American literature

Realism
Instructor: Ms. Le Kim Dung
Done by :
TRAN THI HONG GAM
NGUYEN THI NGUYET
NGUYEN THI SINH
NGUYEN THI THUY
TRAN THACH THUY
NGUYEN THI TOAN
 outline
I. Definition

II. Social Background

III. Characteristics

IV. Contribution
V. The schools of American Realism
 I. Definition
- Realism:
The faithful representation of reality

- “Realism is nothing more and nothing less than the

truthful treatment of material.” --William Dean
Howells, “Editor’s Study,”
Harper's New Monthly Magazine (November 1889)
 II. Social
(1860-1914)
Background
USA: From a small, young, agricultural, ex-colony
to huge, modern, industrial nation
+ After civil war (1861-1865): Business boomed
 (1)
●

(3)
●
●
●
●The
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● (2)
const ●
Ove ●
Diffi
ant
influx r cult
immi -cro wor
grant wde
s
king
inexp d con
ensiv hou ditio
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labor
sing ns

 Strikes and struggling (farmer, worker- money interests)

III. Characteristics
Ethical subject
Character (more important than action and plot)
Middle, lower classes
Plausible events, (Realistic novels avoid the
sensational, dramatic elements of naturalistic
novels and romances).
 III. Characteristics
Natural vernacular (diction); tone may be comic,
satiric, or matter-of-fact.

Completely authorial objectivity

Concept of realism as a realization of democracy- a
world truly reported
 IV. Contribution
- Devoted to accurate representation and an
exploration of American lives in various contexts

- the local color literary movement

( Emphasized specific, detailed descriptions of

actual places and reproduced regional dialects)
 The schools of American Realism:

1) Frontier Humor
2) Midwestern realism
3) Cosmopolitan Novelist
4) Regionalism (local color)
5) Naturalism
6) The Chicago School of poets
7) The rise of black American literature
 FRONTIER HUMOR
• had earlier roots in local oral traditions
• Make lively by exaggeration, tall tales,
incredible boasts, and comic workingmen
heroes.
• Each region had its colorful characters
• The exploits were exaggerated and enhanced
in ballads, newspapers, and magazines
• Twain, Faulkner, Johnson Hooper,
George Washington Harris, Augustus Longstreet
 MIDWESTERN REALISM
• William Dean Howells
A Modern Instance (1882),
The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885),
A Hazard of New Fortunes (1890),
• carefully interweave social circumstances with
the emotions of ordinary middleclass
Americans.
 COSMOPOLITAN
• Contrasts Americans and Europeans
• Henry James (1843-1916)
The Wings of the Dove (1902),
The Ambassadors(1903)
• Edith Wharton (1862-1937)
The House of Mirth (1905), The
Custom of the Country (1913),
 Local Colorists
• has old roots but produced its best works long
after the Civil War
• paint striking portraits of specific American
regions.
• All regions of the country celebrated
themselves in writing influenced by local color.
• Bret Harte, Mary Wilkins Freeman, Harriet
Beecher Stowe, Sarah Orne Jewett.
 TWO WOMEN
REGIONAL NOVELISTS
• Ellen Glasgow(1873-1945)
Barren Ground (1925)
• Willa Cather (1873-1947)
Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927)
• Explored women’s lives, placed in brilliantly
evoked regional settings
 NATURALISM
• used realism to relate the individual to
society
• Daringly opened up the seamy underside of
society and such topics as divorce, sex,
adultery, poverty, and crime.
• Stephen Crane, Jack London, Theodore Dreiser
 The Chicago School of poets

• concerns obscure individuals

• realism, dramatic renderings—techniques

• Edgar Lee Masters (1868-1950)

Spoon River Anthology
• Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)
“Chicago” (1914):
 THE RISE OF BLACK
AMERICAN LITERATURE
• one of the most striking literary developments
of the post-Civil War era.
• the roots of black American writing were
understood and used ,
• Booker T. Washington(1856-1915)
• Du Bois (1868 - 1963)
Thanks for your
attention