ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that the interpretive process epitomized by Ralph Waldo Emerson's self-representation in Nature constitutes a reflective field analogous to that opened up in phenomenology. By subordinating Romantic archetypes to processes of psychological "allegory," Emerson and his contemporaries create what can be described as a phenomenology of fantasy. The romance or essay, like the analytic session, becomes a phenomenological field revealing the free play of consciousness and the unconscious. In a sense, the interpretive structures developed to explore the depths of the mind signify the potential collapse of Romanticism. While Romantic symbols might plumb the depths of the unconscious, no work of literature can consist of symbols alone. Such symbols must be embedded within an interpretive context which presents them to consciousness. The psychological myths of Emerson's "Orphic" poet at the end of Nature are embedded within an interpretive context which transposes the lessons of "Reason" into the language of the "Understanding."
