ENGLISH

LITERATURE
3rd Year

Name: ________________________
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LITERATURE
NATURALISM (1860)
Naturalism applies scientific ideas and principles, such as instinct and Darwin’s theory of
evolution, to fiction. Authors in this movement wrote stories in which the characters behave in
accordance with the impulses and drives of animals in nature. The tone is generally objective and
distant, like that of a botanist or biologist taking notes or preparing a treatise. Naturalist writers
believe that truth is found in natural law, and because nature operates according to consistent
principles, patterns, and laws, truth is consistent.
Because the focus of Naturalism is human nature, stories in this movement are character-
driven rather than plot-driven. Although Naturalism was inspired by the work of the French
writer Émile Zola, it reached the peak of its accomplishment in the United States. In France,
Naturalism was most popular in the late 1870s and early 1880s, but it emerged in the United States
at the end of the nineteenth century and remained in vogue up to World War I.
The fundamental naturalist doctrine states that writers subject believable characters and
events to experimental conditions. In other words, these writers take the known (such as a
character) and introduce it into the unknown (such as an unfamiliar place). Another major
principle of Naturalism is the idea of determinism, which is the theory that a person’s fate is
determined only by factors and forces beyond an individual’s personal control, such as heredity
and environment.

THEMES
Scientific Principles
Naturalist writers apply scientific principles to the fictive world they create. Like scientists
conducting experiments, they introduce characters to certain circumstances. In some cases, an
unexpected opportunity is also introduced to give the character a chance to take it or to ignore it.
Given extreme circumstances, desires, and needs, characters make decisions they would not
otherwise make. The naturalist writer believes that the characters’ true natures emerge in these
situations. Society is harsh toward the weak but offers rewards to its strongest members, which
suggests that civilized society provides competition between its members as nature provides
competition for animals.
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Ordinary People in Extraordinary Circumstances
Novels of the naturalist movement feature common, everyday people. There are no
members of royalty, businessmen or great minds. Instead, naturalist authors choose protagonists
like a would-be dentist, a rural girl or a mixed-breed dog. These characters lead simple lives,
without wealth, or adventure. Naturalist authors place these ordinary characters in extraordinary
situations and show their readers that they, too, could find themselves in extraordinary situations.
They also show that while some people become extraordinary due to their circumstances, others
are destined to remain common.

STYLE
Symbolism
Naturalist authors use symbolism to convey a wealth of meaning in a few words or images.
Some examples of symbolism are: a rocking chair in a story is a symbol during key moments in a
character’s life and it may symbolize solitude in the world. Another example of naturalist
symbolism can be a mountain. It is ominous and immovable and represents the power and
permanence of nature.
Details
Naturalists are similar to realists in their attention to detail. Naturalist works contain
detailed passages describing settings, backgrounds, appearances, and emotions, all of which helps
the reader get a specific perception of the characters’ lives. Details also give the work a realistic
feeling, a sense of being inevitable and true. Some examples are: physical appearance, clothing
and furnishings. A common naturalist pattern is to present a great deal of information at the
beginning of the novel and then let the events move on.

Story: A Moment of Madness

Author: Thomas Hardy

http://www.britannica.com.ThomasHardy/Biography

http://www.bachelorandmaster.com.Thomas Hardy as a Great Novelist

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MODERNISM (1900)

Modernism refers to the broad literary and cultural movement that influenced the arts,
politics and philosophy. Modernism started around 1860 and World War II is generally
considered to mark the end of the movement. Modernist art initially began in London, Berlin, and
especially Paris and it spread to the United States and South America after World War I.
Modernism is marked by the rapidly changing technology of the late nineteenth century and the
appearance of new theories. Freud, Marx, Darwin, Einstein and others are some of the
representative thinkers of this period. Marx demonstrated that social class was created, not
inherent and Darwin provided fossil evidence that the Earth was much older than the estimate
based on scripture. So Modernism was characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional
ways of writing. This movement was driven by a conscious desire to change traditional modes of
representation and express the new sensibilities of their time.

