Realism

1. Realism ALYSSA NAUTA COURTNEY JEHOICH DIANNA WILSON MATT GIMENEZ TERRANCE BROWN

2. Definition • Literary realism defined as “faithful and honest representation of reality” • the honest and object depiction of life

3. Key Elements • Lack of sentiment and idealism • Lacks the flowery language of traditional Romantic works • Contains a great deal of detail and imagery • Contains a straightforward narrative voice • Realist writers focused mainly on the lower and middle classes of society.

4. Stylistic Devices • Attention to detail • Straight forward tone to the story • Text lacks the emotion and glorification of Romantic work • Text is undistorted by personal bias • No hint of author/narrator personal tone • Contains a great deal of imagery • Uses the original voice or dialect of a character

5. Authors and Contributions • Willa Carter: • Works related to most women • Made universl statements of human condition • O Pioneers!, The Song of the Lark, and One of Ours • Mark Twain: • Brought ordinary American voices to life • Formed new sytle of literature • The Gilded Age: The Tale of Today, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer • William Dean Howells: • Comtemporary and sometimes controversial social themes • Based characters on ordinary people • A Modern Instance, A Hazard of New Fortunes, and Rise of Silas Lapham

6. Themes Writers Focused On • The attempt to present life objectively and honestly with lack of sentiment or idealism that colored early literature • The realist base their writing on careful observations of contemporary life, often on the middle or lower classes • Writing included authentic dialect to reveal class distinctions • Focused on social issues • Rejected the idealized Romantic hero

7. Views on Man and Nature • Man: competitive & self-interested  based on observation • Nature: Nature is centered around on how they (men) directly observe it

8. Characteristics of Heroes • Earnest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea” • F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” • Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” • Similarities • Differences

9. Culture • Many things that the United States inherited were from France • In the Romantic times women’s dresses were fussy and decorative, skirts became fuller • In the Realist times, compared to the Romantic times, is that women stared to show more skin and the hem line began to rise. • Art: • -In the Realist times, most paintings were of the working class, showing the struggles they had to pursue and expressing their honest lifestyles.-In comparison, the Romantic style of art had a strong emhacise and it evoked strong emotion. • Music and Dance: • Ragtime: • Scott Joplin

10. Ethics • Moral Realism • Two branches • Ethical intuitionism & ethical non-naturalism • Ethical naturalism • Moral Anti-Realism • Three branches • Ethical Subjectivism • Non-cognititism • Error theory

11. Political • Political realism in very selfish and only cares for the well being for ones self or state. • Corruption in the government ran rampant at the time • Lower classes and working class did not trust the government • Child labor laws and wage laws • Writers made commentary on the political climate in their literature

12. Spiritual • Leaving the Puritan train of thought and moving toward more of a science based standpoint    • Preferred to look at life objectively and question the world and society·      • Time of questioning and curiosity • There was a glorification of heroes (Romantic)  • There also was a strong belief in God and Puritan Views (romantic)

13. Intellectual • Intellectuals of the movement choose to be critical thinkers (first) • Philosophers include Pierre Proudhon and Karl Marx • Many of the beliefs were inspired by Rene’ Descartes and John Locke. • Thomas Reid (later) • Beliefs on reality: independence