Realism 18651915

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Realism 1865-1915
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Historical Context What lead to Realism?

• After the Civil War Americans were concerned with
  their future abolishing a believe in unity with a
  national purpose.
• The population of the country increased
  significantly.
• Because of new technology, traveling within the
  country became an easy thing to do. Therefore,
  many traveled since they wanted to learn more
  from other people.

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• Because of the Civil War, young writers felt that
  the hopes and ideals of writers like Emerson did
  not fit the circumstances of the time.
• Therefore, they turned away from Romanticism
  which had been so popular before the war and
  imposed Realism instead.

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However

• Realism was also a product of European influence.
  
• Before Realist authors in America emerged, there
  had been realistic writers in France (i.e.
  Balzac, Stendhal and Flaubert. )

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What is Realism?

• A literary movement that sought to portray
  ordanary life as real people live it and
  attempted to show characters and events in an
  objective, almost factual way.
• Realistic objectivism rejected the romantic
  subjectivis.
• Realism is still present in contemporary
  literature.

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• Realism perceived the individual simply as a
  person. This contradicted the views of the
  romantics and the naturalists of the human being.
  This is because the romantics idealized the human
  being they saw him as a God. On the other hand
  naturalists saw the individual as a helpless
  being as a victim of all the elements that
  surrounded him.

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CHARACTERISTICS
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Plot and Character

• Character is more important than action and plot
  complex ethical choices are often the subject.
• Characters appear in the real complexity of
  temperament and motive they are in explicable
  relation to nature, to each other, to their
  social class, to their own past.
• Humans control their destinies characters act on
  their environment rather than simply reacting to
  it.
• Renders reality closely and in comprehensive
  detail.  Selective presentation of reality with
  an emphasis on verisimilitude, even at the
  expense of a well-made plot.
• Events will usually be plausible.  Realistic
  novels avoid the sensational, dramatic elements
  of naturalistic novels and romances.
• Class is important the novel has traditionally
  served the interests and aspirations of an
  insurgent middle class.
• Realistic writers could deal honestly with
  characters that a romantic writer would avoid
  factory workers, bosses, politicians, gun
  fighters.

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Structure of Prose

• Diction is the natural vernacular, not heightened
  or poetic tone may be comic, satiric, or
  matter-of-fact.
• The use of symbolism is controlled and limited
  the realists depend more on the use of images.
• Objectivity in presentation becomes increasingly
  important overt authorial comments or intrusions
  diminish as the century progresses.