1. Short Story: Naturalism & Impressionism
(Crane, etc.)

2. offbranch of Realism, with similar foci
NATURALISM
offbranch of Realism, with similar foci
applies principles of scientific determinism to literature:
NEWTON: mechanistic determinism: world runs by rational predictable systems; cause/effect
DARWIN: biological determinism: humans just other animals, distinguished only by sentience (self-awareness) and thought, but still ruled by biological needs (sex, food, shelter) and genetic proclivities
MARX: socio-economic determinism: history as battlefield of (economic & social) forces beyond individual control: class struggle/warfare, individuals act out of own interests
(FREUD, later): psychological determinism: humans controlled by subconscious drives (neurosis, psychosis, phobia, mania) they cannot control

3. “Nature” in Naturalism
Everything real (objects, actions, forces) exists in Nature—therefore, knowable through objective observations
No supernatural realities exist (goodbye God & heaven!)
Humans respond to environmental forces, internal stresses and drives they neither understand nor control
Humans as victims of environment, heredity, “Fate”
Human illusion of influence or control in their lives/world
Human illusion of comprehending or accurately “reading” the world

4. Nature’s indifference to humans Humans just other animals
frank/realistic portrayal of “human animals” driven by fundamental urges
Narrative does not take sides
Neither praises nor condemns humans for their actions (b/c beyond their control anyway)
Usually pessimistic about human capabilities: life as a vicious trap
Universe as amoral
Universe not out to get humans, but not out to help them either
“Fate” as metaphor for universal indifference: you simply get what you get
No design, no teleology; “fate” only after-the-fact

5. If Naturalism the idea, Impressionism the style/execution
Literary impressionism
Similar to Impressionism in visual arts (Monet, etc.)
Interested not in external notion of “objective” reality, but in actual physical appearance of a scene to the eye
Emphasizes immediate physical sensation over thoughtful conceptualization
Sacrifices external conventional description (where have time to think about details) for immediacy of confusing impressions (in the middle of experiencing a situation or scene)

6. visual impressionism portrays how the eye/mind actually “sees” (brief, small details immediately registered, not every plane in focus at same time)
literary impressionism depicts reality as actually immediately experienced (as a rush of events or emotions with cause-and-effect relations but no other deeper meaning unless interpreted and supplied by the reader)
Lack of coherence between elements and images reflects lack of moral concern for humans in mechanistic world
(later “Modernist” writers like Woolf, Hemingway, Steinbeck, etc. take this to even greater lengths)
Often, narrator exposition but not intrusion (b/c no moralizing commentary possible)