Realism

Historical Background Civil War ( ) dashed Romantic hopes and sentimentality Nation was changing –Memories of the war were fading –Frontier was closing –Railroads connected the nation, the telegraph and telephone made quick communication possible. –Science & industry were making leaping advancements –The literary “establishment” started becoming more diffuse.

Industrialization Machines replaced by-hand labor, which drastically increased the speed and scale of manufacturing. As a result, the American economy entered a period of exponential growth. This is the start of the American Industrial Revolution. Along with the surge in strength of production, more and more people migrated from rural areas to the urban enclaves. Cities enlarged, living quarters shrunk along with personal (both physical and psychological) space. And yet, as people started working in large factories owned by giant corporations, their connections to their coworkers, bosses, customers, and even the product that they’re making became more and more impersonal.

Shifts in “The Establishment” As cities became the centers of the exchange of ideas, political power shifted toward the urban laboring classes due to their voting leverage. Because of the demagoguery of big-city bosses pandering to the urban underclass, confused voters elected big-shots that claimed to represent their interests but instead lined their own pockets. Thus began one of the most corrupt eras of American history. Despite the populist promises, power and wealth was concentrated in the hands of very few industrialists, bankers, and politicians.

Progress in Transportation and Communication In 1860, the fastest form of communication was mail delivery via the Pony Express. It got from St. Louis to San Francisco in 11 days. A year later, with the invention of the telegraph, a message could be sent in seconds. By 1900 there were more than one million telephones in the United States. The disparate sections of the Continental Railroad started linking up and operating around It expanded to ever wider territories until most of the country became accessible in a short amount of time. – It used to be that people listened to and read the messages from above—from the intellectual and political elite. –With the freedom to network and communicate amongst themselves, they formed their own distinct “hubs” of culture, art, and literary representation. The message no longer had to be filtered from above. –With the ease of travel, people were not bound to their birthplace anymore. This conversely instigated the urge to attribute distinct characteristics to the disparate regions of the U.S.

Beginning of Civil Rights The population of the U.S. doubled from 1870 to 1890 and the national income quadrupled. The Reconstruction Acts passed after the Civil War forced the South to protect freed slaves. However, with the withdrawal of the Federal troops from the South in 1877, the rights of freed blacks eroded. (Poll taxes and literacy tests kept them from voting, start of segregation, thousands of black Americans were lynched by white mobs in fits of vigilante justice for perceived transgressions.) More white women began entering colleges and the workforce. A new wave of immigration tided in after 1890.

Background, Cont’d Nation was becoming grounded in the faithful reporting of all facets of everyday life –Growth of investigative journalism –Rise of muckraking Journalism that exposed scandals in big business and government –Fascination with the camera and representations of “reality”

Realism Realism RealismRegionalism Naturalism

Realism Accurately portrays life without filtering it Characters appear in the real complexity of temperament and motive Vernacular diction Relies on insight and observation Close, observant detail Sought to explain why people behaved the way they did Relations between people and society are explored

Regionalism Captures the essence of life in different regions “ local color ” writing Uses regional dialect and vivid descriptions Can be sentimental about characters and social environment

Naturalism Human behavior is determined by heredity and environment Tended to be pessimistic Humans are subject to natural forces beyond our control Dissected behavior with detached objectivity

Genre American Author(s) Perceived the individual as... RomanticsRalph Waldo Emersona god Realists Mark Twain Kate Chopin Upton Sinclair simply a person Naturalists Stephen Crane Jack London Ambrose Bierce a helpless object Realists vs. Romantics