Realism & naturalism & regionalism
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Transcript of Realism & naturalism & regionalism
RealismRegionalismNaturalism
Edith WhartonKate Chopin
Charlotte Perkins GilmanMary E. Wilkins Freeman
Ambrose BierceBret Harte
Jack LondonMark Twain
Remember the Romantics?
1828-1865 Included Transcendentalists and
Anti-Transcendentalists Included Emerson, Thoreau,
Whitman, Hawthorne, and Poe Believed in the individual,
emphasized the imagination, emotions, and creativity, etc.
Now, on the Realists…
Edith Wharton
a good transition from Romanticism to Realism & Regionalism
Ethan Frome shows harsh realities of life in a small town in the East
Ethan is a Transcendentalist (in some ways) who is affected by harsh realities of life
Realism & Realists
1865-1910Reaction against Romanticism
Turned from strange things to ordinary things (a slice of life and how life is really lived)
Realism
any effort to offer an accurate and detailed portrayal of actual life
based on careful observation of life (often
focused on middle & lower classes)
What does Realism mean?
“Let fiction cease to lie about life; let it portray men and women as they really are.”
“Realism is nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material.”
--William Dean Howells
(1837 –1920)
American realist author and literary critic
Realism
Finds the drama and tension beneath the ordinary surface of life
Believed that humanity’s freedom of choice is limited by the power of outside forces
Realism
Realist authors are more descriptive than symbolic.
Readers were attracted to the realists because they saw their own struggles in print. They also had little patience for the slow-paced narratives, allegory, and symbolism of the Romantics writers (can you relate?).
Realists’ writing was often regional.
Regionalism
accurately represents the speech, manners, habits,
history, folklore, and beliefs of people in
specific geographic areas
Regionalism
Because America was leaping into a new modern
age with the industrial revolution (standardization, mass production of goods, etc.), people feared that
local folkways and traditions would soon be forgotten.
Connection: Realism & Regionalism
Responding to these sentiments, realistic writers set their stories in specific American regions, rushing to capture the “local color” before it was lost.
Regionalism grew out of Realism
Local Color
Captures the special atmosphere of the area and its people
Often contains regional dialects, well-known places, customs, etc. of a particular area
Because of lack of communication and transportation, it shows how people lived in other parts of the country
Naturalists
1900-1914 Extension of Realism A reaction against the emphasis
on the “ordinary” lives realist writers portrayed
Naturalist writers insisted that the extraordinary is real, too.
Naturalism
offshoot of Realism; sought to describe people and
events realistically; emphasizes how instinct
and environment influence human behavior; the fate of
humans is beyond individual control
Naturalists
Instead of middle-class realities, naturalists wrote about the fringes of society—the criminal, the fallen,
the down-and-out.
Naturalists Were Darwinists—they believed that
individuals have no choice in life because a person’s life is dictated by heredity and the external environment
We inherit compulsive instincts such as hunger, the drive to accumulate possessions, and sexuality; and then we are subject to the social and economic forces in the family, class and surroundings into which we were born.
In other words, people are caught within the
forces of nature or society that are beyond their understanding or
control
Naturalism
Facts-only approach (avoids idealistic solutions to problems)
“Brutal Realism” The protagonist, a pawn to multiple
compulsions, usually disintegrates, or is wiped out, by the end of the story.
Aimed at bettering the world through social reform (bringing a situation to the eyes of the public so as to improve it)
Realism- any effort to offer and accurate and detailed portrayal of actual life based on careful observation of life (often focused on middle & lower classes)
Regionalism- accurately represents the speech, manners, habits, history, folklore, and beliefs of people in specific geographic areas
Naturalism- offshoot of Realism; sought to describe people and events realistically; emphasizes how instinct and environment influence human behavior
Genre American Author
(s)
Perceived the
individualas…
Presents life as…
Freedom of
choice?
ROMANTICS
Transcendentalists
R. W. EmersonH.D. ThoreauWalt Whitman
A god We would have it
be, want it to be
Do whatev
er pleases you –
limitless
possibilities
Dark Romantics Nathaniel Hawthorne
Edgar Allan Poe
Filled with the
potential for sin
Potentially dark
Choice possible, but tends to the dark side
REALISTS
Realists/Regionalists
Edith WhartonMark Twain
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Mary Wilkins Freeman
Ambrose Bierce
Simply a person
As it really is
Choices are limited
by outside forces (class, race, etc.)
Naturalists/Regionalists
Kate ChopinJack London
A helpless object
Determined only
by heredity and environ-ment
No choices – we are
pawns of our
background and
current environ-ment
American Realist Authors:
Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne
Clemens)
New York
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Mary Wilkins Freeman
New Jersey
Realist authors who were
Naturalists:
Kate Chopin
Missouri
Jack London
Northern California
London was the first American author to make a million dollars from his writing. He was also known to drink a quart of whiskey/day, which caused him to have numerous accidents, including once falling off of a pier into the San Francisco Bay.
Bret Harte
Surrey, England
Ambrose Bierce
Mexico—his actual death date and place are unknown