Realism aims to provide a detailed and accurate depiction of reality, focusing on psychological depth and complex characters rather than plot-driven action. Naturalism applies scientific principles to the study of human beings, viewing them as governed by hereditary and environmental forces beyond their control. Regionalism or local color literature features distinctive settings, dialects, and character types particular to a specific geographic region. Both realism and naturalism accumulated precise details to convey slices of reality, while regionalism emphasized remote, nature-dominated locales and limitations they imposed on inhabitants.

1. Realism
The term realism applies specifically to the tendency
to create detailed, probing analyses of the way
"things really are," usually involving an emphasis on
nearly photographic details, the author's inclusion of
in-depth psychological traits for his or her characters,
and an attempt to create a literary facsimile of human
existence unclouded by convention, cliché, formulaic
traits of genre, or sentiment.

2. Characteristics of Realism
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Renders reality closely and in
comprehensive detail. Selective
presentation of reality with an
emphasis on verisimilitude,
even at the expense of a wellmade plot
Character is more important
than action and plot; complex
ethical choices are often the
subject.
Class is important; the novel
has traditionally served the
interests and aspirations of an
insurgent middle class.
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Diction is natural vernacular, not
heightened or poetic; tone may
be comic, satiric, or matter-offact.
Objectivity in presentation
becomes increasingly important.
Events will usually be plausible.
Realistic novels avoid the
sensational, dramatic elements
of naturalistic novels and
romances.

3. American Realists
Mark Twain
William
Dean
Howells
Henry James
Norman
Mailer

4. Naturalism
The term naturalism describes a type of literature that attempts to apply scientific
principles of objectivity and detachment to its study of human beings. Unlike realism,
which focuses on literary technique, naturalism implies a philosophical position: for
naturalistic writers, since human beings are, in Emile Zola's phrase, "human beasts,"
characters can be studied through their relationships to their surroundings.
Through this objective study of human beings, naturalistic writers believed that the laws
behind the forces that govern human lives might be studied and understood. Naturalistic
writers thus used a version of the scientific method to write their novels; they studied
human beings governed by their instincts and passions as well as the ways in which the
characters' lives were governed by forces of heredity and environment. Although they
used the techniques of accumulating detail pioneered by the realists, the naturalists thus
had a specific object in mind when they chose the segment of reality that they wished to
convey.

5. Characteristics of Naturalism
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Frequently but not invariably illeducated or lower-class characters
whose lives are governed by the
forces of heredity, instinct, and
passion. Their attempts at
exercising free will or choice are
hamstrung by forces beyond their
control; social Darwinism and other
theories help to explain their fates to
the reader.
Frequently uses an urban setting.
Nature as an indifferent force acting
on the lives of human beings
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Walcutt says that the naturalistic
novel offers "clinical, panoramic,
slice-of-life" drama that is often a
"chronicle of despair.”
The conflict in naturalistic novels is
often "man against nature" or "man
against himself" as characters
struggle to retain a "veneer of
civilization" despite external
pressures that threaten to release
the "brute within.”
An indifferent, deterministic
universe.

6. American Naturalists
Jack London
Stephen Crane
Theodore Dreiser
Frank
Norris

7. Regionalism
Local color or regional literature is fiction and poetry that focuses on the
characters, dialect, customs, topography, and other features particular to a
specific region. Influenced by Southwestern and Down East humor, between
the Civil War and the end of the nineteenth century this mode of writing became
dominant in American literature. According to the Oxford Companion to
American Literature, "In local-color literature one finds the dual influence of
romanticism and realism, since the author frequently looks away from ordinary
life to distant lands, strange customs, or exotic scenes, but retains through
minute detail a sense of fidelity and accuracy of description" (439).

8. Characteristics of Regionalism
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Setting: The emphasis is frequently
on nature and the limitations it
imposes; settings are frequently
remote and inaccessible. The
setting is integral to the story and
may sometimes become a character
in itself.
Characters: Local color stories tend
to be concerned with the character
of the district or region rather than
with the individual: characters may
become character types, sometimes
quaint or stereotypical. The
characters are marked by their
adherence to the old ways, by
dialect, and by particular personality
traits central to the region. In
women's local color fiction, the
heroines are often unmarried
women or young girls.
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Narrator: The narrator is typically an
educated observer from the world
beyond who learns something from
the characters while preserving a
sometimes sympathetic, sometimes
ironic distance from them. The
narrator serves as mediator
between the rural folk of the tale and
the urban audience to whom the tale
is directed.
Plots. It has been said that "nothing
happens" in local color stories by
women authors, and often very little
does happen. Stories may include
lots of storytelling and revolve
around the community and its
rituals.