American Realism

American realism was an early 20th-century idea in art, music and literature that showed through these different types of work, reflections of the time period. Whether it was a cultural portrayal, or a scenic view of downtown New York City, these images and works of literature, music and painting depicted a contemporary view of what was happening; an attempt at defining what was real.

Art of the Realist Movement

• Art began to focus on a more photographic style

• Attempted to capture the common man

Music of the American Realism Period

WOW!

Well, the music is varied and overlaps other genres. Big Band, Doo Wop and Swing were still popular; Jazz and Rock became main stream.

Mark Twain – The Father of American Realism

Twain's style, based on vigorous, realistic, colloquial American speech, gave American writers a new appreciation of their national voice. Twain was the first major author to come from the interior of the country, and he captured its distinctive, humorous slang and bucking of tradition. For Twain and other American writers of the late 19th century, realism was not merely a literary technique: It was a way of speaking truth and exploding worn-out conventions. - wikipedia

American Realism - Characteristics • objective writing about

ordinary characters in ordinary situations; “real life”

• Character is more important than action and plot; complex ethical choices are often the subject.

• Characters appear in their real complexity of temperament and motive; they are in reasonable relation to nature, to each other, to their social class, to their own past.

American Realism - Characteristics• Class is important; the novel

has traditionally served the interests and aspirations of an insurgent middle class.

• Diction is natural vernacular, not heightened or poetic; tone may be comic, satiric, or matter-of-fact.

Characteristics of Regionalism

• Regionalism is a sub-genre of American Realism• Regionalism is all about “local flavor” or “local color.” • “Local Color” means a reliance on minor details and dialects.• Usually written about the South or the West.• More often than not, these stories were full of humor and

small-town characters.

Authors:• Ernest Hemingway• F. Scott Fitzgerald• John Steinbeck• Robert Frost• Jack London• George Eliot• Charlotte Perkins Gilman