The Realistic Period

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The Realistic Period
1865-1900
By Sarah Lai Eileen Maguire
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Characteristics

Great amount of attention paid to
detail. Selective presentation of
reality Novels avoid sensational , dramatic
elements of naturalistic novels and
romances. Usually serves interest to rebellious
middle class Character is more important that
action or plot. Complex ethical choices are often
the subject Diction is common (not poetic, may
be comical) Emphasis on authenticity Events
usually plausible
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Themes

• Realism is a realization of democracy
• Setting is usually here and now
• Most of the writing stems from a journalistic
  documentary style (period of yellow journalism)
• Associated with Southern writers (Twain,
  Faulkner)
• Present day- not futuristic or historical.
• Understanding of social problems of the time

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Historical Events

• 1865 Ku Klux Klan formed US Civil War ends
  (May 26) Lincolns assassinationProgressive
  Income Tax created Equal pay for women
• 1866 Civil Rights Act of 1866
• 1867 Wyoming grants full suffrage to
  womenNebraska becomes a state
• 1869 15th Amendment secures votes for blacks
• 1875 Civil Rights Act of 1875
• 1879 Albert Einstein born
• 1896 Plessy vs.- Ferguson separate but equal
  accommodations for blacks and whites

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Music

• James A. Bland Carry Me Back to Old Virginny
• John Philip Sousa Stars and Stripes
• Ben Harney populizes Ragtime in NY
• Creole Show performances end
• 1891 Carnegie Hall opens in NYC
• 1880 Tchaikovsky writes 1812 Overture
  commemorating Russias defeat of Napoleon John
  Paines symphony In Spring debuts in Cambridge
  Mass. Was the first symphony published in US
• 1876 Tchaikovsky completes Swan Lake

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• 1886 Underwater Torpedo- Robert Whitehead
• 1876 Telephone- Alexander Graham Bell
• 1887 Celluloid Film- H.W. Goodwin
• 1894 Cinematograph- Louis Lumiere

Technology
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Architecture

• 1870 Ornate Second Empire architectual style
  reflects booming American economy
• Trinity Church- heralds the beginning of the true
  American style of Richarsonian Romanesque
• 1876 Centennial causes wave of nostalgia

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More Architecture
Harvard-1870
George Lord Little House, Kennebunkport, ME
HH Richardson Trinity church Boston, 1872-1877
Mullet building, Washington D.C
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Literature

• 1866 Louis Alcott Jos Boys
• 1869 Harte Outcasts of Poker Flats
• 1870 Crane Maggie a Girl of the Streets
• 1871 Dreiser (birth) Sister Carrie
• 1880 Henry Adams John Randolf
• 1883 Mark Twain Life on the Mississippi
• 1892 Walt Whitman dies wrote On the Beach at
  Night
• 1897 Ernest Hemingway (birth)
• 1899 Hemingway I Like Canadians
• 1899 Kate Chopin The Awakening

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More on Literature

• The Awakening (Chopin) One of the most powerfully
  upsetting novels written by an American. forces
  attention upon reader.
• Maggie a Girl of the Streets (Crane) Story of a
  slum girl driven to brutal excesses by poverty
  and loneliness. Considered so sexually frank and
  realistic that the book was at first privately
  printed.
• Sister Carrie (Dreiser) The story of Carrie
  Meeber, and ordinary girl who rises from a low
  paid away journer to a high paid actress. And
  George Perstwood a member of the upper middle
  class who falls from his comfortable life style
  to a life on the streets. They earn their fates
  through random circumstance.

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Art

• 1866 Monet paints Camille
• 1875 Monet paints Boating at Argenteuil
• 1881 Picasso paints Bocklin Die Toteninsel
• 1883 John Singer Sargent paints Mrs. Henry
  White
• 1894 Matthew Corbett paints Morning Glory
• 1897 Rouseau paints Sleeping Gypsy

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More Art
1.Angel Abbott Thayer 2.Camille
Monet 3.Woman Preparing to Wash her sleepy
Child Mary Casatt 4.Boating at Argenteuil
Monet
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Prominent People

• Albert Einstein (1879-1955) Reinforced the
  Kinetic Theory and embraced the Quantum Theory
• Stephen Crane (1870-1900) Author
• Mark Twain (1835-1910) Author
• Ulysses S. Grant President during 1869-1877
• Rutherford B. Hayes President 1877-1881

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Fashion

• Evening dresses were cut with customary low
  necklines and short sleeves.
• Padding gave desired volume and height to a lady
• Daytime-full length skirt and high neck blouse
• Men-frock coat and morning suit, 3 piece lounge
  suit as an alternative for less formal occasions.
  Evening-dress coat with tailcoat

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more fashion
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END.