시장을 개척하려고 했다. 하지만 그의
문학활동에 대한 반응은 냉담했고, 뉴욕을 정복하려던
노력은 좌절되었다. 도시생활에 염증을 느끼고 계속된
실패에 좌절한 그는 1843년 후반에 고향 콩코드로 돌아왔다.
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Back he went to making pencils and
grinding graphite. By early 1845 he felt more restless than ever, until he
decided to take up an idea of a Harvard classmate who had once built a waterside
hut in which one could loaf or read. In the spring he picked a spot by Walden
Pond, a small glacial lake located 2 miles (3 km) south of Concord on
land Emerson owned. |
월든 호반생활
소로는 다시 연필과 연필심 제조업으로 돌아갔다. 1845년초
무력감이 더욱 심해지자, 그전에 쉬기도 하고 독서도 할 수
있는 움막을 강가에 지었던 한 하버드대학교 동창생의
아이디어를 실현하기로 결심했다. 그해 봄 콩코드에서
남쪽으로 3.2㎞ 떨어진 얼음으로 덮인 작은 월든 호숫가에서
에머슨 소유의
마땅한 자리를 찾아냈다.
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Early in the spring of 1845, Thoreau,
then 27 years old, began to chop down tall pines with which to build the
foundations of his home on the shores of Walden Pond. From the outset the move
gave him profound satisfaction. Once settled, he restricted his diet for the
most part to what fruit and vegetables he found growing wild and the beans he
planted and hoed. When not busy weeding his bean rows and trying to protect them
from hungry woodchucks, or occupied with fishing, swimming, or rowing, he spent
long hours observing and recording the local flora and fauna, reading, and
writing A Week on the Concord and
Merrimack Rivers (1849) and making entries in his journals, which later he
would polish and include in Walden.
Much time, too, was spent in meditation. |
1845년 이른 봄 27세가 된 소로는
월든 호숫가의 큰 소나무들을 베어 그 나무로 집의 기초를
세웠다. 처음부터 그는 이곳으로 이사하는 것에 몹시
만족했다. 일단 정착한 후 그는 자신이 심은 콩과 야생과일
및 채소로만 식단을 차렸다. 한가할 때에는 콩밭의 잡초를
뽑거나 굶주린 마못으로부터 콩밭을 지켰고, 낚시¡¤수영¡¤뱃놀이를
즐겼으며, 그곳의 식물군과 동물군을 관찰하고 기록하며
독서로 기나긴 시간을 보냈다. 그곳에서 〈콩코드와 메리맥
강에서 보낸 1주일 A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers〉(1849)을
썼고, 이때 쓴 일기는 후에 다듬어서 〈월든:숲속의
생활〉에 포함시켰다. 또한 명상을 하면서 많은 시간을
보냈다.
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Out of such activity and thought came Walden,
a series of 18 essays describing his experiment in basic living and his effort
to set his time free for leisure. Several of the essays provide Thoreau's
original perspective on the meaning of work and leisure and describe his
experiment in living as simply and self-sufficiently as possible, while in
others Thoreau describes the various realities of life at Walden Pond: his
intimacy with the small animals he came in contact with; the sounds, smells, and
look of woods and water at various seasons; the music of wind in telegraph wires
-- in short, the felicities of learning how to fulfill his desire to live as
simply and self-sufficiently as possible. The physical act of living day by day
at Walden Pond is what gives the book authority, while Thoreau's command of a
clear, straightforward, but elegant style helped raise it to the level of a
literary classic. (see also "Walden;
or, Life in the Woods") |
이러한 생활과 생각 속에서 탄생한 〈월든:숲속의
생활〉은 단순한 생활 속에서 경험과 자유롭게 여가를
누리려는 노력을 서술한 18편의 글로 이루어져 있다. 여러
편의 글에서 소로는 노동과 여가에 대해 독창적인 견해를
서술했으며, 가능한 한 단순하고 자족적인 삶을 영위하려 한
자신의 실험적 생활을 보여준다. 다른 글에서는 작은
동물들과의 친교, 계절에 따라 달라지는 숲과 호수의 소리¡¤내음¡¤경치,
전선에 스치는 바람소리 등 월든 호반에서의 다양한 생활을
묘사하면서 단순하고 자족하며 살아가는 방법을 습득해가는
기쁨을 보여준다. 월든 호반에서 실제로 하루하루 살았다는
점 때문에 이 작품에 권위를 더하는 것도 사실이지만
분명하고 직설적이며 세련된 문체야말로 이 작품을 고전의
차원으로 끌어올릴 수 있었다.
