Realism

1860 (Civil War)through

1900 (Turn of the Century)

What Is Realism?

• A style of writing, developed in the nineteenth century, that attempts to depict life accurately without idealizing or romanticizing it.

Realism vs. Romanticism

• Emphasizes accuracy and objectivity

• Depicts common everyday heroes

• Views the world scientifically (Darwin)

• Focuses on real-life situations

• Emphasizes imagination and emotion

• Depicts larger than life heroes

• Views the world poetically

• Focuses on exotic, supernatural, and imaginary worlds

What Caused the Rise of Realism?

Several events and conditions led to the rise of realism:

• The Civil War• Advances in technology• Advances in science and education• Social changes

The Civil War and Realism• The Civil War was a major cause of the rise of

realism in America. The four-year conflict– Destroyed cities industries and lives– Left bitter memories and economic desolation in

the South

Technology and Realism

Technological advances also contributed to the rise of realism.

• Photography allowed people to see real, sometimes dismaying, images of war and poverty.

• Telephones and coast-to-coast railways allowed more people than ever to hear about events that affected the nation.

Science, Education, & Realism

• Advances in psychology, biology, and geology contradicted long-held beliefs about the nature of humans, the world, and the universe.

• More people, especially minorities, women, and the poor, had access to an education and learned to read.

• Newspapers and the new mass-circulation magazines were widely read.

Social Changes and Realism• In 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment to the

U.S. Constitution, outlawing slavery, was ratified.

Social Changes and Realism

• Industrialization led to overpopulation and poverty in the cities.– The agrarian economy of the South was

devastated by the war and by the loss of slave labor.

– Many newly freed slaves and other Southerners moved to Northern cities looking for work.

Social Changes & Realism

• Industrialization led to overpopulation and poverty in the cities.– Immigrants from strife-torn Europe arrived in

great numbers.– Northern cities grew quickly and without planning.

Slums housed many of the new arrivals.

Characteristics of Realism

• Known as “descendental” or non-transcendental• Renders reality closely and in comprehensive

detail. Selective presentation of reality with an emphasis on verisimilitude (the quality of appearing to be true or real), even at the expense of a well-made plot

Verisimilitude• (vӗr’-ə-sĭ-mĭl’-ĭ-tood’) – from Latin• Veritas was the Roman goddess of truth– “veri” means truth; as in “Verily, verily, I say unto

you,” which means “Truly, truly, I say unto you.” – “Veritas” is in the motto of many universities

• Harvard University – “Veritas” - Truth• Howard Univ. – “Veritas et utilitas” – Truth and Service• Johns Hopkins – “Veritas vos liberabit” – The truth shall

make you free• Yale Univ. – “Lux et veritas” – Light and truth

– “simili” – as in “similar”• Similar to the truth

Characteristics of Realism (cont.)• Character is more important than action and plot; complex

ethical choices are often the subject. • Events will usually be plausible. Realistic novels avoid the

sensational, dramatic elements of naturalistic novels and romances.

• Diction is natural vernacular, not heightened or poetic; tone may be comic, satiric, or matter-of-fact. – The way people actually talk– In contrast to the poetic dialogue of Romantic novels like The

Scarlet Letter; • “Mother,” said little Pearl, “the sunshine does not love you. It runs away

and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom. . . . It will not flee from me, for I wear nothing on my bosom yet!” “Nor ever will, my child, I hope,” said Hester. “And why not, mother?” asked Pearl, stopping short. . . . “Will it not come of its own accord, when I am a woman grown?”

Characteristics of Realism (cont.)

• Objectivity in presentation becomes increasingly important: Overt authorial comments or intrusions lessen as the century progresses.

• Objection to the omniscient point of view.• Subject matter drawn from experience--treated

the common, average, representative, probable.• Relations between people and society are

explored.

Regionalism

• Literature that emphasizes a specific geographic setting and reproduces the speech, behavior, and attitudes of the people who live in that region.– Regionalist writers differ from strict realists by

portraying their characters in a somewhat sentimental fashion.

– Most famous regionalist writer: Mark Twain– Others include Sarah Orne Jewett, Harriet Beecher

Stowe, and Bret Harte

Naturalism: One Step Further

• Extension of realism that claimed to portray life exactly as it was– Relied heavily on the new fields of psychology and

sociobiology– Argued that behavior was determined by heredity

and environment and was beyond human control• Important American naturalists: Stephen

Crane, Theodore Dreiser, & Frank Norris

Characteristics of Naturalism

• deals with those raw and unpleasant experiences which reduce characters to "degrading" behavior in their struggle to survive.

• characters mostly from lower middle or lower classes--they are poor, uneducated, and unsophisticated.

• setting is frequently urban

Characteristics of Naturalism (cont.)

• environment or setting is the commonplace and the unheroic

• life is usually the dull round of daily existence, though those qualities are in such characters usually associated with the heroic or adventurous--acts of violence and passion leading to desperate moments and violent death; suggestion is that life on its lowest levels is not so simple as it seems to be.

Characteristics of Naturalism (cont.)

• discussion of fate; generally the controlling force is society and the surrounding environment.

• characters conditioned and controlled by environment, heredity, chance, or instinct; but they have compensating humanistic values which affirm their individuality and life--their struggle for life becomes heroic and they maintain human dignity.

Characteristics of Naturalism (cont.)• character is fundamentally an animal, without free

will; external and internal forces, environment, or heredity control their behavior (determinism).

• "brute within" each individual, comprised of strong and often warring emotions: passions, such as lust, greed, or the desire for dominance or pleasure; and the fight for survival in an amoral, indifferent universe.

• conflict in naturalistic novels is often "man against nature" or "man against himself" as characters struggle to retain a "veneer of civilization" despite external pressures that threaten to release the "brute within."

Characteristics of Naturalism (cont.)

• introduced new topics and helped broaden the scope of American fiction--prostitution; exposure of social conditions and social evil

• common themes of survival, determinism, violence and taboo

• nature as an indifferent force acting on the lives of human beings. (as opposed to Romanticism)

Quick Quiz

1. Regionalism describes the speech, behavior, and attitudes in a particular geographic area.

a. true b. false

Quick Quiz

2. Realistic novelists rejecta. scientific explanationsb. dialoguec. accurate detaild. glorious heroes

Quick Quiz

3. Naturalists try to describe peoplea. sentimentallyb. idealisticallyc. objectivelyd. romantically