2. Realism  Began after the Civil War as a reaction against the idealism of the Romanticists & Transcendentalists  The enormous loss of life from the war shattered many people’s idealistic attitudes  Writers began to focus on portraying “real life”

3. FFFFocus was on ordinary people and how they lived life AAAAttempted to show characters and events in an honest, objective, and almost factual way SSSStressed “sincerity” as opposed to the “liberty” of the romantic movement

4. Focused on  accurate documentation  Sociological insight  Accumulation of the details of material fact  Avoidance of poetic diction, idealization, exaggeration, melodrama, etc.

5. Focus Continued  Subjects were taken from everyday life (preferably from the lower class)  Reflected the interests of an increasingly positivist and scientific age

6.  Stephen Crane  (1871-1900)

7.  Ambrose Bierce  (1842-1914?)

8.  Bret Harte  (1836-1902)

9.  Willa Cather  (1873-1947)

10.  Kate Chopin  (1850-1904)

11. Naturalism  Resulted as an offshoot of realism  Applied many of the principles of realism  Major focus on how larger forces (i.e. nature, heredity, & fate) shaped individual destiny

12. Notable Authors  Jack London  (1876-1916)