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Thoreau stayed for two years at Walden
Pond (1845-47). In the summer of 1847 Emerson invited him to stay with his wife
and children again, while Emerson himself went to Europe. Thoreau accepted. In
September 1847 he left his cabin forever. |
소로는 월든 호반에서 2년 동안(1845~47) 머물렀다. 그는 1847년
여름 에머슨이 그를 초청해서 가족과 합류시켜 유럽에
가자는 초청을 받아들여 그해 가을 자신의 오두막을 영영
떠나게 되었다.
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Midway in his Walden sojourn Thoreau had
spent a night in jail. On an evening in July 1846 he was accosted by Sam
Staples, the constable and tax gatherer. Sam asked him amiably to pay his poll
tax, which he had omitted paying for several years. He declined and Sam locked
him up. The next morning a still-unidentified lady, perhaps his aunt, Maria,
paid the tax. Thoreau reluctantly emerged, did an errand, and then went
huckleberrying. A single night, he decided, was enough to make his point. His
point was that he could not support a government that endorsed slavery and waged
an imperialist war against Mexico. His defense of the private, individual
conscience against the expediency of the majority found expression in his most
famous essay, "Civil Disobedience,"
which was first published in May 1849 under the title "Resistance
to Civil Government." The essay received little attention until the
20th century, when it found an eager audience. To many, its message still sounds
timely: there is a higher law than the civil one, and the higher law must be
followed even if a penalty ensues. So does its consequence: "Under a
government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a
prison." |
월든 호숫가 생활 당시 소로는 감옥에서 하룻밤을 보낸
적이 있었다. 1846년 7월 어느날 밤에 경관이자 세금징수원인
샘 스테이플스가 그를 끌고가 여러 해 동안 납부하지 않았던
인두세를 낼 것을 정중하게 요청했다. 그가 거절하자 샘은
그를 감금시켰다. 다음날 아침 그의 숙모 마리아로 짐작되는
정체불명의 숙녀가 세금을 내주어 풀려난 사건이 있었다.
그는 자신의 입장을 정리하는 데 하룻밤이면 충분하다고
생각했다. 노예제를 묵인하고 멕시코와 제국주의 전쟁을
일으킨 정부를 지지할 수 없다는 것이 그의 입장이었다. 1849년
5월에 출판된 그의 가장 유명한 평론 〈시민의 반항〉에서는
다수의 편의주의에 맞서 개인의 양심을 옹호했다. 당시
그것은 무시당했으나 19세기말경 새롭게 인정받기 시작했고,
20세기 중반에는 열렬한 독자들이 나타났다. 민법보다 더
우위의 법이 존재하므로 설령 벌을 받더라도 이 법을 따라야
한다는 그의 주장은 많은 사람들에게 여전히 타당한 것으로
여겨진다. 이 글의 결론은 "어느 한 사람이라도 부당하게
투옥하는 정부 밑에서 의로운 사람이 진정 있어야 할 장소는
감옥"이라는 것이다.
