Prof. Derek P. Royal
ENG 442 – Survey of American Literature II
American Realism
Realism as a
movement in American literature spanned roughly the last third of the
nineteenth-century, and in many ways was a reaction to much of the earlier
romantic and sentimental fiction. It
differed from American romanticism in that it:
1) avoided the symmetry, balance, and contrived plots that defined much
of the earlier fiction, 2) avoided undue emphasis on idealized settings and
social situations, 3) attempted to shift from imaginative sensibility and Emersonian optimism (with its valuing of intuition, the
privileging of the “noble savage,” and an emphasis on the independent
Jeffersonian agrarian). Influenced in
many ways by the work of French writers Honoré de
Balzac and Gustave Flaubert, American realists were
chiefly concerned with the commonplaces of middle-class life. Philosophic
pragmatism, a school of thought concerned with the practicality of everyday
life, was also an influence on many of these writers. Charles S. Peirce
(who coined the term “pragmatism” in 1878), one such proponent, believed that
value and meaning in life are significant only
with a recognition of their utility and consequences. Many realist writers attempted to describe life
without idealization, subjective prejudice, or romantic color. Those considered realist (in one way or
another, and some arguably) include William Dean Howells, Henry James, Harriet
Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain, Sarah Orne Jewett, and
Kate Chopin.
American Realism
resulted from, among other things:
·
the
“closing” of the western frontier—the transcontinental railroad was completed
in 1869
·
a new
generation of writers who lived in
·
the
effects of the Civil War:
·
different
regions of the country, once unfamiliar to American writers, were now exposed
·
this
first modern war demanded a more realistic treatment of its subject matter¾common people, not “aristocratic” warriors,
were seen as heroes
·
the war
was seen as a triumph of American principles, which helped in the call to a new
American literature
·
the war
unleashed forces of industry¾mass production, technological innovation,
national profits¾and became a stable market for foreign capital
·
industrialization,
immigration, and urbanization
·
the
growth of technological innovations such as the telephone (invented in 1876)
and the automobile, whose popularity in the 1890s saw much growth
·
social transformations
that affected the authors personally¾had grown up to adulthood in an antebellum
Some of the general
features of Realism include:
·
an
adherence to common everyday life
·
a belief
that details are important in an of themselves¾details make fiction seem like life
·
a
deemphasizing of literary symbols¾symbols in a narrative are limited to ideas
within the text, not to larger external truths
·
a
rejection of absolute truths¾moral truths are always relativistic
·
pragmatic
attitudes toward life
·
the need
to expose the false and repressive nature of many commonly held beliefs and
assumptions
·
a
valuation of toughness and competence and an admiration of “the pro”
·
an
anti-elitist attitude¾a literature about and for the common person
·
characters
that have mixed motives and are fallible, and whose choices reflect the lives
of everyday people
·
characters
that grow and/or decline in the text, and respond to their social contexts¾“character” is a process that develops as the
text moves along, not an inherent way of being
·
characters
who are not types, but specific and unique; uniquely personal
·
an
attempt to understand characters, never to judge them¾the
narrator never intrudes to judge or moralize