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
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Rising middle class & literacy rates
Social/Political Context
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Reaction to Civil War suffering
Invention of photograph
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Increased literacy & democracy = public hungry for
truth & awareness
Abolitionism & post-slavery stories
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Captured true life
Dark side of America
Origins of Muckraking journalism
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Expose corruption, particularly political & corporate
(continues today…)
Literature affected: tried to do the same
Realism: Values/Beliefs
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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
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Particularly lower/middle classes
Highlight class stratification/inequity
Reveal the ugliness & cruelty of life, but leave
conclusions to the reader
Literary Conventions
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Characters product of social & environmental factors
– Often poorly educated or lower class
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Renders reality closely & often in minute detail, even at the
expense of plot
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Settings usually familiar to the writer
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Character more important than plot
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Plausible events avoid sensational, overly dramatic elements
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Usually uses the omniscient point of view
Conventions Cont.
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Natural vernacular/speech, not heightened or poetic (like
the Romantics)
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Tone is comic, satiric, or matter-of-fact
Considers seemingly ordinary & uninteresting
characters/events in order to extract full value & true
meaning
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Written just as spoken
Simple stories far more complex than they appear
Realistically conveyed sexuality, both its dark and light
sides….
Regionalism & Psychological
Realism
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Regionalism: focuses on small geographical
area in attempt to reproduce speech &
mannerisms
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Psychological Fiction: character
perspective—as “real” as any reality…
Naturalism
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Branch of Realism
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Philosophical position: scientific laws control life
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Heavily influenced by Darwinism
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Darker & more fatalistic (fatalistic = determined by
fate, not choice)
Lives governed by heredity, instinct, & passion
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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:
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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
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Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn
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“Story of an Hour,”
Desiree’s Baby, The
Awakening