Age of Realism

7/31/2019 Age of Realism

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THE REAL AMERICA


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The Age of Realism

What is character but the determination of

an incident? What is the incident but theillustration of Character?

Henry James


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Realism

Begins in France, as realisme, a literarydoctrine calling for reality and truth in the

depiction of ordinary life.

Grounded in the belief that there is an objectivereality which can be portrayed with truth andaccuracy as the goal;

The writer does not select facts in accord withpreconceived ideals, but rather sets downobservations impartially and objectively.


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1881- HenryJames PublishesPortrait of a Lady

1881-Clara BartonFounds the Red

Cross

1881- Booker TWashingtonFound the

Tuskegee Institute

1884- Mark Twainpublishes

Huckleberry Finn

1883-BrooklynBridge built

1894- KateChopin Publishes

Bayou Folk

1885 firstSkyscraper built in

Chicago

First GasPowered

Automobile

1894- StephenCrane publishesRed Badge of

Courage

1890- Massacreat Wounded Knee

1895 X RayDiscovered

1896 First ModernOlympics

1900- TheodoreDreiser publishes

Sister Carrie

1898- SpanishAmerican War

1899- AspirinInvented

1903 WrightBrothers fly first

plane

1906- UptonSinclair publishes

The Jungle

1905- AlbertEinstein

formulates theTheory ofRelativity

1910-JaneAdams publishesTwenty Years at

Hull House

Henry Ford Buildsfirst Model T and

The Assembly line

Sigmund FreudPublishes The

Origin andDevelopment ofPsychoanalysis

1913-Willa CatherPublishes O

Pioneers1912- HMS

Titanic Sinks

1914-Dr. AlbertScweitzer opens

clinic in Africa1914 WWI Begins


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The Age of Realism:Marked by the End of the Civil War:1861-1865

Cost of the Civil War The Human Cost

1,094,543 Casualties

The North lost one out of ten 110,100 in battle

224,580 to disease

The South lost one out of four 94,000 in battle

64,000 to disease

Two percent of US population died in the Civil War, with onlyWWII claiming more lives;

Economic Cost

Estimated at 6.6 billion, which would be 165 billion today


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The Effects of The IndustrialRevolution

Migration from rural to urban areas

Independent, skilled workers replacedby semi-skilled laborers;

Large corporations were established,devaluing the personal relationshipbetween management and workers or

company and customers.


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Mass Communication and Migration

Coast-to-coastcommunication Pony Express (1860)10

daysTelegraph (1861)justseconds to communicate

across countryTransatlantic telegraphcable (1866) allowed instantcommunicate with Europe

Telephone patented (1867)By 1900, 1.3 million

telephones in U.S.Coast-to-coast travel

Transcontinental Railroad(1869)By 1889, coast-to-coasttravel4 days


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Other Social Changes

Migration westward expanded the U.S. from theAtlantic to the Pacific Native American populations displaced and subjugated;

Growth of Industry

Steelmaking, the nations dominant industry Alternating electrical current (1886)

American petroleum industry begins

Growth of population Total population doubled from 1870 to 1890

National income quadrupled

Gap between rich and poor widened


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INTELLECTUAL

REVOLUTION: CHANGES IN

THINKING BROUGHT

ABOUT BY CHANGES INSOCIETY

Changes in scienceChanges in psychologyChanges in philosophy


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Science: Charles Darwin

Published The Origin ofSpecies,

Hypothesized that man is theproduct of evolution,

Man is special not becauseGod created him in Hisimage, but because man had

successfully adapted tochanging environmental

conditions and had passed on his

survival-makingcharacteristics to his progeny.


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Psychology: Sigmund Freud

Believed that the mindcould be understood interms of repressed

urges, usually sexual;

Theorized anunconscious system ofideas that governs

human reactions andresponse;

Id, Ego, and Super-ego


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Philosophy: Karl Marx

Explained humanhistory as the resultof class struggles;

Human identity isdefined by socialcontext;

It is human nature totransform nature.


