Realism and Naturalism

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Realism and Naturalism

• E302 American Lit.

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Looking back

• Puritans religious devotion
• Rationalism reason over faith and intuition
• Romanticism feelings over reason
• Transcendentalism individualism
• Whats next????

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Realism/Naturalism Time Frame

• Late 19th Century
• 1865 through 1880s (Realism)
• 1890s (Naturalism)
• Post Civil War!!!

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Old View of Man in Literature

• faith in mans worth and freedom
• man had power to choose, even if he did not
  choose wisely

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Post Civil War influence

• Increasing middle-class and literacy in America
• Rapid growth in industrialization and
  urbanization

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Affect on Literature of the late 1800s

• There were thought to be limitations both
  biologically and socially
• Realist writers wanted to accurately depict
  American lives in various contexts of the times

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Characteristics of Realism

• Verisimilitude faithful representation of
  reality, even at the expense of a well-made plot.
• Normal experiences rather than exceptional
• Objectivity rather than idealistic view of human
  nature and experience

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Characteristics Continued

• Diction is vernacular, not heightened or poetic
  tone may be comic, satiric, or matter of fact.
• Regional writing tone of region, community,
  society at large, etc.

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Distinction between Realism and Naturalism

• Many critics argue that there is no distinction.
  However, some differences can be seen between the
  two time periods.
• Greater diversity in normal experiences portrayed
  usually middle to lower class characters.
• Poor, uneducated, unsophisticated, commonplace

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Distinction Continued

• Un-heroic seen through acts of violence, passion,
  etc.
• Stories are ethically idealistic. Some lesson to
  be learned.
• Characters controlled/conditioned by environment,
  heredity, instinct or chance.

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• Realism is nothing more and nothing less than
  the truthful treatment of material.William Dean
  Howells