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When Thoreau left Walden, he passed the
peak of his career, and his life lost much of its illumination. Slowly his
Transcendentalism drained away as he turned surveyor in order to support
himself. He collected botanical specimens for himself and reptilian ones for
Harvard, jotting down their descriptions in his journal. He established himself
in his neighbourhood as a sound man with rod and transit, and he spent more of
his time in the family business; after his father's death he took it over
entirely. Thoreau made excursions to the Maine woods, to Cape Cod, and to
Canada, using his experiences on the trips as raw material for three series of
magazine articles: "Ktaadn [sic] and the Maine Woods," in The
Union Magazine in 1848; "Excursion to Canada," in Putnam's
Monthly in 1853; and "Cape Cod," in Putnam's in 1855. These works present Thoreau's zest for outdoor
adventure and his appreciation of the natural environment that had for so long
sustained his own spirit. |
말년과 작품
월든을 떠나면서 소로의 황금기는 막을 내리고 황혼기를
맞게 되었다. 생계를 위해 감정사로 변신하면서 초월주의도
서서히 사그라들었다. 그는 자신의 몫으로 식물 표본,
하버드대학교를 위해 파충류 표본을 수집하면서 그 자세한
사항을 일기에 기록했다. 이웃사람들은 그를 지팡이와
측량기를 가지고 다니는 음향효과 담당자로 생각했다.
아버지가 죽은 뒤 완전히 인수받은 가업에 더많은 시간을
할애하고, 메인 숲, 케이프코드¡¤캐나다로 여행하면서 얻은
소재로 잡지에 3편의 글을 발표했다. 〈유니온 매거진 The
Union Magazine〉에 〈식과 메인 숲 Ktaadn(sic) and the Maine Woods〉(1848),
〈퍼트냄스 먼슬리 Putnam's Monthly〉에 〈캐나다 여행 Excursion
to Canada〉(1853)¡¤〈케이프코드 Cape Cod〉(1855)를 실었다. 이
작품들에서는 외부세계 탐험에 대한 소로의 열망과 그의
영혼을 그토록 오랫동안 지탱해준 자연환경에 대한 찬사를
볼 수 있다.
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As Thoreau became less of a
Transcendentalist he became more of an activist--above all, a dedicated
Abolitionist. As much as anyone in Concord, he helped to speed fleeing slaves
north on the so-called Underground Railroad. He
lectured and wrote against slavery, with "Slavery in Massachusetts," a
lecture delivered in 1854, as his hardest indictment. In the Abolitionist John
Brown he found a father figure beside whom Emerson paled; the fiery old
fanatic became his ideal. By now Thoreau was in poor health, and when Brown's
raid on Harpers Ferry failed and he was hanged, Thoreau suffered a psychic shock
that probably hastened his own death. He died, apparently of tuberculosis, in
1862. |
소로는 초월주의에서 벗어나 실천적인 노예폐지론자가
되었다. 콩코드의 다른 이들과 마찬가지로 이른바
지하철도를 통해 북쪽으로 도망가는 노예들을 도우면서
노예제에 반대하는 강연을 하고 글을 썼다. 1854년에 행한
강연 〈매사추세츠의 노예제 Slavery in Massachusetts〉는 가장
신랄한 고발이었다. 그는 노예폐지론자 존 브라운에게서
에머슨에 못지 않은 다감한 아버지상을 발견했고, 이 나이든
열광자가 소로의 이상이 되었다. 점차 건강이 나빠진 소로는
브라운이 하퍼스 페리 마을 습격을 주동했다가 실패해
처형당하자 정신적인 충격을 받았으며, 이것이 그의 죽음을
재촉한 것으로 보인다. 1862년 결핵으로 죽었다.
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To all appearances, Thoreau lived a life
of bleak failure. His neighbours viewed him with familiarity verging on
contempt. He had to pay for the printing of A
Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers; when it sold a mere 220 copies,
the publishers dumped the remaining 700 on his doorstep. Walden (the second and last of his books published during his
lifetime) fared less badly but still took five years to sell 2,000 copies. And
yet Thoreau is now regarded as both a classic American writer and a cultural
hero of his country. The present opinion of his greatness stems from the power
of his principal ideas and the lucid, provocative writing with which he
expressed them. |
평가
겉으로 보면 소로는 쓸쓸한 실패의 삶을 살았다.
이웃사람들과 너무 허물 없이 지내 체면을 잃을 정도였다.
