1 / 19

Realism in American Literature 1865-1910

Realism in American Literature 1865-1910. American Literature. Contemporary and Post-Modern Period. The Puritan Era. Age of Reason. Realism. Romanticism. Modernism. Transcendentalism. 1600 - 1750. 1750-1800. 1800-1840. 1840-1855. 1865-1915. 1916-1946. 1946 – Present.

richardkjohnson
Download Presentation

Realism in American Literature 1865-1910

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Realism in American Literature1865-1910

  2. American Literature Contemporary and Post-Modern Period The Puritan Era Age of Reason Realism Romanticism Modernism Transcendentalism 1600 - 1750 1750-1800 1800-1840 1840-1855 1865-1915 1916-1946 1946 – Present

  3. So what is realism? Take a minute and define realism in one sentence

  4. Our Facebook fantasies

  5. Realism instead demands the truth

  6. What is realism? A brief overview

  7. Causes of Realism in Literature

  8. The Civil War • A nation divided • Interrupts Transcendentalism • Walt Whitman • Transition writer: late Transcendental poet, early Realist • Leaves of Grass • “O Captain, My Captain”

  9. Photography reveals realism A boy arrives at Ellis island (by Paul Thompson) Young Factory Girl at a thread-spinning machine in N.C. (By Lewis Hine)

  10. Historical Context • Population of the United States is growing rapidly. (1865 -1915) • Science, industry and transportation are expanding. • Literature also was growing, but most new writers were not Romantics or Transcendentalists. They are Realists. • The “Frontier” did not exist as before; its legacy changed and impacted Realists in its new form. • The aftermath of the Civil War meant that Americans were less certain and optimistic about the future. • The idealism of the Romantics and philosophy of Transcendentalists seemed out of date and irrelevant to many readers.

  11. Realism in American Literature • The purpose of the writing is “to instruct and entertain” • Character is more important than plot. • Subject matter is drawn from real life experience. • The realists reject symbolism and romanticizing of subjects. • Settings are usually those familiar to the author. • Plots emphasized “the norm of daily experience” • Ordinary characters

  12. Examples of Romanticism vs. realism “The trapper was placed on a rude seat which had been made with studied care…His body was placed so as to let the light of the setting sun fall full upon the solemn features. His head was bare, the long thin locks of gray fluttering lightly in the evening breeze. ” -The Prairie He was almost fifty and he looked it. His hair was long and tangled and greasy, and you could see his eyes shining through…there warn’t no color in his face; it was white…a white to make a body sick…a tree-toad white, a fish belly white. As for his clothes, just rags, that’s all. -The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

  13. Writers who embraced Realism • Stephen Crane • The Red Badge of Courage • Willa Cather • O Pioneers! • My Antonia • Bret Harte “Outcasts of Poker Flats” • Jack London • The Call of the Wild • Kate Chopin! • Story of an Hour • Desiree’s Baby • Mark Twain • Life on the Mississippi • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn • Sarah Orne Jewett • The White heron • William Dean Howells • The Rise of Silas Lapham • Editha • Henry James • Daisy miller

  14. Other voices in the age of realism • African American Literature • Drew upon the reality of life following the civil war and the abolition of slavery • Establishment of black colleges (Fisk, Morehouse, Howard, Talladega College • Jim crow laws • Ku kluxklan • Prominent black authors • Paul Laurence Dunbar (poet) • Frances Harper (Iola LeRoy) • W.E.B. Du Bois vs. Booker T. Washington (equity vs. compliance)

  15. Other voices in the age of realism • Native Americans • Reservations • Poverty, disease, dispossession • Protest literature • Helen Hunt Jackson brought native American’s plight to attention for American readers with her novel ramona(1885) and her tale of dispossession • By 1870s, Native American writers emerged • D.W.C. Duncan, John t. Adair, D.J. Brown, John Oskison, and many more

  16. Other voices in the age of realism • Latinos • Mestizo (Spanish, Native, Mexican) • Little desire to accommodate or become assimilated into “gringo” society and customs • Proximity to homeland (Mexico, Central and South America) • Corrido ballad tradition • Medium balanced dispossession and cultural conflict with Anglos • Usually anonymous • Sung (in Spanish, of course) • Jose Marti • “Nuestra America” (1891) Latina/o self determination

  17. William dean Howells The Dean of American letters “a sentry on the watch tower, straining for a first glimpse of approaching genius” (Dreiser in Heath Anthology 79)

  18. Literary Style and Concerns • Uniformity and diversity • “The art of depicting nature as it is seen by toads…and a story written by a measuring worm.” ~ Ambrose Bierce • Capturing the commonplace • For Twain and other authors, narrative voice is one of division – before and after war; conventions versus personal conviction • Writing in vernacular and local dialect • Local stories • Nature again

  19. Other Ideologies • God • Government • Education • Man’s Purpose in Life • American Dream

More Related