William Dean Howells

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William Dean Howells

• The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885)

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What is realism?

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When is an account "objective"?

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Realism

• "objective account of reality"
• Reality vs. Appearance
• Romanticism (Whitman) "rose-tinted view"

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Realism

• Narrative perspective detached, observation
• Third person narratives
• Characters' actions rather than thoughts or
  emotions

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Realist authors

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William Dean Howells (1837-1920)

• Writer dissecting social reality
• Narrative perspective detached, impartial
• Emotionally detached, almost cruel
• Characters as types, case studies

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The Rise of Silas Lapham

• Beginning journalist's interview with Lapham

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The Rise of Silas Lapham

• Journalist's perspective
• Detached observer
• Sensationalism
• Businessman as type
• Irony, perhaps envy
• Story more important than character (dissecting
  style)

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The Rise of Silas Lapham

• From rags to riches
• Farm, many siblings
• Hard-working mother and father
• Discovery of paint-mine
• Hard-working but naive

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Why does the narrative not focus on the rise of
Silas Lapham?
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From Rags to Riches

• The rise ("from rags to riches") is not described
• Beginning interview with reporter
• "rags to riches" already cliché
• Description of fall

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How would you describe a businessman as a "type"?

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"Businessman" as a Type

• Economic rise in reverse proportionality to moral
  integrity
• case study Silas' fall as a regaining of moral
  sense

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Case study vs. society

• Contrast new material wealth
• Vs. Social etiquette
• Neighborhood (Boston)
• Daughters marriage, good match
• Ashcan school (realist painting) William Glackens

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Society

• Economic wealth vs. etiquette, social norms
• Laphams vs. Coreys
• Changing roles of women
• Irene pretty, but not smart
• Penelope reads a lot

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Wealth vs. Social Etiquette

• Persis Lapham "now that they had acquired this
  wealth, they did not know what to do with it"
• Bad taste in architecture, painting, dress
• Tragically comic