1. Realism / Naturalism

2. What does it mean?? --Stephen Crane
A man said to the universe:  "Sir, I exist!"  "However," replied the universe,  "The fact has not created in me  A sense of obligation."
--Stephen Crane

3. It’s Defined as… Realism Naturalism
representation of life as it REALLY was
According to William Dean Howells, "Realism is nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material“
Naturalism
An extension of Realism
Recognition of the environment/land
Determinism
a person's fate as the product of blind external or biological forces: relationship to their surroundings
Affect of the environment on the people

4. The Environment The years following the Civil War (1861-1865)
A time of “healing and rebuilding”
Immigrants from all over the world
Crowded urban cities due to opportunities
Growth of investigative journalism
Rise of the muckrakers
Journalists/novelists: exposed corruption in big business and government
Economic, Social, and Political changes!!

5. Politics and Economics
Civil War
North vs. South: Slavery
Industrial Revolution
Standardization
Mass production of goods
Streamlined channels of distribution
Gettysburg Address (1863)
President Andrew Johnson Impeachment (1868)
he refused to cooperate or compromise over black rights and the reconstruction of Southern state governments.
Senate failed by one vote—9 months left to term

6. What about lifestyle?
People left rural homes for opportunities in urban cities
Overpopulation
Pollution
Disease
Poverty
Modernization
Lots of changes
people feared local folkways/traditions would be forgotten
Newfound fascination with the camera
Capturing realities
Jacob Riis “How the Other Half Lives”

7. “The Other Half”

8. “The Other Half” (cont.)

9. Lifestyle (cont.) Social class became very important
One’s fashion identified his/her class
Surge of women’s magazines
50 new titles between alone
Increased advertising and consumerism

10. Jobs/Employment No longer solely agriculture and farming
Factory Production
New machinery and equipment
Factory workers
Steel mill workers
Transcontinental Railroad
Railroad workers

11. Finally, the literature!
Literary Civil War
Between Realists/Naturalists and Romantics
Avoids sensationalism, dramatic elements & symbolism of Romanticism
Character representations in relation to external world
How much control man has over his own destiny
Genre
American Authors
Individual Perceived as…
Romantics
Ralph Waldo Emerson
God
Realists
Henry James
Mark Twain
W. D. Howells
Simply a person
Naturalists
Stephen Crane
Frank Norris
A helpless object

12. Literature (cont.) Concentrated on select groups/subjects
Factory workers
Black life
Women and marriage roles
Very regional
Authors set stories in specific American Regions
Preserve “local color”
Incorporated dialects and extensive dialogue
Connected with the public

13. Literature (cont.) Drew upon grim realities of everyday life
Breakdown of traditional values
Plight of the new urban poor
Character is more important than action/plot
Class is important!!
Mark Twain
Stephen Crane
Kate Chopin
Frank Norris

14. Questions???