American Realism, Naturalism, and Regionalism: Depicting Post-Civil War America

1. Realism, Naturalism and Regionalism Entering the Twentieth Century in the USA

2. The Civil War 1861-1865 • The Civil War left Americans feeling uncertain about the future. • 615,000 Americans killed • 410,000 Americans wounded • 10 % of all Northern males died in the war • 30% of all Southern males died in the war

3. Remember the Romantics? • Believed in the individual, emphasized the imagination, emotions, and creativity, etc. • Realist writers turned away from Romanticism and Transcendentalism with their emphasis on the fantastic, the imaginative, and our need for harmony.

4. Historical Context • Americans had a hard time appreciating the beauty of nature as the Romantics and Transcendentalists did because they had seen the horrors of war and the assassination of President Lincoln • As a result of the Civil War, the assassination of Lincoln, and the expansion of the American West, the ideals of the transcendentalists (Emerson and Thoreau) and the Romantics (Poe, Longfellow, Bryant) were rejected for a more rugged, realistic version of reality.

5. Three New Literary Movements- All Connected • Realism- any effort to offer an accurate and detailed portrayal of actual life based on careful observation of life (often focused on middle & lower classes) • Regionalism- accurately represents the speech, manners, habits, history, folklore, and beliefs of people in specific geographic areas • Naturalism- offshoot of Realism; sought to describe people and events realistically; emphasizes how instinct and environment influence human behavior

6. Realism • 1865-1910 • Reaction against Romanticism • Turned from strange things to ordinary things (a slice of life and how life is really lived) • Realistic writers sought to portray ordinary life as real people live it: factory workers, politicians, gunfighters and cowboys.

7. Realistic Writers • Realistic writers attempted to show characters in an “objective, almost factual way.” • They “tried to find meaning in the commonplace.” • Finds the drama and tension beneath the ordinary surface of life • Believed that humanity’s freedom of choice is limited by the power of outside forces • Realist authors are more descriptive than symbolic.

8. Realistic Writers • Bret Harte

9. Realistic Writers • Mark Twain

10. Regionalism • Accurately represents the speech, manners, habits, history, folklore, and beliefs of people in specific geographic areas • Regionalism is often referred to “local color” • Such writers use regional dialect. • They use vivid descriptions of the landscape. • They sought to capture the essence of life in the various regions of the nation, attempting to capture customs, dress, speech, and other local differences.

11. Regionalism • Because America was leaping into a new modern age with the industrial revolution (standardization, mass production of goods, etc.), people feared that local folkways and traditions would soon be forgotten.

12. Connection: Realism & Regionalism • Responding to these sentiments, realistic writers set their stories in specific American regions, rushing to capture the “local color” before it was lost. • Regionalism grew out of Realism

13. Local Color • Captures the special atmosphere of the area and its people • Often contains regional dialects, well-known places, customs, etc. of a particular area • Because of lack of communication and transportation, it shows how people lived in other parts of the country

14. Regionalist Writers • Bret Harte

15. Regionalist Writers • Kate Chopin

16. Regionalist Writers • Mark Twain

17. Naturalism • 1900-1914 • Extension of Realism • A reaction against the emphasis on the “ordinary” lives realist writers portrayed • Naturalist writers insisted that the extraordinary is real, too. • Instead of middle-class realities, naturalists wrote about the fringes of society—the criminal, the fallen, the down-and-out.

18. Naturalism • Were Darwinists—they believed that individuals have no choice in life because a person’s life is dictated by heredity and the external environment • We inherit compulsive instincts such as hunger or the drive to accumulate possessions, and then we are subject to the social and economic forces in the family, class, and surroundings into which we were born. • In other words, people are caught within the forces of nature or society that are beyond their understanding or control

19. Naturalism • The naturalists believed that one’s destiny is decided by heredity and environment, physical drives, and economic circumstances. • They believed that human beings had no control over events. • They also believed that human beings are at the mercy of nature and its brutal forces.

20. Naturalism • Facts-only approach (avoids idealistic solutions to problems) • “Brutal Realism” • The protagonist, subject to multiple compulsions, usually disintegrates, or is wiped out, by the end of the story. • Aimed at bettering the world through social reform (bringing a situation to the eyes of the public so as to improve it)

21. Naturalistic Writers • Jack London • The first American author to make a million dollars from his writing. • He was also known to drink a quart of whiskey/day, which caused him to have numerous accidents.

22. Naturalistic Writers • Stephen Crane

23. Naturalistic Writers • Ambrose Bierce Mexico—his actual death date and place are unknown