● Create a definition for your period that includes specific characteristics of the period and the

duration of the movement. Be sure to include a discussion of how humanity and life are viewed
during this time period.
○ Naturalism: a literary period in which Darwinism was applied to human social behavior;
Naturalism sought to go further and be more explanatory than Realism by identifying
the underlying causes for a person’s actions or beliefs. The thinking was that there
existed a lack of free will because of the power of certain factors, such as heredity
and social conditions, which were unavoidable determinants in one’s life.
● Identify major themes revealed in your literary period.
○ Lack of free will
○ Humans must submit to the fate that has been decided for them based on the heredity,
environment, and social conditions they were born into.
● Identify significant historical events from that period and speculate as to how those events
influenced the period and its authors.
○ Early 1880s to the mid 1950s
○ World War I ended
○ World War II began
○ Spanish Civil War
● List famous authors and key works from that period. Explain why these works and authors are
representative of this period.
○ The work of French novelist and playwright Emile Zola is often pinpointed as the genesis of
the Naturalist movement proper. His most famous contribution to Naturalism was Les
Rougon-Macquart, a sweeping collection of 20 novels that follow two families over the
course of five generations. One of the families is privileged, the other impoverished, but they
each stumble into decay and failure. His concern is not with character as such, but how
characters react to circumstances.
○ Another example is Frank Norris who wrote and campaigned on behalf of social reforms, and
Stephen Crane’s journalism reveals a mind keenly aware of human suffering. There would
seem to be a disconnect between the opinions of the authors and the statements made in the
contexts of their novels.
○ Authors during this time were trying to expose the harsh realities of life, and were often
criticized for being too blunt.