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Realism in American Literature, 1860-1890

Realism in American literature from 1860-1890 aimed to provide an accurate representation of American lives through detailed depictions of ordinary people and events. This was a reaction against romanticism and embraced scientific observation and documentation of reality. Realist authors centered on accurate portrayals of the present day and focused on the impacts of social changes like industrialization, immigration, and rising middle class affluence. Their works gave a realistic sense of American lives through close attention to physical settings and social complexities.

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490 views12 pages

Realism in American Literature, 1860-1890

Realism in American literature from 1860-1890 aimed to provide an accurate representation of American lives through detailed depictions of ordinary people and events. This was a reaction against romanticism and embraced scientific observation and documentation of reality. Realist authors centered on accurate portrayals of the present day and focused on the impacts of social changes like industrialization, immigration, and rising middle class affluence. Their works gave a realistic sense of American lives through close attention to physical settings and social complexities.

Uploaded by

vita1108
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Realism in American

Literature, 1860-1890
A "strategy for imagining and
managing the threats of social
change."
 In American literature, the term "realism"
encompasses the period of time from the
Civil War to the turn of the century.

 Authors wrote fiction devoted to accurate


representation and an exploration of
American lives in various contexts.
 "Where romanticists transcend the
immediate to find the ideal, realists center
their attention to a remarkable degree on
the immediate, the here and now, the
specific action, and the verifiable
consequence.”
What influenced the rise of
realism?
 A reaction against romanticism

 An interest in scientific method

 The systematizing of the study of


documentary history

 The influence of rational philosophy.


Definition:
 A mode of writing that gives the impression of
recording or ‘reflecting’ faithfully an actual way of
life.
 The term refers both to a literary method based
on detailed accuracy of description and to a
more general attitude that rejects idealization,
escapism, and other extravagant qualities of
romance in favor of recognizing soberly the
actual problems of life.
Beginnings of Realism
 The rapid growth of the United States after
the Civil war spurred
 Increasing rates of democracy and literacy
 Rapid growth in industrialism and urbanization,
 An expanding population base due to
immigration
 A relative rise in middle-class affluence which
provided a fertile literary environment for
readers interested in understanding these
rapid shifts in culture.
Elements of Realism
 Renders reality closely and in comprehensive
detail. Selective presentation of reality with an
emphasis on verisimilitude, even at the expense
of a well-made plot
 Character is more important than action and
plot; complex ethical choices are often the
subject.
 Characters appear in their real complexity of
temperament and motive; they are in explicable
relation to nature, to each other, to their social
class, to their own past.
Elements of Realism
 Class is important; the novel has traditionally
served the interests and aspirations of an
insurgent middle class.
 Events will usually be plausible. Realistic novels
avoid the sensational, dramatic elements of
naturalistic novels and romances.
 Diction is natural vernacular, not heightened or
poetic; tone may be comic, satiric, or matter-of-
fact.
 Objectivity in presentation becomes increasingly
important: overt authorial comments or
intrusions diminish as the century progresses.
Elements of Realism
 Realists believe that humans control their
destinies; characters act on their
environment rather than simply reacting to
it.
 Character is superior to circumstance.
Elements of Realism
 Modern criticism frequently insists that realism is
not a direct or simple reproduction of reality (a
‘slice of life’) but a system of conventions
producing a lifelike illusion of some ‘real’ world
outside the text, by processes of selection,
exclusion, description, and manners of
addressing the reader.
 The problems of ordinary people in
unremarkable circumstances are rendered with
close attention to the details of physical setting
and to the complexities of social life.
Modern Realism Influence
 The novel, which had been born out of the romance
as a more or less fantastic narrative, settled into a
realistic mode which is still dominant today.
 Aside from genre fiction such as fantasy and horror,
we expect the ordinary novel today to be based in
our own world, with recognizably familiar types of
characters endowed with no supernatural powers,
doing the sorts of things that ordinary people do
every day.
 It is easy to forget that this expectation is only a
century and a half old, and that the great bulk of the
world's fiction before departed in a wide variety of
ways from this standard, which has been applied to
film and television as well.
 Even comic strips now usually reflect daily life.
Realistic Techniques
1. Settings thoroughly familiar to the writer
2. Plots emphasizing the norm of daily
experience
3. Ordinary characters, studied in depth
4. Complete authorial objectivity
5. Responsible morality; a world truly
reported

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