1. No More Romantic Sunshine & Rainbows…
American Realism
No More Romantic Sunshine & Rainbows…

2. Origins/Influences 1850/60-1890/1910
-Began during the Civil War & continued into the early 20th century
Reaction to idealism of Romanticism & Transcendentalism: CONTRAST
- Literary civil war!
Fertile literary environment
Rising middle class & literacy rates

3. Social/Political Context
Reaction to Civil War suffering
Invention of photograph
Captured true life
Increased literacy & democracy = public hungry for truth & awareness
Abolitionism & post-slavery stories
Dark side of America
Origins of Muckraking journalism
Expose corruption, particularly political & corporate (continues today…)
Literature affected: tried to do the same

4. Realism: Values/Beliefs
Contrasts with Romanticism/Transcendentalism
Describes life w/out Romantic subjectivity & idealism
Romantics transcend the immediate to find the ideal; Realists focus on the immediate, the here & now and its consequences
Present life as it is, not as it might be; thus, purpose of writing is to instruct & entertain
Multiple views of life: all classes, races, genders
Particularly lower/middle classes
Highlight class stratification/inequity
Reveal the ugliness and cruelty of life but leave conclusions to the reader
Like Romantics, progressive, but stimulated change through telling a story that reveals truth, not preaching (OBJECTIVE: left readers to draw their own conclusions)

5. Literary Conventions
Characters product of social & environmental factors
Often poorly educated or lower class
Renders reality closely & often in minute detail, even at the expense of plot
Settings usually familiar to the writer
Character more important than plot
Plausible events avoid sensational, overly dramatic elements
- However, some do explore the psychological journey as a form of subjective reality but in a negative way
Usually uses the omniscient point of view

6. Conventions Cont.
Natural vernacular/speech, not heightened or poetic (like the Romantics)
Written just as spoken
Tone is comic, satiric, or matter-of-fact
Considers seemingly ordinary & uninteresting characters/events in order to extract full value & true meaning
Simple stories far more complex than they appear
Realistically conveyed sexuality, both its dark and light sides….

7. Regionalism & Psychological Realism
Regionalism: focuses on small geographical area in attempt to reproduce speech & mannerisms
Psychological Fiction: character perspective—as “real” as any reality…

8. Naturalism Authors: Branch of Realism
Philosophical position: scientific laws control life
Heavily influenced by Darwinism
Natural Selection/Survival of the Fittest
Darker & more fatalistic (fatalistic = determined by fate not choice)
Lives governed by heredity, instinct, & passion: nature NOT nurture….
Forces beyond a character’s control restrict attempts to exercise free will or choice
More negative than other branches of Realism
Authors:
Jack London
Call of the Wild, “To Build a Fire”
Stephen Crane
Maggie: Girl of the Street
Henry James
Portrait of a Lady, Daisy Miller
John Steinbeck****
Of Mice & Men (debatable)

9. Famous Authors Mark Twain Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Stephen Crane
Red Badge of Courage, “The Open Boat,” “A Mystery of Heroism”
Upton Sinclair
The Jungle
Frederick Douglass
- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
William Dean Howells
Bret Harte
Rebecca Harding Davis
Kate Chopin
“Story of an Hour,” “Desiree’s Baby,” The Awakening