Explain characteristics of American Realism. Geared for 11th Grade. Information from Glencoe Literature-American Literature

1. M S . Y A E G E R
Regionalism and Realism
1880-1910

2. Literary Movement
 Post Civil War
 U.S rapidly changing
 Writers turn away from Romanticism
 Life as they saw it, not imagined
 Regionalism- the color movement
 Writers portrayed distinct traits of parts of the U.S
 Naturalism- later, more extreme
 Scientific objectivity the effects of environment and heredity
on character
 Darwinism

3. Areas of Study
 Realism
 Regionalism
 Naturalism
 Regionalism and Naturalism-subsections of Realism

4. Realism
 Honore’ de Balzac- father of Realism
 The Human Comedy
 90 novels-detail the panorama of French society
 Focused his work on all social levels
 Focused on the “faithful representation of reality”
 Believed the individual was simply a person
 Think of realists as almost pessimists

5. European Realism Leaders
 Gustave Faubert
 Leo Tolstoy
 George Eliot
 Charles Dickens
 All examined the psychology of human behavior

6. Realism
 European novelists examined the psychology of
human behavior
 Created characters who struggle w/ problems
readers could recognize
 U.S Realism
 Traced to disillusionment following Civil War
 War destroyed romantic view of humanity
 Presented life as cruel and never embellished

7. American Realists
 Kate Chopin and Women
 Criticized for her realistic portrayal of women.
 First American to write frankly about suppression and gender
roles.
 “The role of an artist is to be a rebel”
 Sometimes considered a Regionalist
 Stories depicted customs of Creoles and Cajuns in L.A
 Used their language to describe their lifestyles
 Made their world real and refused to judge their lives or
struggles

8. Feminist Movement Leaders
 Emily Dickinson
 Harriet Beecher Stowe
 Sarah Orne Jewett
 Kate Chopin
 Edith Wharton
 Ellen Glasgow
 Willa Cather

9. Paul Laurence Dunbar and African Americans
 Earliest African American poets to gain widespread
recognition
 Best known for use of African American dialect
 Reflect post-war lives of African Americans
 Frustrated aspirations in a society dominated by whites
 Struck a balance between European literary
conventions and African American folk culture

10. Edith Wharton and the Upper Class
 Characters inhabited the upper crust of New York
society
 Depict desires, prejudices, and foibles of her
privileged and affluent characters
 The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth
 Presents culture which devalues the individual in favor of
class divisions
 Social status
 Pursuit of enjoyable wealth
 Satire of the hypocrisy of the American aristocracy-of which
she was a member

11. Naturalism
 End of 1800’s
 Strongly influenced by Charles Darwin’s theory of
evolution
 People had little control over their lives
 Wrote about ordinary people; but focused on the
middle class and the poor

12. Edwin Arlington Robinson and Fate
 Felt “doomed” or sentenced for life, to the writing of
poetry
 Characters often loners or misfits; like Edwin
himself
 Creativity is misunderstood or simply ignored
 Focus on individual or individual relationships
 Tone; blend of irony and compassion
 Characters lives end in failure or despair

13. Jack London and Nature
 Helped support family with hard labor from age 9
 Sympathetic towards working class
 Convinced capitalist society was brutal and repressive
 Drawn to Darwinism
 Seen in many works such as
 The Call of the Wild
 The Sea-Wolf
 Spent time in Alaskan wilderness and the South Seas
 Stories demonstrate power of nature over
civilization

14. Stephen Crane and War
 War ended 6 years before he was born
 Used it as the subject of his works
 Red Badge of Courage
 Short stories express belief in the necessity of
courage, honesty, and poise in the face of an
indifferent universe
 “An Episode of War”- “Oh, well,’ he said, ‘I don’t
suppose it matters so much as all that.”
 After a young officer reacts to the loss of his arm

15. Wrap up
 1880-1910-Midwest, Great Plains, and West enriched
literature w/new kinds of American landscapes,
characters and styles of speech
 Realism-widespread effects, seen in journalism, film,
the novel, and painting.
 Challenged the conventions of Romanticism
 Redefined boundaries of acceptable content
 Beginning in the 1890’s-Naturalism shone a bright,
but harsh light on the human condition
 Presented life as brutal, losing battle between individuals
 Extremely diverse-crossing many cultural boundaries

16. Assignment
 Present author to class- from text book
 Focusing on literary techniques
 Language
 Story lines
 No Laptops