1. American Realism 1865 - 1910

2. What is Realism? Portraying everyday life without altering it through: – personal feelings – romanticism – idealism Detailed description

3. What is Realism? Cont’d Relations between people and society are explored The purpose of writing - to instruct and to entertain. A realization of democracy

4. Subcategories of Realism Regionalism Local Color

5. Regionalism One small region of the country Use of dialect Use of specific mannerisms, customs, traditions, and actions common to the region Origins in oral storytelling

6. Local Color Created for mass consumption Stories about simpler times and faraway places. The South - an idealization of the way things were before the war The West - influence of romanticism and realism

7. Common Features Characters Narrator Setting Plot Style

8. Characters Character is more important than action and plot Often must make hard ethical choices Class is important; especially low to middle class Stereotypes/stock characters

9. Narrator Sometimes sympathetic, sometimes objective, sometimes ironic distance from characters Role as a mediator Use of Frame Story

10. Setting Small town Small region Emphasis on the basic surroundings and the commonplace

11. Plot Characters and description often take precedent over plot

12. Style Dialect use Diction is not heightened or poetic Tone may be comic, satiric, or matter- of-fact. The use of symbolism is controlled and limited Dependence on images

13. Right Time…Right Place Industrial Revolution Post-Civil War Environment

14. Putting Things in Perspective GenreAmerican AuthorsPerceived the Individual as … TranscendentalismRalph Waldo Emerson Henry David Thoreau Powerful, a master of his destiny RealismMark Twain Kate Chopin Simply a person