Literary Movements: 1860-1920 Realism & Regionalism

Previous Trend Before Realism American Victorianism (1840-1901) Form of escapism Idealizes and “romanticizes” life Setting: exotic or different from every day life Plot is not true to life Characters without faults Fanciful Faultless Archetypal: sweet, damsel in distress; dashing, young hero who prevail; evil villains who ultimately lose Themes: romantic love, codes of honor, good vs. evil Happy ending.

Basics of Realism Docudrama: Life as it is realistic and factual descriptions social conditions as they actually are not romanticized or idealized No omniscient narrator; instead an unreliable and uncertain narrator. Character study of the ordinary man in his everyday life. Absence of God. Focus on the tangible and real.

Basics Life is unhappy and full of hardships. No happy endings. More descriptive and less symbolic—life as it is. Strong attention to detail.

Characters Realism rests more upon the strengths of its characters than the plot. Characters are… psychologically complicated multifaceted and dynamic Have conflicting impulses and motivations. Show the daily tribulations (troubles, suffering) of being human.

Influences Literary shift due to a changing nation. Industrialization and urbanization led to dramatic economic and social changes. Large divide between the rich and the poor. Literature to reflect the lives of “real” people.

Author’s Purpose Expose the less admirable side of human nature. Expose the abuses, crimes, and corruption of society. Promote social change; reform and fix. Help society.

Regionalism Capture Local color/atmosphere. Attention to detail: specific landscapes, dress, dialect Use of regional colloquialisms or colloquial dialect (words or phrases employed in conversation), jargon, and slang. Capture attitudes of people and way of life in a specific region. Story is so specific to a region that it cannot be set in any other place or with any other individual than a “native” to that area.

Naturalism Contains all elements of realism (true to life, unhappy ending, focus on the common man), but it is an extreme form of realism. Naturalist writers used Charles Darwin and his scientific research for the basis of their stories. Natural Selection (some animals are naturally selected to survive due to their biology and skill set, while others are not. Survival of the Fittest (the weak die and the strong survive) Using a scientific perspective enabled writers to write a story that reflected life as it is. The stories were realistic and factual. Setting = outside landscape that is an uncaring harsh natural world. Man is not superior to this environment Man vs. Nature is a main conflict (usually it is a losing battle for man since nature is a force to be reckoned with). Positive Note: Naturalist writers incorporate some level of harmony; for example, they like to show that we are all part of a larger closed system that is cyclical.