Introduction to Realism:
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Revolt against Romanticism
Instead of Idealistic >Pessimistic
Portraits of REAL life with all its grit
Finding meaning in commonplace
Class example:
Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”
Intro to Regionalism/Local Color:
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Happy medium between Romanticism and Realism
Captured the essence of life in various regions of the
nation
a way for people across the nation to reconnect after the
Civil War
concerned with the character of the region not the
individual
Stories may include lots of storytelling and revolve around
the community and its rituals.
Use of dialect to establish credibility and authenticity of
regional characters.
Class example: Kate Chopin’s “Desiree’s Baby”
Kate Chopin, 1851-1904
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“one of the most
powerful and
controversial writers of
her time”
Focused on capturing the
essence of life in
Louisiana (Cajuns &
Creoles)
Common themes: nature
of marriage, racial
prejudice, female equality
Introduction to Naturalism
(1870’s to mid-1900’s)
“A Man Said to the Universe”
by Stephen Crane
A man said to the universe,
“Sir, I exist!”
“However,” replied the universe,
“The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation.”
Naturalism Background
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Naturalism is an extension and
refinement of Realism, based on
the theories of the French
novelist, Emile Zola (1840 –
1902) .
Influenced by the scientific
discoveries of the time,
Naturalist saw humans as one of
the pack…not individuals. Emile
Zola coined the term “human
beasts” to demonstrate this.
Inspired by Charles Darwin &
Thomas Huxley, Zola believed
people’s actions and beliefs
resulted not from freewill but
from arbitrary, outside forces of
heredity and environment.
What was going on in the world?
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Western Expansion
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“Manifest Destiny”
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America was destined to expand from coast to
coast
Gold rushes
Growth of cities
Industrialism
Major Tenets of Naturalism
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Writer must examine people and society objectively and, like a scientist,
draw conclusions from what is observed.
Reality: the inescapable working out of natural forces
Destiny is decided by heredity and environment, physical drives, and
economic circumstances.
Tended to be pessimistic.
Direct opposite of Romanticism and Transcendentalism, which saw
nature as holy or mystical
Despite their underlying powerlessness, characters generally conduct
themselves with strength and dignity in the face of adversity, thereby
affirming the significance of their existence.
Realism vs. Naturalism: http://faculty.tamucommerce.edu/kroggenkamp/English519Naturalism.htm
How Culture Influenced Literature and Led to Naturalism:
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Darwin says it's natural selection, not a divine blueprint of some
sort, that determines which organisms live and die in the world -it's mere "survival of the fittest."
Marx says the masses are at the mercy of a capitalist economy,
which more often than not brutally exploits them.
Freud says we're all at the mercy of dark internal drives and desires
we can scarcely hope to control.
U.S. population grew at a staggering rate. Millions of people are
settling into densely crowded urban areas where they seem to be
living and working more and more like insects, basically--there's not
a whole lot of difference between humans, who we like to think are
individualistic and have free will, and animals, who of course live in
flocks, herds, and schools and have to run on instinct.
Key themes of Naturalism in literature
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The "brute within" each individual, comprised of
strong and often warring emotions: passions, such as
lust, greed, or the desire for dominance or pleasure; and
the fight for survival in an amoral, indifferent universe.
The indifference of nature as man struggles to
survive.
The forces of heredity and environment as they
affect—and afflict—individual lives.
Determinism: the inability to express free will.
Expanding ideas of naturalism
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Another side to nature controlling our destiny, is the nature inside of
us such as the need for food, sex, shelter, social dominance, etc.
Naturalism doesn’t just focus on nature’s influence. It encompasses
many environments, the man-made environment, or finance,
industry, and the economy. Something is always beating down and
controlling the lives of lowly individual humans.
Naturalist works are more likely to be political than traditional realist
works. A great many naturalists (like Upton Sinclair in The Jungle,
which is about the plight of the working poor in Chicago's meatpacking industry) want to expose the cruelty of certain "larger
forces," more often than not America's voracious capitalist
economy.
In a nutshell
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Donald Prizer states, "The naturalistic
novelist is willing to concede that there
are fundamental limitations to man's
freedom, but he is unwilling to concede
that man is thereby stripped of all value."
Most Popular American Naturalist Writers:
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Stephen Crane
Jack London
Theodore Dreiser
Frank Norris
Edith Wharton
Stephen Crane
(1871-1900)
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The Red Badge of Courage:
An Episode of the American
Civil War (1895)
Maggie: A Girl of the
Streets (1893)
“The Blue Hotel” (1898)
“The Open Boat” (1898)
“An episode of War” (1890)
Stephen Crane Biography
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one of America's foremost realistic writers, and his works have been
credited with marking the beginning of modern American Naturalism
Influenced by William Dean Howells's theory of realism, Crane
utilized his keen observations, as well as personal experiences, to
achieve a narrative vividness and sense of immediacy matched by
few American writers before him.
Critics suggest that [Maggie: A Girl of the Streets] was a major
development in American literary Naturalism and that it introduced
Crane's vision of life as warfare: influenced by the Darwinism of the
times, Crane viewed individuals as victims of purposeless forces and
believed that they encountered only hostility in their relationships
with other individuals, with society, with nature, and with God.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/stephen-crane
Crane’s Naturalism, however, was tempered by his
belief that in such an indifferent universe,
people must stick together with acts of kindness
and compassion to counter the terrible forces to
which they are subjected.
In his writing, Crane asks questions rather than
providing answers. This encourages the reader
to delve deeper into understanding mankind in
the face of brutal natural forces.
Jack London
(1876-1916)
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The Call of the Wild
(1903)
White Fang (1906)
“To Build a Fire”
(1902)
London wrote passionately and
prolifically about the great questions
of life and death, the struggle to
survive with dignity and integrity,
and he wove these elemental ideas
into stories of high adventure based
on his own firsthand experiences at
sea, or in Alaska, or in the fields
and factories of California. As a
result, his writing appealed not to
the few, but to millions of people all
around the world.
If man is at the mercy of nature…then what’s the point? Right?
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"I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out in a
brilliant blaze
than it should be stifled by dry rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor,
every atom of me in magnificent glow,
than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time"
Jack London (1876 - 1916)