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American Realism. 1865 - 1910. Definition. Literary period in which writers focused on the faithful representation of reality. History of the Time. Post Civil War Rapid growth in Rates of democracy Literacy Industrialization Urbanization Expanding population due to immigration
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American Realism 1865 - 1910
Definition Literary period in which writers focused on the faithful representation of reality.
History of the Time • Post Civil War • Rapid growth in • Rates of democracy • Literacy • Industrialization • Urbanization • Expanding population due to immigration • Rise in Middle Class
Characteristics of Realism • Humanities freedom of choice is limited by the power of outside forces • Perceived the individual as simply a person • Realists were pragmatic, relativistic, democratic and experimental How will this affect the literature of the time period? (think of the literary devices and how they are used)
Characteristics of Realist Literature • Plot • Drew on the grim realities of everyday life • The middle class and the urban poor • Complex ethical choices • Events are plausible • Avoided sensational or dramatic elements • Setting • Close to reality • Comprehensive detail
Characters • Characters are more important than action or plot • Have an important ethical decision to make • Characters appear in real complexity of temperament and motive • Relation to nature, to each other, to their social class, and to their own past • Class is important • Usually middle class or poor • Characters spoke in regional dialect and/or diction
Other Characteristics • Relations between people and society are explored • Purpose of writing was to instruct and entertain • Language is not heightened or poetic • No allegory or symbolism everything was clearly communicated • Depended on the use of images • Tone may be comic, satiric or matter-of-fact • Objectivity in the presentation is important
Principles of Realism 1. Insistence upon and defense of "the experienced commonplace". 2. Character more important than plot. 3. Attack upon romanticism and romantic writers. 4. Emphasis upon morality often self-realized and upon an examination of idealism. 5. Concept of realism as a realization of democracy.
Henry James William Dean Howells Mark Twain Realist Authors
Techniques used by Realist Writers 1. Settings thoroughly familiar to the writer 2. Plots emphasizing the norm of daily experience 3. Ordinary characters, studied in depth 4. Complete authorial objectivity 5. Responsible morality; a world truly reported
Mark Twain • 1835—Missouri • Trained as riverboat pilot • Pen name: safe water • Humorist, lecturer, journalist, author • Nationally recognized in his time
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn • Written by Mark Twain • Finished in 1883 and ready for publication in 1884 • Set in St. Petersburg Missouri by the Mississippi River • Story of a young boy, Huck, and his adventures with a slave named Jim as he is travels to freedom
Characters • Huckleberry Finn - The protagonist and narrator of the novel. Huck is thirteen. • Tom Sawyer - Huck’s friend • Widow Douglas and Miss Watson - Two wealthy sisters who live together in a large house in St. Petersburg and who adopt Huck. • Jim - One of Miss Watson’s household slaves. • Pap - Huck’s father, the town drunk and ne’er-do-well. • Judge Thatcher - The local judge who shares responsibility for Huck with the Widow Douglas and is in charge of safeguarding the money that Huck and Tom found at the end of Tom Sawyer.
Charles Darwin On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for life. London: John Murray, 1859 Revealed the animalistic struggle underlying all human behaviour Madeleine Danova: Darwin's most famous book was at first envisaged as only a brief overview of his central case, that "species have changed, and are still slowly changing by the preservation and accumulation of successive slight favorable variations." Inevitably, it drew in a broad range of the issues and evidence he had been contemplating for so long. He began writing in July 1858, and the whole text, totaling nearly 500 pages, was in proof by the following September. By the time it was first offered for sale to the public, on November 22nd 1859, the first edition of 1250 copies (less review and presentation copies) had all been taken by the trade. Darwin's apprehension about public response to the book can be seen in his careful choice of the two epigraphs that face the title-page. 22
Naturalist Characters A thoroughly different sense of character emerges: - dehumanized - determined - moved by inner and outer forces beyond conscious moral control 23
Naturalist Vs. Realist Characters Realist characters - effective choice, free will, autonomous action Each character has the ability to choose and characteristically does so through scenes that enact a process of deliberation Weighing of alternative actions through consideration of consequences The possibilities for the self are conceived in terms of responsible choice 24
