1. American Realism, Naturalism, and Regionalism

2. American Literature The Puritan Era Age of Reason Romanticism Realism
Contemporary and Post-Modern Period
The Puritan Era
Age of Reason
Romanticism
Realism
Transcendentalism
Modernism
1946 – Present

3. What is Realism?

4. Romanticism vs. Realism
The trapper was placed on a rude seat which had been made with studied care…His body was placed so as to let the light of the setting sun fall full upon the solemn features. His head was bare, the long thin locks of gray fluttering lightly in the evening breeze.
The Prairie
James Fenimore Cooper
He was most fifty and he looked it. His hair was long and tangled and greasy, and you could see his eyes shining through…there warn’t no color in his face; it was white…a white to make a body sick…a tree-toad white, a fish belly white. As for his clothes, just rags, that’s all.
The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain

5. What is Realism? 1860-1914 faithful representation of reality
believable characters
written in natural vernacular or dialect
subject matter is drawn from real life experience
rejection of symbolism
and romance
settings are usually those
familiar to the author
focus on the middle class
Copyright 2001, The Multimedia Library

6. The Civil War and Realism
The Civil War was a major cause of the rise of Realism in America. The four-year conflict
destroyed cities, industries, and lives
left bitter memories and economic desolation in the South
Copyright 2001, The Multimedia Library

7. Technology and Realism
Technological advances also contributed to the rise of Realism in America.
Photography allowed people to see real images of war and poverty.
Telephones and coast-to-coast railways allowed more people than ever to hear about events that affected the nation.

8. Science, Education, & Realism
Advances in psychology, biology, and geology contradicted long-held beliefs about the nature of humans, the world, and the universe.
More people, especially women, minorities, and the poor, had access to an education and learned to read.

9. Social Changes and Realism
Industrialization led to overpopulation and poverty in the cities.
The Granger Collection, New York
Immigrants from strife-torn Europe arrived in great numbers.
Northern cities grew quickly and without planning.
Slums housed many of the new arrivals.

10. What is Regionalism? Type of Realism Often called “local color”
Focuses on characters, dialect, customs, topography, and other features specific to a certain region (e.g. the South)

11. Regionalist Writers Willa Cather Mark Twain 1835-1910 Midwest Midwest
Midwest
Mark Twain
Midwest

12. from “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain
And he had a little small bull pup, that to look at him you'd think he wan's worth a cent, but to set around and look ornery, and lay for a chance to steal something. But as soon as money was up on him, he was a different dog; his underjaw'd begin to stick out like the fo'castle of a steamboat, and his teeth would uncover, and shine savage like the furnaces.

13. Naturalism more pessimistic than Realism
writing inspired by hardships: war, the frontier, urbanization, environment, heredity, and social conditions
beyond the characters’
control - helpless to
escape their circumstances
poorly educated or lower
class characters
the criminal, the fallen, the
down-and-out
themes involving violence – survival of the fittest

14. Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Naturalist Writers
Kate Chopin
Stephen Crane
Charlotte Perkins Gilman

15. “A Man Said to the Universe”
“Sir, I exist!”
“However,” replied the universe,
“The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation.”
from War Is Kind by Stephen Crane

16. from The Yellow Wallpaper
By Charlotte Perkins Gilman 1892
If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency—what is one to do?
My brother is also a physician, and also of high standing, and he says the same thing.

17. Points to Remember…
Realism, Regionalism, and Naturalism are intertwined and connected.
Their influence has dominated most literature created since 1920, though the movement itself is dated to roughly that point.
They are truly American modes of writing.