〈콩코드와 메리맥 강에서 보낸 1주일〉이 220부밖에 안
팔리자 출판업자는 나머지 700권을 그의 문 앞에 쌓아놓았고
그는 출판비용을 물어야 했다. 그의 생전에 출판된 2번째이자
마지막 책 〈월든:숲속의 생활〉은 판매사정이 그보다는
나았으나 2,000부가 팔리는 데 5년이나 걸렸다. 그러나 지금
소로는 미국의 고전작가이자 문화적 영웅으로 추앙받는다.
그를 위대하다고 보는 현재의 평가는 그의 기본사상이 지닌
힘과 그것들을 표현해내는 명료하고도 자극적인 필체에서
비롯된다.
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Thoreau's two famous symbolic actions,
his two years in the cabin at Walden Pond and his night in jail for civil
disobedience, represent his personal enactment of the doctrines of New England
Transcendentalism as expressed by his friend and associate Emerson, among
others. In his writings Thoreau was concerned primarily with the possibilities
for human culture provided by the American natural environment. He adapted ideas
garnered from the then-current Romantic literatures in order to extend American
libertarianism and individualism beyond the political and religious spheres to
those of social and personal life. "The life which men praise and regard as
successful is but one kind. Why," Thoreau asked in Walden,
where his example was the answer, "should we exaggerate any one kind at the
expense of the others?" In a commercial, conservative, expedient society
that was rapidly becoming urban and industrial, he upheld the right to
self-culture, to an individual life shaped by inner principle. He demanded for
all men the freedom to follow unique lifestyles, to make poems of their lives
and living itself an art. In a restless, expanding society dedicated to
practical action, he demonstrated the uses and values of leisure, contemplation,
and a harmonious appreciation of and coexistence with nature. Thoreau
established the tradition of nature writing later developed by the Americans
John Burroughs and John Muir, and his pioneer study of the human uses of nature
profoundly influenced such conservationists and regional planners as Benton
MacKaye and Lewis Mumford. More important, his life, so fully expressed in his
writing, has had a pervasive influence because it was an example of moral
heroism and an example of the continuing search for a spiritual dimension in
American life. |
월든 호반의 움막에서 보낸 2년과 정부에 대한 불복종
행위로 감옥에 간 일은 소로의 2가지 유명한 상징적
행위였으며, 친구이자 동료인 랠프 월도 에머슨으로
대표되는 뉴잉글랜드 초월주의에 대한 개인적 실천이었다.
작품에서 가장 관심 있게 다룬 것은 미국의 자연환경이
제공하는 인간 문화의 가능성이었다. 미국적 자유의지론과
개인주의를 정치¡¤종교의 영역 이상으로 확대하기 위해 당시
유행하던 낭만주의 문학 사조를 사회적¡¤개인적 삶에
적용하려고 노력했다. 〈월든:숲속의 생활〉에서 소로는
다음과 같이 질문했는데, 그 해답은 월든에서 지낸
생활이었다. "사람들이 성공적이라고 칭찬하고 그렇게
생각하는 삶은 단지 한 종류이다. 우리는 왜 다른 것들은
희생시키고 한 가지만을 과대평가해야 하는가?"