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Philosophy: American

Pragmatism

Truth is tested by itsusefulness or practicalconsequences;

Truth is a commodityaccessible on the surface ofthings;

Its perceptible to the sensesand verifiable throughexperience;

Permanent truths exist apartfrom the material worldthemind of God, Platos idealforms

William James


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REGIONALISM ANDLOCAL COLOR

Mark Twain and Willa Cather


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A Reaction against Romanticism

Authors sought toportray life as they

saw it, insisting thatthe ordinary andlocal were just assuitable for art as

the sublime.

Nothing more and nothing less than

the truthful treatment of material.

William Dean Howells


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Key Concepts

1. Desire to record, celebrate andmythologize the cast diversity of theUS diverse regions

2. Pay Strict attention to recordingaccurately the speech, mannerism,behavior, and beliefs of people inspecific locales

3. Local-color writing that paints thelocal scene and the trends towardthe humorous or the sentimental


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Characteristics of Local Color

I. Settingoften remote and usually integralto the story;

II. Charactersmore concerned with thecharacter of the region than an

individualquaint, stereotypical; Narrator-- an educated observer from the worldbeyond whos often deceived

Emphasis on dialect Use of stock characters

III. Plotnothing much happens, revolvesaround the community and its rituals


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Themes in Local Color

1. Dislike of change, nostalgia for analways-past Golden Age;

2. Triumphant trickster or trickster

tricked;3. Tall tale-tradition, conflicts described

humorously, larger than life


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Mark Twain aka SamuelClemens

Born in Missouri Steamboat pilot

Typesetter

Gold prospector

Ex confederate

soldier Journalist

Prose writer Loved to exaggerate

the truth and createtall tales

Notable works The Adventures of

Tom Sawyer andHuckleberry Finn

Life on theMississippi

Fiction is obliged tostick to thepossibilities. Truth

Isnt Twain


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Key elements to Twain

A realistic approach reflects thepeople and characteristics of theregion

Vernacular Speech, the everydaylanguage of people who live in aparticular society and locale

Colorful figures of speech, includingmetaphors, simile and hyperbole areused to add humor and vitality


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Willa Cather

Born in Nebraska Influenced by growing

up in the Wild WildWest of the US

Studied at theUniversity of Nebraska

Found literary successin the muckrakingmagazine Mclures Served as writer and

editor Notable Works

My Antonia

A Wager Matinee

O Pioneers!


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PSYCHOLOGICALREALISM


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Characteristics of Realism

1. Subject matterordinary people and events;2. PurposeVerisimilitude, the truthful

representation of life;

3. Point of Viewomniscient and objective

4. Charactersmiddle class, psychological realism5. Plot de-emphasized

1. Focus on everyday life

2. Complex ethical choices often the subject

3. Events are made to seem the inevitable result ofcharacters choices


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Themes in Realism

Humans control their destinies characters act on their environment rather

than simply reacting to it.

Slice-of-life technique often ends without traditional formal

closure, leaving much untold to suggestmans limited ability to make sense of his

life.


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Key Concepts

1. Realism reacts against Romanticismand its idealized heroes andsensational situations

2. It aims at an accurate andunsentimental depiction of socialissues and problems


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Psychological

Determinism Man is a victim

of his inner and

subconsciousself (Freud).


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NATURALISM


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Objectives of Naturalism

Presentation is objective and detached Subject matterraw and unpleasant

experiences which reduce people todegrading circumstances in order to

survive; Setting commonplace and un-heroic Novelist discovers qualities in lower class

characters usually associated with heroes Suggestion that life on lowest levels is more

complicated


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Naturalism: A Harsher Realism

Definition: A literature that depictssocial problems and views humans asvictims of larger biological,

psychological and social andeconomic forces.

Scientific determinism

Psychological determinism Historical determinism


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Themes in Naturalism

Man is fundamentally an animal, withoutfree will; Governed by determinism

External and internal forces, environment orheredity control behavior;

Characters have compensating humanisticvalues which affirm life;

Struggle for life becomes heroic and affirmshuman dignity

Pessimistic view of human capabilitieslifeis a trap

Age of Realism

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