| Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was an important writer of the American "Renaissance" period in19th century, and he was also a crucial member of the early American Transcendentalist literary movement. Thoreau created a unique style of writing in his most important book Walden, combining his colloquial tone and abundant citations, with his thoughts hidden beneath this style both fascinating and perplexing. This paper focuses on the citation and allusion phenomena in Walden, trying to ascertain the origin and composition of Thoreau’s complex thoughts through an inductive analysis, and thus establish a holistic cognition on Thoreau’s thoughts. This paper is divided into three chapters: the first chapter analyzes the citations from ancient Chinese, Indian and Persian cultures in Walden and their characteristics; the second chapter analyzes the citations from ancient Greek texts, the Bible, English and American Literature, and natural sciences in Walden; chapter three explores the " hidden and missing" part behind the seemingly all-encompassing citations in Walden and its meaning, which further reveals the characteristics of Thoreau’s thoughts. |
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