Realism

1
Realism

• 1850-1914

2
Historical Background

• America transformed from a decentralized,
  agricultural nation to a modern industrial nation
• Americans took up arms against one another to
  determine who should prevail North or South?
  Federal Union or states rights? Freedom or
  slavery?
• The North won, but at a devastating cost to the
  nation

3
Prelude to the War . . . The Fugitive Slave Act

• The disagreements between N/S was not new, but
  was rekindled in 1850 with the passage of the
  Fugitive Slave Act which required all citizens
  (free and slave states) to catch runaway slaves
• N/S began to compete for the virgin soil of
  Kansas

4
Uncle Toms Cabin

• Uncle Toms Cabin was published in 1852by
  Harriet Beecher Stowe.
• Caused more strife as it vividly depicted the
  cruelty of slavery
• Became a powerful anti-slavery weapon
• Then, Harpers Ferry took place in West Virginia

5
Harpers Ferry

• John Brown (an antislavery extremist) hoped to
  provoke an armed slave revolt
• He raided an arsenal at Harpers Ferry
• Attempt failed and Brown was executed for treason
• His death fed the controversy, and threats
  escalated

6
Union Is Dissolved

• Lincoln was elected in 1860 and dedicated to
  halting slavery
• After shots were fired at Ft. Sumter, everyone
  anticipated a short war ending in victory . . .
  however

7
The War

• The carnage of Antietam, where over 26,000 were
  killed in one day
• The starvation in Vicksburg where ppl survived by
  eating dogs and rats
• The destruction of Georgia
• The war was not short, but 4 years.
• Nearly 620,000 soldiers died and 500,000 were
  wounded.

8
The Aftermath

• A war-torn and weary nation (1865)
• Lincoln was assassinated before reconstruction
  and reconciliation the Union and days after Lee
  surrendered
• America began westward expansion, especially
  after Homestead Act (1862)
• First transcontinental railroad (1869)
• Native Americans forced from their land

9
Characteristics

• Focus on the lives of ordinary people rejected
  heroic and adventurous
• Anti-materialism rejected new class system
• Found meaning in the common place
• Stressed the actual as opposed to the imagined
• Literature from this period has been criticized
  as crude, base, and unimaginative

10
The Gilded Age

• Trappings of American life electricity,
  telephones, automobiles, notion pictures, and
  phonographs. Then there was mass production,
  skyscrapers, department stores, air pollution,
  crime, and slums
• Immigration fueled urban growth and cheap labor
• New extremes of wealth and poverty

The Gilded Age implies a thin veneer of glitter
over something of poor quality.
11
Literature of the Period

• Slave spirituals (work songs, war songs,
  lullabies, and laments)
• Harriet Beecher Stowes Uncle Toms Cabin was the
  1st book to sell 1 million copies
• Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave, published
  The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
  it indicts slavery
• Wartime voices from journals, diaries, speeches,
  and short stories
• Frontier Voices from journals, short stories,
  novels and poems

12
A New Literary Movement

• The harsh reality of frontier life, coupled with
  the reactions to the Civil War (shattered
  idealism) gave rise to Realism
• Realism began after the Civil War

13
Defining Realism

• Realism depicted realistic details of ordinary
  people (speech, dress, and behavior), loneliness,
  cultural isolation, and customs
• Writing from this period was presented as slice
  of life

14
Literature Cont.

• Frederick Douglas (1817-1895)
• -An escaped slave one of the most effective
  orators of his day
• -Influential newspaper writer
• -His autobiography reveals his life and
  courage- My Bondage and My Freedom

15
Literature Cont.

• The Frontier (1865-1915)
• -Mark Twain (1835-1910)
• -Samuel Clemens is thought to be one of
  the greatest American novelists and humorists
• -Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras
  County
• -Adventures of Tom Sawyer
• -Adventures of Huckleberry Finn-one of
  Americans most influential novels
• -Famous for using vernacular, exaggeration, and
  humor

16
Concepts

• Realism was a reaction against Romanticism told
  it like it was
• Realists viewed nature as a powerful and
  indifferent force beyond mans control
• Realists tried to write truthfully and
  objectively about ordinary people in ordinary
  circumstances and about things experienced and
  not about heroic adventures

17
Time Period

• Civil War brings demand for a truer type of
  literature that doesnt idealize people or places
• People in society are defined by class
• A reflection of Darwin (survival of the fittest)
  and Marx (how money and class structure control a
  nation)

18
Time Period

• What information have you learned in history that
  could have influenced the realist writers?

19
Naturalism

• A offshoot of Realism
• Depicts real people in real situations
• BUT believed larger forces (ie. nature, fate,
  heredity) shaped ones destiny
• So, despite aims to change a specific social
  problem, nature always wins
• Heredity, environment, physical drives, and
  economic circumstances decide ones destiny
• Hence, people have no control over events or
  lives.
• Freewill is an illusion

20
Naturalism- Concepts

• The naturalist writer dissects human behavior
  objectively like a scientist. The characters
  have limited choices and motivations and live by
  instinct.
• Dominant themes survival, fate, violence,
  nature as an indifferent force

21
Naturalism- Literature

• Stephen Crane
• -Crane attacked patriotism, individualism,
  organized religion
• -Cranes writing is known for its images and
  symbols
• -Red Badge of Courage- most famous (set in
  Civil War)
• -An Episode of War

22
Naturalism- Literature Cont.

• Jack London
• -Pushed Naturalism to its limits
• -Call of the Wild (tame dog forced to revert
  to his original primitive state)
• -To Build a Fire (survival of the fittest)

23
Regionalism

• Characteristics
• Uses regional dialect
• Uses vivid description of the landscape
• Uses local color to highlight characteristics and
  details unique to a specific area
• Captures physical environment
• Captures mood of the time and place
• Depicts the ways in which people talk and how
  they think.

24
Regionalism- Time Period

• Extension of Realism
• Literature of the period
• -Bret Harte (1836-1902)
• -Outcasts of Poker Flat
• -Kate Chopin (1851-1904)
• -The Awakening
• -Willa Cather (1873-1947)
• -A Wagner Matinee
• -won Pulitzer Prize