American literary realism

Realism is nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material. --William Dean Howells, Editors Study, Harper's New Monthly Magazine (November 1889)

"Realism, n. The art of depicting nature as it is seen by toads. The charm suffusing a landscape painted by a mole, or a story written by a measuring-worm." --Ambrose Bierce The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

"Realism sets itself at work to consider characters and events which are apparently the most ordinary and uninteresting, in order to extract from these their full value and true meaning. It would apprehend in all particulars the connection between the familiar and the extraordinary, and the seen and unseen of human nature. Beneath the deceptive cloak of outwardly uneventful days, it detects and endeavors to trace the outlines of the spirits that are hidden

In American literature, realism encompasses the period from the Civil War to the turn of the century (1860s through 1890s). Some of the great American literary realists writing during this period include William Dean Howells, Rebecca Harding Davis, Henry James, and Mark Twain. Realism is often broadly defined as the faithful representation of reality or as verisimilitude, and it is a literary

Realism can be seen as a reaction against romanticism. While romantic writers tend to focus on intuition and imagination rather than logic and reason, writers employing realism evince an interest in the scientific method, the systematizing of the study of documentary history, and the influence of rational philosophy.

Realism versus Romanticism

Romanticism was a movement in literature that celebrated the individual. Romantics believed in humankind's innate goodness and eventual perfectibility. The genre accepted experimentation as an expression of an artist's individuality. For example, Romantic literature discarded the formality of the closed heroic couplet and embraced a lyrical openness of style. In essence, the Romantic view was egalitarian. Equal at birth, inherently good, valued as individuals, all people were

Realism versus Naturalism

Naturalism was a literary movement of the late nineteenth century that yielded influence on the twentieth. It was an extension of realism, a reaction against the restrictions inherent in the realistic emphasis on the ordinary, as naturalists insisted that the extraordinary is real, too. In place of the middle-class realities of a George Eliot, or a William Dean Howells, the naturalists wrote about the fringes of society, the criminal, the fallen, the downand-out, earning as one definition of their

Where romanticists transcend the immediate to find the ideal, and naturalists plumb the actual or superficial to find the scientific laws that control its actions, realists center their attention to a remarkable degree on the immediate, the here and now, the specific action, and the verifiable consequence" (A Handbook to Literature, Harmon and Holman)

Genre Romantics Realists

American Author Ralph Waldo Emerson Henry James William Dean Howells Mark Twain Stephen Crane Frank Norris

Perceived the individual as... a god simply a person

Naturalists

a helpless object

Human Destiny and Human Will

Romantic writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson celebrated the ability of human will to triumph over adversity. On the other hand, American realists believed that humanity's freedom of choice was limited by the power of outside forces. At another extreme were naturalists Stephen Crane and Frank Norris who supported the ideas of Emile Zola and the determinism movement. Naturalists argued that individuals have no choice because a person's life is dictated by heredity and

Historical Conditions
Industrial Revolution of the late 19th Century
Movement from rural to urban areas Movement from farming to factory economy Standardization, mass production of goods

Scientific Revolution of the late 19th Century

Truth and knowledge should be based on empirical data

Characteristics of Realism
Plot and Character

Character is more important than action and plot; complex ethical choices are often the subject. Characters appear in the real complexity of temperament and motive; they are in explicable relation to nature, to each other, to their social class, to their own past. Humans control their destinies; characters act on their environment

Characteristics of Realism
Structure of Prose

Diction is the natural vernacular, not heightened or poetic; tone may be comic, satiric, or matter-of-fact. The use of symbolism is controlled and limited; the realists depend more on the use of images. Objectivity in presentation becomes increasingly important: overt authorial comments or intrusions diminish as the century progresses.

Characteristics of Realism
Complexity and Multiplicity

Complexity refers to the interwoven, entangled density of experience Multiplicity indicates the simultaneous existence of different levels of reality or of many truths, equally "true" from some point of view

Characteristics of Realism
Interpretation and Analysis

Realism is viewed as a realization of democracy. The morality of Realism is intrinsic, integral, relativistic relations between people and society are explored. Realists were pragmatic, relativistic, democratic and experimental. The purpose of writing is to instruct and to entertain.

American realists built their plots and characters around people's ordinary, everyday lives. Additionally, their works contained regional dialects and extensive dialogue which connected well with the public. As a result, readers were attracted to the realists because they saw their own struggles in print. Conversely, the public had little patience for the slow paced narratives, allegory and symbolism of the romantic writers. America was shifting into higher gear and readers wanted writers

Oedipa
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