급속하게 도시화¡¤산업화가 추진되던 상업적¡¤보수적, 편의
위주의 사회에서 그는 자기 문화, 내적 원칙에 의해 형성된
개인적 삶에 대한 권리를 주장했다. 모든 사람이 자신만의
생활방식에 따라 생활 자체를 시와 예술로 고양시킬 자유를
누려야 한다고 요구했다. 그는 실용성만을 고집하는
무력하고 확대된 사회에서 여가¡¤명상, 자연과의 조화,
공존이 지닌 가치와 유용성을 제시했다. 그는 나중에 미국
작가 존 버로스와 존 뮤어가 발전시킨 자연문학의 전통을
수립했다. 그리고 인간의 자연 이용에 대한 개척자적 연구는
환경보호론자이며 도시계획 입안자인 벤턴 매케이와 루이스
멈퍼드에게 상당한 영향을 끼쳤다. 보다 중요한 것은,
작품에 완벽하게 표현된 그의 삶이 도덕적 영웅주의의
표본이자 지속적으로 정신적 차원의 삶을 추구한
표본으로서 미국인의 삶에 두루 영향을 끼쳐왔다는 것이다. |
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MAJOR WORKS. The most significant and
enduring works by Thoreau are listed here in order of original publication; when
he made substantial revisions, especially in the essays, the volumes in which
the revised versions first appeared are likewise noted:
"Ktaadn and the Maine Woods"
(1848; revised and expanded in The Maine
Woods, 1864); A Week on the Concord
and Merrimack Rivers (1849); "Resistance to Civil Government"
(1849; republished as "Civil Disobedience" in A Yankee in Canada, 1866); Walden
(1854); "The Last Days of John Brown" (1860; republished in A
Yankee in Canada); "Walking" (1862; republished in Excursions,
1863); "Life Without Principle" (1863; republished in A
Yankee in Canada); and Faith in a
Seed: The Dispersion of Seeds and Other Late Natural History Writings
(posthumously, 1993).
The
Writings of Henry Thoreau, 20 vol. (1906,
reprinted 1982), is the standard "Walden" edition of Thoreau's books,
essays, and journal. It is being replaced by the Princeton Edition of The
Writings of Henry D. Thoreau (starting in 1971 with the publication of its
version of Walden) which is producing books of high textual and editorial
quality. Collected Poems, ed. by Carl
Bode, enlarged ed. (1964, reissued 1970), brings together the many versions of
the poetry he wrote, particularly in his younger days. |
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The definitive life is Walter Harding, The
Days of Henry Thoreau, 2nd ed. (1982, reissued 1992). Its still-useful
predecessor is Henry Seidel Canby, Thoreau
(1939, reprinted 1965). The
Correspondence of Henry David Thoreau, ed. by Walter Harding and Carl Bode
(1958, reprinted 1974), contains not only all the letters by Thoreau available
when the edition was compiled but the letters to him as well. Richard Lebeaux, Young
Man Thoreau (1977), and Thoreau's
Seasons (1984), are applications of psychoanalytic-sociological theory to
Thoreau's life and family relationships. Other biographical studies include
William Howarth, The Book of Concord:
Thoreau's Life as a Writer (1982); Walter Harding and Michael Meyer, The
New Thoreau Handbook (1980); Robert D. Richardson, Jr., Henry
Thoreau: A Life of the Mind (1986); and Bob Pepperman Taylor, America's Bachelor Uncle: Thoreau and the American Polity (1996).
Good general critical studies are Sherman Paul, The Shores of America: Thoreau's Inward Exploration (1958, reissued
1972); Wendell Glick (compiler), The
Recognition of Henry David Thoreau: Selected Criticism Since 1848 (1969);
William J. Wolf, Thoreau: Mystic, Prophet,
Ecologist (1974); and Richard J. Schneider, Henry David Thoreau (1987). The prime studies of Walden
alone are Charles R. Anderson, The
Magic Circle of Walden (1968); Stanley Cavell, The
Senses of Walden, expanded ed. (1981, reissued 1992); and Joel Myerson
(ed.), Critical Essays on Henry David
Thoreau's Walden (1988). |
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참고문헌 (소로)
- 저서
- The Collected Poems of Henry Thoreau : H. D. Thoreau, Carl Bode
(ed.), 1943(enlarged edition 1964)
- The Writings of Henry Thoreau, 20 vol. : H. D. Thoreau, Walden
edition, 1906
- 월든 : H. D. 소로,
강승영 역, 이레, 1993
- 시민의 반항(범우문고 75) : H. D.
