Realism
(1855-1900)
Major Historical Events
• 1861-1865: American Civil War
• 1863: (Jan. 1): Emancipation Proclamation
(abolish slavery)
• 1865: 13th Amendment (abolish slavery)
• 1869: First transcontinental railroad
• 1859: Darwin’s The Origin of Species
Prominent Writers
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Mark Twain (1835-1910) Novel/Short Stories
Henry James (1843-1916) Novel
Kate Chopin (1851-1904) Novel/Short Stories
Robert Frost (1874-1963) Poetry (Early Works)
Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)Poetry(Early Works)
Characteristics of the Writing
• Realism was a reaction against the Romantic
emphasis on the strange and idealistic. It has
focus on the “ordinary” life.
• Dialogue includes “voices” from around the
country. (Dialect) This is considered colloquial
speech (everyday words and phrases). Characters
were often common people such as industrial
workers, rural or poor people, ambitious
businessmen and vagrants, prostitutes , and
unheroic soldiers.
Characteristics of the writing continued..
• The writing sought to expose political
corruption, economic inequity, business
deception, the exploitation of labor, women
rights problems, and racial inequity.
• This writing focuses on life in the writer’s time
and does not shrink away from the harsh and
brutal realities on life and death.
Regionalism (Local Color) &
Naturalism
Major Historical Events
• Both of these fall under the category of
Realism. Thus, the historical events are the
same.
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Prominent Writers
Mark Twain (Regionalist-South & West)
Kate Chopin (Regionalist- Louisiana)
Bret Harte 1836-1902 (Regionalist-West)
Sarah Orne Jewett (Regionalist-New England)
Hamlin Garland (RegionalistMidwestern)(Naturalist)
Stephen Crane 1871-1900 (Naturalist)
Theodore Dreiser 1871-1945 (Naturalist)
Edith Wharton 1862-1937 (Naturalist)
Jack London 1879-1916 (Naturalist)
John Steinbeck 1902-1968 (Naturalist)
Major Characteristics of the writing
• Regionalism is a literary movement that focused
on the “local color” of a particular area. The
regionalist accurately re-creates the activities,
dialect, appearance, and customs of the
characters, as well as the environment in which
they live.
• In regional writing. There is a desire to preserve
distinctive ways of life and to satisfy a demand to
know how people lived in other parts of the
country.
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• In naturalistic writing characters are often
caught within forces of nature or society that
are beyond their understanding or control.
This style of writing uses a facts-only
approach, a style made through detailed
observation of the “truth” of the human
experience. These writers may seek to better
the world through social reform.