Chapter 7 The Era of Realism and Naturalism

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Chapter 7 The Era of Realism and Naturalism

• from An Outline of American Literature by Peter
  B. High

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Moving toward Realism in Literature by 1875

• influence of French Realism (p.83)
• changed the relationship between literature and
  society
• novel had the power to become a political weapon
• In literature, realism gives us a picture of life
  as it really is. Story of realism deal with
  everyday problems that most people encounter.
  Sometimes the characters overcome their problems
  other times, they dont.

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William Dean Howell (1837-1920)

• created the first theory for American realism
  (p.85)
• Realism became a weapon against literary
  romanticism
• Realism became the mainstream of American
  literature
• The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885)

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William Dean Howell (1837-1920)

• The novelists might be the greatest possible
  help to us if they painted life as it is, and
  human feelings in their true proportion and
  relation.
• Novels should make you think . . . and shame you
  into wishing to be a more helpful creature than
  you are.
• Novels should depict business and businessmen
• Good realists should be interested in the common
  feelings or commonplace people.

5
William Dean Howell (1837-1920)

• A Hazard of New Fortunes (1890)
• became a kind of socialist, attacking the evils
  of American capitalism, its selfish competition
• art and the artist must serve the poor people of
  society

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Naturalism

• a term created by the French novelist, Emile Zola
  (p.87)
• used discoveries and knowledge of modern science
  to study human life
• people were not really free rather, their lives,
  opinions and morality were all controlled by
  social, economic and psychological causes

7
Stephen Crane (1871-1990)

• wrote Maggie A Girl of the Street (1893) at the
  age of 22
• characters are controlled by their environment
  (p.88)
• The Red Badge of Courage (1895), his greatest
  novel
• what you become is merely a matter of chance, or
  fate
• The Open Boat (1898)

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Hamlin Garland (1860-1940)

• had deep sympathy for the common people (p.90)
• his literature was a form of social protest
• Main-Traveled Roads (1891)
• life is determined by outside conditions and
  wrote to help improve those conditions
• described people, places and events in a careful
  and factual manner
• impressionistic way of describing, mixes
  emotions, colors, and sights
• a message behind these description the failure
  of the American Dream
• the forces of American capitalism had destroyed
  the individuals freedom

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Ambrose Bierce (1824-1914)

• loved to describe the terrifying events and
  strange forms of death
• skillful control of detail gives us a clear
  impression of the ironic fate waiting for a
  character
• An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

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Henry James (1843-1916)

• an observer of the mind, psychological realism
  (p.91)
• stream of consciousness the workings of the
  mind
• things happen to the character but not as a
  result of their own actions
• watch life more than live it
• What do they see? How do they try to understand
  it?
• The changing consciousness of the character is
  the real story
• interested in how characters respond to the
  events of the story
• events inside ones head can be dramatic

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Henry James (1843-1916)

• Early Works
• deal with his thoughts and feelings as an
  American living in Europe
• spent most of his time in England
• Roderick Hudson (1876), The American (1877),
  Daisy Miller (1879), The Portrait of a Lady
  (1881)
• contrasts American innocence with European
  experience
• drama is created by the mind

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Henry James (1843-1916)

• Mature Period
• characters talked about the different aspects and
  possibilities of the situations they are in
• drama comes from changing the way of looking at
  the world to another
• The Princess Casamassima (1886), The Ambassadors
  (1903)

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Henry James (1843-1916)

• theme 1 a study of single situation or problem
• studies one problem, the nature of art, from
  various points of view
• The Real Thing (1893), the problem is how art
  changes reality
• The Death of the Lion (1894)
• theme 2 unlived life
• the hero so afraid of life that cant really live
• The Beast in the Jungle (1903)

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Henry James (1843-1916)

• theme 3 introducing children to the evil and
  immorality
• What Maisie Knew (1897), The Turn of the
  Screw (1898)
• theme4 being an American was a great problem
• It is a complex fate, being an American.
• Americans are always being tested by European
  civilization and vice versa.
• the new possibilities of American civilization