소로, 황문수 역,
범우사,
1989
- The Correspondence of Henry David Thoreau : H. D. Thoreau, Walter
Harding·Carl Bode (ed.), 1958, 1975
- 연구서
- 개고 미국문학사 : 김병철,
한신문화사, 1992
- 미국문학사 : R. E. 스필러,
장왕록 역, 일신사, 1989
- 헨리 데이비드 소로의 월든연구 :
장정남,
연세대학교 박사학위논문, 1985
- 헨리 소로- 월든의 재미 〈미국인의 선택〉
: 장정남,
문학과 지성사, 1982
- 헨리 데이비드 소로의 문학관〈청주여사대 논문집〉
11 : 노창식, 청주여자사범대학교, 1982
- 헨리 소로의 월든에 나타난 공자의 영향-공자의
인용구를 중심하여 〈영어영문학〉 50 :
장정남,
한국영어영문학회, 1974
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Return to Thoreau Reader
Henry David Thoreau's life can be described as two major accomplishments:
he lived life on his own terms to a remarkable degree, and he wrote it
all down. Thoreau did not write stories -- he wrote a little poetry, but
essentially he was a writer of essays. His work usually began with journal
entries; he then built essays from his journal, and later combined essays
into books. The work of assembling essays into books has continued, and
much of his work has been published posthumously. Two new books, published
in 1996 and 1999, include material never before available.
Because so much of an essay consists of an author's personal observations
and opinions, in any good essay we come to feel that we know the author.
If you read only short selections of Thoreau, he can appear to be a whining
malcontent, but if you stick with him a bit longer, this impression does
not last. Thoreau cared deeply about the problems of his time and the people
around him, and as this sinks in, many people start to feel that they have
a lot in common with Henry. Part of the magic of Walden is that
it's not just a story; it's a real person in a real place. You want to
step back in time and drop in for a visit at the cabin, feeling absolutely
certain that you would be welcome, and that you would have a good time.
Of course you can't do that, but reading the book comes darn close, and
you come to think of Henry Thoreau as a friend.
In 1862, Samuel Storrow Higginson wrote: "we found him to be one of
the rarest companions, beneath whose rugged exterior there lay a lively
appreciation of all that is vivifying in nature, and a natural yearning
toward his fellow-men, together with a kindly sympathy, which was but the
basis of his simple philosophy. In place of affected eccentricity,
we discovered in him only originality, every thought and action revealing
to us a mind singularly individual, acknowledging no model save that fashioned
by the dictates of conscience, and by the inferences drawn from a thoughtful
contemplation of the natural world. He appeared to us more than all
men to enjoy life, not for its hypocrisies, its conventional shams and
barbarisms, but for its intrinsic worth, taking great interest in everything
connected with the welfare of the town, no less than delight in each changing
aspect of Nature, with an instinctive love for every creature in her realm."
- from an article in "Harvard Magazine," as quoted in Walter Harding's
Thoreau
as Seen by His Contemporaries.
Each time we read a "methinks" or an "I would fain", it's a reminder
that Thoreau's works are now close to 150 years old. Some of the places
we see with Henry can seem as distant and exotic as anything described
in the National Geographic. We visit Concord when it was a farming community,
Cape Cod before it was a vacation destination, and Maine before there was
a trail to the summit of Katahdin. Since then, from Henry's point of view,
the world has not improved much. Except for slavery, there is now generally
less today of what Thoreau admired, and more of what he deplored. This
only serves to make his ideas more relevant to our time.
Much of Thoreau's work was delivered as lectures before it was published,
and the sentences often work better if you read them at about the same
pace as the words would be spoken. Take your time, savor Henry's phrasing,
and look up the words you don't know.
If you are new to Thoreau, start with Walden;
it is his defining masterpiece. (If you're in a hurry, go directly to the
Walden
Express.) It's not an entertaining book in the modern sense -- it would
make a terrible movie -- but it is often very positive.
Walden comes
to us as a narrative of the time Thoreau lived in a small cabin near Walden
Pond, but it is primarily an exploration of the concept that true wealth
is achieved most easily by living simply and wanting little of what money
can buy. Wealth to Henry is time -- time to write, to explore Nature, to
be himself, and to enjoy his life. Watching Henry enjoy life is the great
joy of this book.
The first chapter is called "Economy", and it includes a response to
a friend's suggestion...
