C. 1865—1900 TEXTBOOK P Realistic Period

Historical Context POST-CIVIL WAR  Increased industrialization and urbanization  Nation is trying to recover from the war – emotionally, culturally, and politically Flourished in Europe before emerging in America  Authors like Gustave Flaubert (Madame Bovary), Leo Tolstoy (War and Peace), Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities), and George Eliot (Middlemarch)  Dickensian (adj.) – suggesting poor social conditions and characters

Characteristics Emphasis on realistic, un-idealized, truthful depictions Writers explained the world as they saw it A reaction to Realism  Glorification of imagination became unappealing  Realists wanted to explore real human motivations, behaviors, and actions An expression of post-Civil War disillusionment  War destroyed the Romantic view of humanity – life is cruel  Photography enabled artists to capture life as it really was; writers wanted to emulate this

Representative Authors Kate Chopin  Portrayed realistic females (suppressed/discontent)  Believed the artist must be a rebel  “The artist must possess the courageous soul … the soul that dares and defies.” --The Awakening, 1899 Paul Laurence Dunbar  One of the earliest noted African American poets  Wrote in poetic verse but also used African American dialect to express the frustration of their post-war lives in an era of white dominance Edith Wharton  Member of upper crust New York society, just like her characters  Wrote about class division, social status, pursuit of wealth, etc.  Satirized the American aristocracy of which she was a member

Readings Short Story  “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1899) Poem  Excerpts from Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters (1915) Doc Hill Shack Dye Dora Williams Tom Merritt Mrs. Merritt

Short Answer Response Why are the selected poems and the story representative of the Realistic Period?  Support your answer with text evidence from at least one of the poems and the story.