Irrational Rationalism in the Occult "Transparent Eyeball" : A Study on an Occult Idea in the Nineteenth Century America

Abstract

Modern readings of Emerson since the1980s have presented Emerson as a de-transcendentalist, a prophet of postmodernism, whose trademark is the celebration of the plurality and diversity of the secularized world. These readings are unjustly influenced by modernist bias, because they do not sufficiently consider the context of occult, irrational elements in Emerson, and unduly emphasize secularized and materialist sides of Emerson instead.

This paper suggests a reading for Emersons Nature within the context of those elements overlooked by modern Emerson scholarship, that is, elements of occult religious irrationality. With these elements foregrounded, the transparent eye-ball is interpreted not merely as an expression of peaceful spiritual experience but also a signal of modernitys desire for transparency or rationality. As revealed in the metaphor of the Transparent eyeball, such a desire contributes to modernitys anxiety. This paper demonstrates how modernitys demand for rationality and the ancient occult desire for transcendence coincide in the concept of Emersonian power as expressed by the transparent eye-ball. And finally, it discusses how a totalitarian unconscious operates beneath Emersons sincere celebration of the transparency of idealism.