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The Victorian Age 1837-1901

The Victorian Age 1837-1901. Realism and Naturalism . The Victorian Age encompasses the rise of two major literary movements: Realism and Naturalism. These movements were a reaction to the context of their time, but also to the Romantic movement from years previous.

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The Victorian Age 1837-1901

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  1. The Victorian Age 1837-1901

  2. Realism and Naturalism • The Victorian Age encompasses the rise of two major literary movements: Realism and Naturalism. • These movements were a reaction to the context of their time, but also to the Romantic movement from years previous. • As with Romanticism, an American counterpart would also emerge for Realism and Naturalism.

  3. Major Influences • The era is named for Queen Victoria, who ruled from 1837 to 1901. • During this time, Britain became the world's dominant empire. • New technologies such as vaccines, telephones and telegraphs, electric lights, and more irreversibly altered life for millions of people.

  4. Realism- Key Aspects • Signaled a shift away from the heightened emotion and drama of the Romantic period. • Sought to convey ordinary working people and situations without idealizing them. • “...report what happens, without comment or judgment.” Realist literature sought to reflect the world as it is. • Greater attention to detail and complex characters than before. • Less emphasis on traditional plot structures.

  5. Realism • Realist dialogue sought to reflect the vernacular of how people speak in real life, as opposed to the heightened language of the Romantics. • Characters shifted away from the symbolic extremes of Romanticism to a more muted and varied mix of “good” and “bad” characteristics. • Romantics often looked to an idealized past for inspiration; realists were more firmly rooted in the present-day. • Centered on novels more than poetry.

  6. Realism • Key British Authors: • Charles Dickens-- A Tale of Two Cities; Oliver Twist; Great Expectations • George Eliot-- Middlemarch • Key International Authors: • Gustave Flaubert (French)-- Madame Bovary • Leo Tolstoy (Russian)-- War and Peace; Anna Karenina

  7. Realism • Key American writers: • Mark Twain-- Huckleberry Finn • Henry James-- Daisy Miller; The Turn of the Screw; The Portrait of a Lady • William Dean Howells-- The Rise of Silas Lapham

  8. Naturalism • Influenced by Social Darwinism, Naturalists sought a clinical, unsympathetic depiction of humans. • Naturalist works were characterized by pessimistic determinism-- the idea that “persons are fated to whatever station in life their heredity, environment, and social conditions prepare them for.” • Sometimes viewed as a specific “type” of realism, rather than a separate movement. • As with realism, focused on novels over poetry.

  9. Key American Writers: • Jack London-- The Call of the Wild; To Build a Fire • Stephen Crane-- The Red Badge of Courage • John Steinbeck-- The Grapes of Wrath • Edith Wharton-- Ethan Frome • Frank Norris--McTeague • Theodore Dreiser-- An American Tragedy

  10. Key British writers: • Thomas Hardy-- Tess of the d'Urbervilles; Far from the Madding Crowd • George Gissing-- New Grub Street • Key International writers: • Emile Zola- France

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