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Naturalism

Naturalism. The Dark Side of Realism. Naturalism and Realism: Similarities. REALISM AUTHORS Whitman celebrates the common man (beauty of mankind) Twain entertains us with characters from the West (man as amusing creature) Bierce explores effects of mortality (man as mortal)

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Naturalism

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  1. Naturalism The Dark Side of Realism

  2. Naturalism and Realism: Similarities REALISM AUTHORS • Whitman celebrates the common man (beauty of mankind) • Twain entertains us with characters from the West (man as amusing creature) • Bierce explores effects of mortality (man as mortal) NATURALISM AUTHORS • Focus on ordinary people • Portray life truthfully and accurately • No neat patterns to life

  3. Naturalism and Realism: Differences • Darker view of the world (extreme realism) • Fate determined by environment, heredity, chance • Free will = illusion • Life = cruel joke

  4. NATURALISM: Principle Beliefs • Human beings = Human beasts • Humans can be studied through their relationship to their surroundings • Evolutionary Theory (Darwinism) • Scientific approach to subjects • Heredity + Social environment = Individual's actions and Personality Karl Marx (Communism) Charlies Darwin (Evolutionary Theory) Sigmund Freud (Psychoanalysis)

  5. NATURALISM: Subject Matter & Character Types • CHARACTERS • Lower Class • Poor, uneducated • Soldiers, criminals, homeless, prostitutes SUBJECT MATTER • Raw, unpleasant experiences that reduce humans to degrading behavior/conditions as they struggle to survive • Millieu (social environment) = commonplace, dull, unheroic • Life is not "owned" but "forced" on you • Existence = incomprehensible, purposeless

  6. AUTHOR FOCUS: Stephen Crane • Civil War: 1861 - 1865 • United States (Union) vs. Confederacy (11 secessionist states) • Costliest war in American history, RE: devastation and human lives • 600,000 men killed, at least as many injured • 20% of North's soldiers lost; 25% of South's • $4 billion worth of property destroyed • Wrote Red Badge of Courage • Henry Fleming (protagonist) is propelled by outside actions • Wants his own "red badge of courage" (wound) • Discovers he is actually a coward in battle (fear of death, failure, guilt)

  7. Stephen Crane Poem • A man said to the universe: • "Sir, I exist!" • "However," replied the universe, • "The fact has not created in me • A sense of obligation."

  8. "In the Desert" by Stephen Crane In the desert I saw a creature, naked, bestial, Who, squatting upon the ground, Held his heart in his hands, And ate of it. I said, "Is it good, friend?" "It is bitter -- bitter," he answered; "But I like it Because it is bitter, And because it is my heart."

  9. Stephen Crane: "An Episode of War" • Civil War vignette • How is it naturalistic?

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