1. Post Civil War Era Literature

2. Historical Context
Population of the United States is growing rapidly – industry; immigrants looking for freedom and opportunity
Science, industry, technology, and transportation are expanding. Slavery becomes more important in the South.
The “Frontier” did not exist as before; its legacy changed and impacted Realists in its new form.

3. Historical Context Cont.
First half of 19th century – free states and slaveholding states; eventually leads to the Civil War.
The aftermath of the Civil War meant that Americans were less certain and optimistic about the future.
The idealism of the Romantics and philosophy of Transcendentalists seemed out of date and irrelevant to many readers – America had unlimited possibilities and wealth but also poverty – the view of life was bitter, harsh, and ugly

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

5. 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

6. Why did this literary movement come about?
A reaction against Romanticism
rejected heroic, adventurous, or unfamiliar subjects
The harsh reality of life and the Civil War shattered the nation’s idealism

7. Realism - Characteristics
The purpose of the writing is “to instruct and entertain”
The realists reject symbolism and romanticizing of subjects.
Subject matter is drawn from real life experience. It is historically accurate. Often times stories did not have happy endings
Settings are usually those familiar to the author.
Plots emphasized “the norm of daily experience” – everyday, commonplace things happened

8. Realism – Characteristics Cont.
Character is more important than plot.
Ordinary characters
Sought to explain behavior of people (psychologically/
socially)
Diction is natural, not heightened or poetic; tone may be comic, satiric, or matter-of-fact.

9. How did this literary movement succeed?
The Industrial Revolution
economic, social, and political changes that took place in post-war life allowed American Realism to succeed

10. Naturalism Literary movement that was an extension of Realism
Naturalism is more pessimistic (darker) than Realism.
The Naturalist writers believed that larger forces were at work: Nature, Fate, and Heredity.
Their writing was inspired by hardships, whether it was war, the frontier, or urbanization.

11. Naturalism - Characteristics
Characters:
usually ill-educated or lower-class
lives governed by the forces of heredity, instinct, passion, or the environment
the criminal, the fallen, the down-and-out

12. Naturalism – Characteristics Cont.
Themes
Survival (man against nature, man against himself)
Determinism (nature as an indifferent force on the lives of human beings)
Violence

13. “Literature of Discontent”
Along the lines of Naturalism, the social problems of this period were seen as a force to deal with.
Many groups, from women to freed slaves, started expressing their discontent with the way things were.
They started addressing these issues in their writing.
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14. Regionalism
Regionalism is all about “local flavor” or “local color.” The diversity of America is celebrated.
“Local Color” means a reliance on minor details and dialects.
They usually wrote about the South or the West.
More often than not, these stories were full of humor and small-town characters.
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15. Post Civil War Writers Stephen Crane Frederick Douglass Mark Twain
Kate Chopin
Elizabeth Cady Stanton