| Basic Concept: The Theory of Correspondence
and "Associative Writing"
The Romantic's concept of a spiritualized nature is explored in the literature of correspondence or "associative writing." Spurred, in part, by the perspective of the "nature artists" of the Hudson River Valley School of Painters, early nineteenth-century poets drew parallels between patterns in nature and relationships in human community. . The "theory of correspondence" is an essential principle in the doctrines of the "Church of the New Jerusalem," founded on the "theosophy" of the Swedish physicist, mathematician-turned-theologian, Emmanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772). . Online Connections See the introduction to Emmanual Swedenborg. . Our Course Connections The early Romantic writers write numerous poems that examine the "correspondences" between patterns in nature and human relationships. Among the writers we study, see the works of Philip Freneau, William Cullen Bryant, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. .  |