PowerPoint Presentation - American Realism & Naturalism
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American Realism & Naturalism
No More Romantic Sunshine &
Rainbows…
Origins/Influences
Began during the Civil War &
continued into the early 20th
century
Reaction to Romanticism &
Transcendentalism: CONTRAST
Fertile literary environment
–
Rising middle class & literacy rates
Social/Political Context
Reaction to Civil War suffering
Invention of photograph
–
Increased literacy & democracy = public hungry for
truth & awareness
Abolitionism & post-slavery stories
–
Captured true life
Dark side of America
Origins of Muckraking journalism
–
–
Expose corruption, particularly political & corporate
(continues today…)
Literature affected: tried to do the same
Realism: Values/Beliefs
Contrasts w/Romanticism & Transcendentalism
Describes life w/out Romantic subjectivity & idealism
Romantics transcend the immediate to find the ideal;
Realists focus on the immediate, the here & now and
its consequences
Present life as it is, not as it might be
Like Romantics, focus on common person & daily
human experience & progressive, but stimulated
change through telling a story that reveals truth &
portrays ugliness & cruelty, not preaching (left readers
to draw their own conclusions)
Multiple views of life: all classes, races, genders
–
–
–
Particularly lower/middle classes
Highlight class stratification/inequity
Reveal the ugliness & cruelty of life, but leave
conclusions to the reader
Literary Conventions
Characters product of social & environmental factors
– Often poorly educated or lower class
Renders reality closely & often in minute detail, even at the
expense of plot
Settings usually familiar to the writer
Character more important than plot
Plausible events avoid sensational, overly dramatic elements
Usually uses the omniscient point of view
Conventions Cont.
Natural vernacular/speech, not heightened or poetic (like
the Romantics)
–
Tone is comic, satiric, or matter-of-fact
Considers seemingly ordinary & uninteresting
characters/events in order to extract full value & true
meaning
–
Written just as spoken
Simple stories far more complex than they appear
Realistically conveyed sexuality, both its dark and light
sides….
Regionalism & Psychological
Realism
Regionalism: focuses on small geographical
area in attempt to reproduce speech &
mannerisms
Psychological Fiction: character
perspective—as “real” as any reality…
Naturalism
Branch of Realism
Philosophical position: scientific laws control life
Heavily influenced by Darwinism
–
–
Darker & more fatalistic (fatalistic = determined by
fate, not choice)
Lives governed by heredity, instinct, & passion
–
Natural Selection
Survival of the Fittest
Nature NOT nurture….
Forces beyond a character’s control restrict attempts
to exercise free will or choice
More negative than Realism
Famous Authors
Naturalist:
•Jack London
Realist:
Mark Twain
–Call of the Wild, “To Build a
Fire”
•Stephen Crane
–Maggie: Girl of the Street
Stephen Crane
•Henry James
– Red Badge of Courage
–Portrait of a Lady, Daisy
Upton Sinclair
Miller
– The Jungle
•John Steinbeck
William Dean Howells
•Of Mice & Men (debatable)
Kate Chopin
–
Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn
–
“Story of an Hour,”
Desiree’s Baby, The
Awakening