Realism & Naturalism Notes
Ms. Burdette
American Literature (Rev. 4/07)
All notes are taken from Adventures in American Literature edited by Hodgins and Silverman. Please cite
Hodgins and Silverman for both quotations AND facts. Page numbers are taken from the brown Adventures in
American Literature books (Heritage Edition Revised).
Notes 10-1-08
Realism:
*Def. p. 950; information pages 292, 296-300, 378-383
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“The attempt in literature and art to represent life as it really is, without
sentimentalizing or idealizing it. Realistic writing often depicts the everyday life and speech of ordinary
people” (Hodgins and Silverman 950)
opposite of Romanticism
[Romanticism sentimentalizes and idealizes; emotion, rose-colored glasses]
late 1800’s (post-Civil War) (290-296)
local color and regionalism are part of realism (296)
“Less emphasis on the imagination and more on observed fact” (296)
influence of science
“a powerful impulse to mirror the unmitigated realities of life” – Henry James (qtd. in Hodgins &
Silverman 296)
“Nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material” according to William Dean
Howells (296)
accurate observation (296)
shift from…
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human potentialities  human actualities
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ideas
 facts
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personal vision
 observed social behavior
Realism: “the depiction of life as most people live and know it”; portrays ordinary life precisely (378)
“slice of life” (379)
“…realism, a literary and intellectual movement that has often been contrasted with Romanticism, led
poets and novelists not to imagine life as it could be, but to examine life as it was actually lived and to
record what they saw around them as honestly as they could” (378)
Realism & Local Color
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local-color movement: important in the transition from Romanticism to Realism
o “close attention to dialect, customs, and character types of a particular region” (296)
o Realism in its “objective observation of social facts” (296)
o (still Romantic in sentimental treatment of human emotion) (296-297)
o Vernacular style: “based on the patterns and rhythms of language as Americans actually spoke
it” (299-300)
o Examples of local color writers: Bret Harte, Kate Chopin, Mark Twain (297-300)
o Examples of writers using vernacular: Mary Wilkins Freeman (“The Revolt of ‘Mother’”),
Hurston (“Sweat”), Mark Twain (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)
 Vernacular language (both); vernacular style, perspective, humor, characters (Twain)
Example of a realist author we’ve studied:
Mary Wilkins Freeman
Naturalism:
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Writers using objectivity, scientific investigation (382-3)
Influenced by ideas of science, evolution, Darwin (late 1800s) (382-3)
“survival of the fittest” (Darwinism)
determinism—heredity & environment (nature & nurture) determine one’s fate
o forces beyond one’s control determine what happens
o (free will is viewed mainly as just an illusion)
o Characters are often crushed by outside forces beyond their control
o “the naturalistic writer sees human beings as creatures that are acted upon by nature, the result of
the forces of heredity and environment” (383)
o “All of us are more or less pawns. We’re moved about like chessmen by circumstances over
which we have no control” –Theodore Dreiser (383)
“An extreme form of realism. Naturalistic writers usually depict the sordid side of life and show
characters who are severely, if not hopelessly, limited by their environment or heredity” (Adventures in
American Literature 948)
Naturalist authors: London, Dreiser, Stephen Crane
Examples of a naturalist author we’ve studied:
Jack London
Romanticism & Transcendentalism, Realism & Naturalism
ROMANTICISM
Guide: emotion/intuition
Portrays: life as we wish it were
-or- dark side of the human spirit
(two types of Romanticism)
Traits/values: emotion, intuition;
connection to nature;
may sentimentalize and idealize;
supernatural and mysterious
Writers: Hawthorne, Poe
REALISM
Influence/guide: science, reason, fact, logic
Portrays “life as it really is”
Traits/values: accurate observation, slice of life
Writers: Freeman, Chopin, Twain
NATURALISM
TRANSCENDENTALISM
Guide: Emotion &
intuition
Traits/values:
Nature, justice,
self-reliance,
nonconformity,
oversoul
Writers: London,
Crane
Influence:
evolution, Darwin
Traits/values:
Darwinism
determinism
Writers: London,
Crane