2. Characteristics of Romanticism: contemplates nature and
values feeling and intuition over nature's beauty as a path to
reason spiritual and moral development
places faith in inner experience looks backward to the wisdom of
and the power of the the past and distrusts progress
imagination finds beauty and truth in exotic
despises the artificiality of locales, the supernatural
civilization and seeks unspoiled realm, and the inner world of the
nature imagination
prefers youthful innocence to finds inspiration in
educated sophistication myth, legend, and folk culture
champions individual freedom delves into the psychological
and the worth of the individual aspects of good and evil and the
workings of the inner mind
3. The CIVIL WAR CONNECT: in a school of
Began at Fort Sumter in 1000 students, about 120-
1861 and ended at the 150 would have been
Appomattox Courthouse wounded or died during
in 1865, the 4-year period
Over 600,000 people Everyone was affected
died from battle, disease, During and after the
or poor medical care War, many writers were
disillusioned with
Romantic ideals
4. GROWING MIDDLE CLASS A MORE COMPLEX
(more literate public to read) WORLD called for more
URBAN realistic literature and art
INDUSTRIALIZATION A REJECTION OF
UPHEAVAL IN SOCIAL IDEALISM and
STRUCTURE and changing ESCAPISM – no clearly
class values defined lines of good and
evil
A DESIRE to understand and
give a voice to the suffering in -- less interest in escaping
the real world – to document into supernatural and
the reality of their imaginative stories
culture, history, society REFLECTED THE
CHANGING CULTURE
OF AMERICA
5. THE SWELL OF The prominence of
IMMIGRANTS in the PSYCHOLOGY and the
latter half of the 19th theories of Sigmund
century, which led to a Freud
larger lower class and Publication of Charles
INCREASED POVERTY Darwin’s Origin of the
IN THE CITIES Species
PESSIMISM in the A growing literacy and
wake of Reconstruction interest in fiction and
and journalism
CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUES
6. An attempt to be a true and faithful representation of
reality
VERISIMILITUDE
It comes from Latin verum meaning truth
and similis meaning similar
An attempt to present a semblance of truth, to be true or
real
7. Subject matter—ordinary people and events;
Purpose—Verisimilitude, the truthful
representation of life;
Point of View—omniscient and objective
Characters—middle class (class is important)
Plot de-emphasized
Focus on everyday life
Complex ethical choices often the subject
Events are made to seem the inevitable result of
characters’ choices
8. Use of the vernacular – or real language .
The language usually reflects social class,
educational background, culture
Events will usually be plausible, believable
Often an emphasis on the psychological
turmoil or nature of the character
Setting is important – characters are
connected to place and time, other
characters
9. Humans control their destinies
characters act on their environment
rather than simply reacting to it.
Slice-of-life technique
often ends without traditional formal
closure, leaving much untold to
suggest man’s limited ability to make
sense of his life.
10. Prominent from 1865-1895.
Coincided with Realism and sharing many of the same
traits.
Focuses on physical setting / landscape , putting
fictional characters into a real settings
11. Very specific details about the environment and how
the characters interact with that setting (Twain’s Huck
Finn)
the more specific they become with details of settings,
the stronger and more believable the characters
become – this allows the writer to tie in universal
themes and values held by the character that were
caused by the setting they are in to a certain region
(eg. the South, the West)
12. Characters are often STOCK or
STEREOTYPES
Use of dialect, or language specific to a
particular region or setting
Uses details that describe local food, living
conditions, dress, architecture, transportati
on, etc.
13. Narrator-- an educated observer from
the world beyond who’s often
deceived
Plot—nothing much happens,
revolves around the community
and its rituals
14. Dislike of change, nostalgia for an
always-past Golden Age;
Triumphant trickster or trickster
tricked;
Tall tale-tradition, conflicts
described humorously, larger than
life
15. Definition: A literature that depicts social
problems and views humans as victims of
larger biological, psychological and social
and economic forces.
NATURE or ENVIRONMENT determines
fate of a character
Scientific determinism
Psychological determinism
Historical determinism
16. Man has no direct control over who or what
he is. His fate is determined by outside
forces that can be discovered through
scientific inquiry;
Humans respond to environmental forces
and internal stresses and drives, none of
which can be fully controlled or understood
People are driven by fundamental urges like fear,
hunger, sex
The world is a “competitive jungle,”
17. Man is a victim of his inner and
subconscious self (Freud).
18. Man is fundamentally an animal,
without free will;
Governed by determinism
External and internal forces,
environment or heredity control
behavior;
Characters have compensating
humanistic values which affirm life;
Struggle for life becomes heroic and
affirms human dignity
Pessimistic view of human
capabilities—life is a trap
19. 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.
