REALISM

1. REALISM THE REACTION AGAINST THE ROMANTICS: 1865-WWI

2. CONTRASTING PARADIGMS • Romanticism: • Present life as we would want it to be. • Realism: • Present life as it actually is.

3. CAUSES OF THE RISE OF REALISM • Reaction against Romantic excesses: • Emotion • Sentimentality • Idealism • Distorted reality

4. CAUSES OF THE RISE OF REALISM • Industrialism • Progress at cost of human dignity • Cogs in a machine: dehumanizing; thoughtless automatons • Low pay; no unions • Horrendous working conditions • Ghettos/big city slums • Loss of the American Dream • Rich get richer; poor get poorer

5. CAUSES OF THE RISE OF REALISM • Darwin and the theory of Evolution and Natural Selection • We are glorified apes—not created in God’s image • No soul or spirit: driven be same motives as animals • Nature is not divine or good • Natural Selection seems to justify destruction of the weak to feed the strong

6. CAUSES OF THE RISE OF REALISM • Science and Rational Thought reborn • Emphasis on objective, observable fact • Downplays imagination and intuition • Cold analysis over emotion: back to the Age of Reason in a way • Questioning of spiritual realms, God, that are beyond observable, empirical fact

7. CAUSES OF THE RISE OF REALISM • The Civil War • Death and destruction on an unprecedented scale • Causes questioning of God’s nature: • Why did He allow this if he is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving? • Causes questioning of human nature: • If we are good, why do we do this to each other? • Causes questioning of progress: • We seem to have just created better, more efficient ways to kill each other

8. TOTAL, OVERALL EFFECT • Disillusionment: beginnings of the loss of faith we see more profoundly later on. Loss of the foundations of our faith. • Pessimism: hard to feel good about God, people, nature, or the human condition • Cold analysis • Attempt to find something to use as a foundation: the everyday, the common, the physical: things we can be absolutely sure of

9. ELEMENTS OF REALISM • Ordinary, not extraordinary people • Middle or lower class • People you could meet on an average day: soldiers, farmers, teachers, grandfathers • Commonplace events and settings • Places you could actually see and visit • The near and familiar as opposed to the far away and exotic

10. ELEMENTS OF REALISM • All aspects of life are examined • Nothing is taboo: must represent life AS IT IS, even the ugly, the degrading, the uncomfortable • The Jungle: meatpacking industry • Descriptive detail • Describe people, places, things minutely • Focus on concrete, objective detail • Accuracy of description is critical

11. ELEMENTS OF REALISM • Accuracy of • Setting • Plot: “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offences” • Language: often written in dialect so that the actual sound of language could be rendered • Character • Plain, straightforward prose • Smaller words and shorter sentences: keep it simple and real.

12. ELEMENTS OF REALISM • Author as objective reporter giving us an unbiased “slice of life.” • Nothing ever is free of bias . . . • Psychological Realism • Render not just our physical appearances and actions realistically; also render internal mental and emotional aspects of people accurately. • Poe was wayyyy ahead of time here

13. THE CHALLENGE OF REALISM • Seems simple on surface: observe, report. • It is very difficult to observe accurately • It is very difficult to be unbiased • Most people live in a cloud of fantasy, illusion, and daydreaming: must cut through that. • Takes more skill than it first appears to be accurate, truthful, and objective