1. American Realism, Regionalism, and Naturalism
(ish)

2. Historical Context
The industrial revolution that took place at the end of the 19th century changed our country in remarkable ways.
People left rural homes for opportunities in urban cities.
With the development of new machinery and equipment, the U.S. economy became more focused on factory production;
Americans did not have to chiefly rely on farming and agriculture to support their families.
At the same time, immigrants from all over the world crowded into tenements to take advantage of new urban opportunities.
In the end, the sweeping economic, social, and political changes that took place in post-war life allowed American Realism to prevail.

3. Literary Movements
The writing of this period steered away from the Romantic, highly imaginative fiction from the early 1800’s.
The three main movements are known as:
Realism“Literature of the Discontent”
Regionalism
Naturalism

4. Why did Realism develop?
As a reaction to Romanticism
Invention of the photograph
Captured true life
The horrors and disillusionment of the Civil War
The war had destroyed the Romantic view of humanity
The immense cost of life from the Civil War caused Americans to focus instead on the hard realities of life

5. Why did Realism develop?
The urbanization and industrialization of America
rapid industrial growth in America (post-Civil War) and expansion (transportation improvements); change from agrarian (farming, rural) way of life to urban (cities) existence
changes brought problems: urban slums, farm issues, labor unrest
Increased diversity in the nation: farmers, Native Americans, freed slaves, Chinese and European immigrants--all faced problems
The emerging middle class

6. What is Realism?
A literary movement that developed towards the end of the Civil War and stressed the actual (reality) as opposed to the imagined or fanciful.
Also known as “verisimilitude” (the appearance or semblance of truth or reality).
Aimed to create the appearance of ordinary life and render the truth of everyday experience as individuals saw, heard, and felt it.

7. What is Realism?
Literary realism is a 19th century conception related to industrial capitalism. In general, it means the use of the imagination to represent things as common sense supposes they are.
In its literary usage, the term realism is often defined as a method or form in fiction that provides a “slice of life,” an “accurate representation of reality.”
Fertile literary environment
Rising middle class & literacy rates

8. What is Realism?
With increased literacy & democracy came a public hungry for truth & awareness
Realist literature showed multiple views of life: all classes, races, genders
Particularly lower/middle classes
Highlighting class stratification/inequity
Revealing the ugliness & cruelty of life, but leaving conclusions to the reader

9. What is Realism? Emphasized the development of believable characters.
Dark side of America
Abolitionism & post-slavery stories
Feminism & women’s rights
Origins of Muckraking journalism
Expose corruption, particularly political & corporate (continues today…)
Literature tried to do the same
Emphasized the development of believable characters.
Written in natural vernacular, or dialect.
Prominent from

10. Realist Writers Mark Twain William Dean Howells Henry James
Edgar Lee Masters
O. Henry
Kate Chopin
Charlotte Perkins Gilman

11. What is Regionalism? Often called “local color” because
it sought to capture the essence of life in the various regions of our growing country
it focused on local cultures/customs, beliefs, characters, regional dialect/speech, landscape/topography, and other features specific to a certain region (i.e. the South)

12. What is Regionalism?
Coincided with and is considered part of Realism because they shared many of the same traits.
An outgrowth of realism with more focus on a particular setting and its influence over characters
Depicted ordinary people and everyday places around them.
Prominent from

13. Why did Regionalism develop?
The Civil War, Industrialization, and the building of a national identity resulted in a need for preserving the regional
the industrial revolution called for standardization, mass production of goods and streamlined channels of distribution.
America was leaping into a new modern age and people feared that local folkways and traditions would be soon forgotten.
Responding to these sentiments, realistic writers set their stories in specific American regions, rushing to capture the "local color" before it was lost.
It presented a nostalgic mood of a time before mass production and noisy urban life.

14. Why did Regionalism develop?
Additionally, not all of the new writers of this time period were educated in the East, as most previous American writers had been.
Many came from the South, Midwest, or West and therefore did not present the unusual characters and exotic settings familiar to Romanticist writing.
Instead, Regionalist writers wrote about what they saw and knew: everyday life where they lived.

15. Regionalism and Local Color
Although the terms regionalism and local color are sometimes used interchangeably, regionalism generally has broader connotations.
Whereas local color is often applied to a specific literary mode that flourished in the late 19th century, regionalism implies a recognition from the colonial period to the present of differences among specific areas of the country.
Additionally, regionalism refers to an intellectual movement and reemergence of regional consciousness beginning in the 1930s .

16. Regionalist Writers Kate Chopin—South
Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman—New England
Mark Twain—West
Willa Cather—Midwest

17. What is Naturalism?
An extreme form of Realism which arose in the late 19th / early 20th century.
Authors emphasized the roles of heredity, environment, and outside (economic, social, and natural) forces on human characters.
Narrators are often objective and detached.
Influenced by Darwinism (natural selection- “survival of the fittest”) and psychology (Freud)
Focuses on the idea of determinism (a concept that human beings do not have free will)
Often depicts man in conflict with nature, society, or himself.
Usually dreary in tone

19. Nature rules!

20. Why did Naturalism develop?
Pessimism in the wake of the Civil War and Reconstruction
The swell of immigrants in the latter half of the 19th century, which led to a larger lower class and increased poverty in the cities
The prominence of psychology and the theories of Sigmund Freud
Publication of Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species

21. Naturalist Writers Stephen Crane Ambrose Bierce Jack London
Edwin Arlington Robinson
Katherine Anne Porter
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Edith Wharton

22. Points to Remember…
Realism, Regionalism, and Naturalism are intertwined and connected. (Most Realist authors are either Regionalist or Naturalist)
However:
The realist believes that people can choose a direction in life and make choices to shape it.
The regionalist depicts the mood of society in a particular region and culture.
The naturalist believes that human life is determined by heredity and environment – individuals are without free will and trapped in predestined lives that they cannot change.
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.