American Realism

1. Thomas Charles Farrer (1839-1891), Mount Tom, 1865 American Realism 1850-1900 The Civil War and Post-War Period

2. Realists sought to accurately portray real life, without filtering it through personal feelings, romanticism, or idealism. Elements of Literature, 6thed (419)

3. Response to • Start of the Civil War • Rapidly growing cities and slums • Factories replacing farms • Corruption in politics • Sentimentality of Romanticism Children in Mullen’s Alley, photograph, Jacob Riis, 1888

4. Key Characteristics • Focus on ordinary man • Character emphasized over plot • Exploration of ethical dilemmas • Presents life as it is • No filter or rose-colored glasses • Sometimes awful and frightening • Rejects sentimental or sensational • Loss of optimism

5. Literary Characteristics • Verisimilitude: Present reality as reality • Uses language of people and places • Dialect: a variety of language distinguished from other forms of the same language by grammar, spelling, and vocabulary • Vernacular: plain, everyday language used by ordinary people • Tone often comical, satirical, or matter-of-fact

6. Satire What it is • Ridicules human folly, vice, shortcomings, etc. • Goal of shaming people, groups, society into improvement • Constructive criticism Characteristics • Often humorous • NOTE: Humor is not always satire; Satire is not always humorous • Uses techniques like irony, exaggeration, understatement • Varies in type of critique • Horatian: pokes fun at human folly • Juvenalian: criticizes human evils

7. Some Satirical Techniques • Exaggeration • Represent something beyond normal bounds • Subject becomes so extreme to the point of ridiculousness • Ex: Caricature • Incongruity • Things are out of place or absurd • Ex: Oxymoron, irony • Parody • Imitate another person, place, or thing • Audience must know the original to understand • Ex: SNL political sketches • Reversal • Present the opposite of normal order • Order of events, hierarchy, etc. • Ex: Dress like a teacher/student day