"One says to me, 'I wonder that you do not lay up money; you love to
travel; you might take the [railroad] cars and go to Fitchburg today and
see the country.' But I am wiser than that. I have learned that the swiftest
traveller is he that goes afoot. I say to my friend, Suppose we try who
will get there first. The distance is thirty miles; the fare ninety cents.
That is almost a day's wages. I remember when wages were sixty cents a
day for laborers on this very road. Well, I start now on foot, and get
there before night; I have travelled at that rate by the week together.
You will in the meanwhile have earned your fare, and arrive there some
time tomorrow, or possibly this evening, if you are lucky enough to get
a job in season. Instead of going to Fitchburg, you will be working here
the greater part of the day."
By now the cost-per-mile calculations would not be the same, but that is
not the point. The point is to enrich your life by spending it well. Ernie
Seckinger writes, "He did not depart from society; he did not refuse
a job for money; he simply had more things to do and more life to live
than the person wrapped up in concerns about economic advancement."
Related site: Henry Hikes to Fitchburg
The Thoreau Reader's two other books are Cape Cod and The
Maine Woods, both published by Thoreau's admirers after he died. They
are Thoreau's travel books; each describes visits to places not that far
from Concord, but quite different in geography and culture. Thoreau also
continues and expands his nature writing, which became a much larger part
of his life as he grew older. Henry Beston, in a 1951 introduction to Cape
Cod, refers to Thoreau as "the obstinate and unique genius from whom
stems the great tradition of nature writing in America."
In Cape Cod, Thoreau finds the ocean,
fishermen, shipwrecks, and lighthouses...
"I thought it a pity that some poor student did not live there, to
profit by all that light, since he would not rob the mariner. 'Well,' he
said, 'I do sometimes come up here and read the newspaper when they are
noisy down below.' Think of fifteen argand lamps to read the newspaper
by! Government oil! -- light, enough, perchance, to read the Constitution
by!"
In The Maine Woods, Thoreau goes off
in search of true wilderness and Indians, finds both, and is pleased...
"Talk of mysteries!--Think of our life in nature, -- daily to be shown
matter, to come in contact with it, -- rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks!
The solid earth! the actual world! the common sense! Contact!
Contact! Who are we? where are we?"
The Thoreau Reader contains four of Thoreau's essays. In Walking,
Thoreau, like Emerson, capitalizes "Nature"; indicating a spiritual as
well as a scientific appreciation of the natural environment. Its most
famous quote is "in wildness is the preservation of the world." Walking
is one of the earliest American documents to advance the cause of environmentalism...
"I wish to speak a word for Nature, for absolute freedom and wildness,
as contrasted with a freedom and culture merely civil, -- to regard man
as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of Nature, rather than a member
of society."
Civil Disobedience is Thoreau's most famous
essay; it was written after Henry, protesting slavery and the Mexican War,
was put in jail overnight for refusing to pay his poll tax. Someone paid
the tax for him -- ending his protest abruptly -- so he put his opposition
in writing, creating a document that later influenced both Gandhi and Martin
Luther King...
"Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign
his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then?
I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not
desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.
The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time
what I think right."
Slavery in Massachusetts was delivered
as an address to an anti-slavery convention in Framingham, Massachusetts
on July 4, 1854, where abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison burned a copy
of the constitution. It refers specifically to the Fugitive Slave Law of
1850, in which the federal government defined the rights of slave holders
in northern states, and to the arrest and return to Virginia of fugitive
slave Anthony Burns...
"The fact which the politician faces is merely that there is less honor
among thieves than was supposed, and not the fact that they are thieves."
Life without Principle is considered
to be Thoreau's best short statement of what was most important to him.
He delivered this piece as a lecture several times...
"If a man walk in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is
in danger of being regarded as a loafer; but if he spends his whole day
as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making earth bald before
her time, he is esteemed an industrious and enterprising citizen."
For more information on Henry Thoreau, see Thoreau:
Genius Ignored by Lucius Furius, or the Thoreau Reader's links
to other sites. Henry's last name is pronounced with the accent on
the first syllable; it sounds like "thorough".
Return to Thoreau Reader
Please send comments and questions to: Richard
Lenat
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