From walking

From walking , depending on the translation and the hiking (Engl. Title Walking ) is an essay of the American writer Henry David Thoreau , who held from 1851 to 1857 lectures the author with the titles Walking and The Wild developed. Thoreau prepared the text for publication shortly before his death in 1862; he did not live to see the first publication in June 1862 in Atlantic Monthly magazine .

subjects

In Walking Thoreau thematizes the relationship between humans and nature. In doing so, it distances itself greatly from civilization; he explains that all that is true in man comes only from the encounter with the wild , the untamed and uncultivated life force. This can already be seen in the first sentence: “I want to speak in favor of nature, in favor of absolute freedom and wildness - as opposed to freedom and culture in the bourgeois sense - and I would like to see people as an inseparable part of nature and not as a member of society . "

Thoreau describes nature as a force that touches the inner truth of man, while he describes society as almost the seductive work of the devil; In this sense his ideas are close to the approaches of European romanticism, which are critical of civilization and progress. At Thoreau, nature and culture (at least the aspects he considers positive) are almost partners: "A city is not only saved the righteous who live in it, but also through the forests and swamps around it"

He also describes the historical movement to the west as a kind of natural tendency to freedom, to encounter the savage : “In the east we follow the path of history, study works of art and literature, retrace the path of our race; in the West we are approaching the future with a spirit of enterprise and adventure. ”Although Thoreau speaks out against the reality of urban America at many points in the essay, he is also patriotic; in fact, the approach of the natural train west is reminiscent of the concept of Manifest Destiny .

Editions (in German)

From walking. An essay. Translated by Dirk van Gunsteren . Diogenes, Zurich 2004, ISBN 3-257-23463-5 .
From hiking. Translated by Heiner Feldhoff . Verlag der Manufactur, Horn am Externsteine 1983, ISBN 3-88080-023-5 .
From hiking. Translated by Ulrich Bossier. Reclam, Stuttgart 2014, ISBN 978-3-15-019074-6 .

Web links

Walking as an e-book (English)

Individual evidence

↑ https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/t/thoreau-emerson-and-transcendentalism/thoreaus-walking/summary-and-analysis
↑ Original: "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. "
↑ Original: "A town is saved not more by the righteous men in it than by the woods and swamps that surround it."
↑ Original: “We go eastward to realize history and study the works of art and literature, retracing the steps of the race; we go westward as into the future, with a spirit of enterprise and adventure. "

[1] ttps://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/t/thoreau-emerson-and-transcendentalism/thoreaus-walking/summary-and-analysis

[2] Original: "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. "

[3] Original: "A town is saved not more by the righteous men in it than by the woods and swamps that surround it."

[4] Original: “We go eastward to realize history and study the works of art and literature, retracing the steps of the race; we go westward as into the future, with a spirit of enterprise and adventure. "