THEMES
Technology
In very real terms, the entire world and the way that humans understood that world
changed between 1860 (when the modernist period began) and 1940. In 1860 the idea of traveling
at a mile a minute, the notion of flight for human beings, moving pictures that talked or the
possibility that voices could be transmitted without wires was only a dream. In 1940 the world
was a different place. Machines allowed people to see moving, talking pictures; to travel fast; to fly
through the air; to transmit both voices and images without wires; to talk, in real time, with
someone at the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Humans relied on machines. The modernist
writers (in general) feared the new technology and left it out of their writing.

The Unconscious
Modernist novelists had no more important influence than the Viennese psychiatrist
Sigmund Freud. He is considered the father of psychoanalysis. His writings propose a three-part
model of the psyche consisting of the id (or the primitive drives), the ego (the sense of the self),
and the superego (or the moral lessons and codes of behavior people internalize). Psychoanalysis
was based on the idea that an analyst could pick out certain ideas and reactions in a patient that
would indicate the real problem. Some writers took this idea and turned it into the basis for
fiction: the psyche of the narrator will be affected by unknown forces and consequently is never
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able to capture reality without alteration. Modernist writers felt that the ‘‘interior monologue’’ or
the stream-of-consciousness technique gave readers access to the character’s subconscious.

Alienation
Alienation is defined as the sense of being alien, or of not belonging, to one’s own
environment or background. It can also mean separation from something. The primary kind of
alienation that Modernism depicts is the alienation of one person from the world. The character
may be alienated from his family, his friends, his religion or his country because of devotion to art
and his certainty that nobody can understand and accept him.

The Presence of the Past

Mainly because of the crisis of the modern world, modernist writers alluded constantly to
the past. The past certainties were some kind of foundation for the world. World War I finished
the job and horrified the world by demonstrating what humanity was capable of. Because of this,
modernist writers often incorporate and mix together parts of history. And almost all of the
important modernist writers incorporate in their work the belief that the past exists in the present.

Story: Sredni Vashtar

Author: Saki

https://www.thefamouspeople.com Saki biography

https://courses.lumenlearning.com Biography: Saki.

Short film Part 1 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPtMsEGVlds

Short film Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bT-iTGDV80

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DETECTIVE FICTION (1920)
The Golden Age of Detective Fiction was an era of classic murder
mystery novels of similar patterns and styles, predominantly in the 1920s
and 1930s.

Definition of Detective Fiction

Source: https://study.com/academy/lesson/detective-fiction-definition-history-authors.

Detective fiction is a genre of writing where a detective works to solve a crime. The
audience is challenged to solve the crime by the clues provided before the detective reveals the
answer at the end of the novel.
In the beginning of the novel, a crime is introduced. Often, it seems like the perfect crime.
The detective works to gather clues and may, at times, seem like he or she is making mistakes or
may even seem unintelligent. In some novels, the wrong person is accused based on just a little
evidence. Eventually, the detective begins to piece together the crime and, usually because of
some unexpected event, the detective solves the crime and finds the guilty person.

History of Detective Fiction

The first detective story is considered to be written by Edgar Allan Poe and his short story
“The Murders in Rue Morgue” written in 1841. In this story, two women are murdered, and the
police have a hard time solving the case. Detective Dupin leads his own investigation and solves
the crime when the police cannot. Poe continued to use Detective Dupin in several other short
stories.

However, when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1959 - 1930) created Sherlock Holmes, the genre
grew. Doyle wrote over fifty short stories and novels about Sherlock Holmes with his sidekick Dr.
Watson. Doyle's characters are still popular today.
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Let's pay attention to some key concepts!!!

Story: The Speckled Band

Author: Arthur Conan Doyle

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Arthur-Conan-Doyle

https://www.biography.com/authors-writers/arthur-conan-doyle
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