American Regionalism, Realism, and Naturalism

1. American Regionalism, Realism, and Naturalism 1860-1920(ish)

2. What is Realism? • A faithful representation of reality in literature, also known as “verisimilitude” (the appearance of truth, the quality of truth) • Emphasis on development of believable characters. • Written in natural vernacular, or dialect. • Prominent from 1860-1890.

3. Realism • Realism sought to portray life as faithfully and accurately as possible, focusing on ordinary people suffering the harsh realties of everyday life. It depicts ordinary people coping with everyday realities. • Authors included Mark Twain, Henry James, Edith Wharton, Willa Cather, and Dunbar • The Literature • Presented life objectively • Favored science and technology • Found meaning in the mundane • Focused on socials ills and social conflict

4. Elements of Realism • Rejection of the idealized, larger-than-life hero of Romantic Literature • Detailed depiction of ordinary characters and realistic events • Emphasis on characters from cities and lower classes • Avoidance of the exotic, sensational, and overly dramatic • Use of everyday speech patterns to reveal class distinctions • Focus on the ethical struggles and social issues of real-life situations • Sought to explain why ordinary people behave the way they do

5. Realist Writers • Mark Twain • William Dean Howells • Henry James • Edgar Lee Masters

6. Why did Realism develop? • The Civil War • The urbanization and industrialization of America • As a reaction to Romanticism • Increasing rates of democracy and literacy • The emerging middle class • Upheaval and social change in the latter half of the 19th century

7. What is Regionalism? • Often called “local color.” • Focuses on characters, dialect, customs, topography, and other features specific to a certain region (eg. the South) • Coincided with Realism and sharing many of the same traits. • Prominent from 1865-1895.

8. Regionalist Writers • Kate Chopin—South • Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman—New England • Mark Twain—West • Willa Cather—Midwest

9. Why did Regionalism develop? • Dual influence of Romanticism and Realism • The Civil War and the building of a national identity • An outgrowth of realism with more focus on a particular setting and its influence over characters

10. What is Naturalism? • Applied scientific principles of objectivity and detachment to the study of human beings. • Influenced by Darwinism (natural selection) and psychology (Freud) • Posited that individuals were governed by heredity and environment. • Often depict man in conflict with nature, society, or himself. • Prominent from 1880-1920(ish)

11. Naturalism-Focuses on people’s helplessness in the face of chance • Sought to portray ordinary people’s lives, but suggested that environment, heredity, and chance, or forces they could neither understand nor control, determined people’s fate. • Authors included Stephen Crane, Kate Chopin, Theodore Dreiser, Jack London • Man’s destiny was determined by heredity and natural selection, society, psychological impulses, and economic class • Created the representative, not the actual

12. Naturalism • Influenced by emerging disciplines of psychology and sociology • Attempt to analyze human behavior objectively, as a scientist would • Belief that human behavior is determined by heredity and environment • Sense that human beings cannot control their own destinies • Sense of life as a losing battle against an uncaring universe

13. Naturalist Writers • Stephen Crane • Ambrose Bierce • Jack London • Edwin Arlington Robinson • Katherine Anne Porter • Charlotte Perkins Gilman • Edith Wharton

14. Why did Naturalism develop? • The swell of immigrants in the latter half of the 19th century, which led to a larger lower class and increased poverty in the cities • The prominence of psychology and the theories of Sigmund Freud • Pessimism in the wake of the Civil War and Reconstruction • Publication of Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species

15. Points to Remember… • Realism, Regionalism, and Naturalism are intertwined and connected. • Their influence has dominated most literature created since 1920, though the movement itself is dated to roughly that point. • They are truly American modes of writing.