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1、The Age of Realism How to define the Realistic Period inAmerican literary history?nThe period ranging from 1865 to l914 has been referred to as the Age of Realism in the literary history of the United States,which is actually a movement or tendency that dominated the spirit of American literature,es
2、pecially American fiction,from the 1850s onwards.nRealism was a reaction against Romanticism or a move away from the bias towards romance and self-creating fictions,and it paved the way to Modernism.nInstead of thinking about the irrational,the imaginative,realists touched upon social and political
3、realities and pressures in the post-Civil War society.Three dominant figures are William Dean Howells,Mark Twain,and Henry James.nWilliam Dean Howells,the arbiter of 19th century literary realism in America definedRealism as“nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material”,as“f
4、idelity to experience and probability of motive”,as a quest of the average and the habitual rather than the exceptional or the uniquely high or low,i.e.to do nothing more than“talk of some ordinary traits of American life”.nEngels defined it as“typical character in typical environment”.nAlthough dif
5、ferent realists have different views,they do share some basic principles in commonn Realists insist on and defend the experienced,commonplace(or ordinary,usual),depict human life as it really is;nPhilosophy of realism:non-transcendental,do not pass beyond the limits of human experiencesnPurpose of a
6、rt:to instruct and to please;nThe subject matter:drawn from“our experience”,should reflect the common,average,the unextreme,the representative(typical)and the probable;nIn characterization:belief in human controlling their destinies.Characters acted on their environment rather than simply reacting t
7、o it.“character is superior to circumstance”.Realists are against the extraordinary,the abstract.The historical and socio-cultural background of American Realism nThe American society after the Civil War provided rich soil for the rise and development of Realism.nThis period is characterized with ch
8、anges,in relation to every aspect of American life,politically,economically,culturally,and religiously.nFirst of all,politically,the Civil War affected both the social and the value system of the country.America had transformed itself into an industrialized and commercialized society.Wilderness gave
9、 way to civilization.The burgeoning economy and industry stepped up urbanization.nHowever,economically,the changes were not all for the better.The industrialization and the urbanization were accompanied by the incalculable sufferings of the laboring people.Therefore,polarization of the well-being be
10、tween the poor and the rich started to show up.nThirdly,as far as the ideology was concerned,people became dubious about the human nature and the benevolence of God,which the Transcendentalists cared most.What Mark Twain referred to as“the Gilded Age”replaced the frontier and the spirit of the front
11、iersman,which is the spirit of freedom and human connection.nFourthly,the literary scene after the Civil War proved to be quite different a picture.nThe harsh realities of life as well as the disillusion of heroism resulting from the dark memories of the Civil War had set the nation against the roma
12、nce.The Americans began to be tired of the sentimental feelings of Romanticism.Thus,started a new period in the American literary writings known as the Age of Realism,characterized by a great interest in the realities of life.The Gilded AgenIt refers to the period of gross materialism and blatant po
13、litical corruption in the U.S.history during the 1870s that gave rise tonimportant novels of social and political criticism.The period takes its name from the earliest of these,The Gilded Age(1873),written by Mark Twain in collaboration with Charles Dudley Warner.nThe novel gives a vivid and accurat
14、e description of Washington D.C.,and is peopled with caricatures of many leading figures of the day,including greedy industrialists and corrupt politicians.The political novels of the Gilded Age represent the beginnings of a new strain in the American literature,the novel as a vehicle of social prot
15、est,a trend that grew in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the works of thenMuckrakers(揭丑派)and culminated in the proletarian novelists.What is Realism?n In art and literature,Realism refers to an attempt to describe human behavior and surroundings or to represent figures exactly as they ac
16、t or appear in life.Realism emerged as a literary movement in Europe in the 1850s.In reaction to Romanticism,realistic writers should set down their observations impartially and objectively.nThey insisted on accurate documentation,sociological insight,and avoidance of poetic diction and idealization
17、.nThe subjects were to be taken from everyday life,preferably from lower-class life.nRealism entered American literature after the Civil War.William Dean Howells,Mark Twain,and Henry James were the pioneers of realism in the U.S.The literary characteristics of the Realistic Period in Americanliterat
18、urenGuided by the principle of adhering to the truthful treatment of life,the realists touched upon various contemporary social and political issues.nIn their works,instead of writing about the polite,well-dressed,grammatically correct middle-class young people who moved in exotic places and remote
19、times,they introduced industrial workers and farmers,ambitious businessmen and vagrants（流浪者）,prostitutes and unheroic soldiers as major characters in fiction.nThey approached the harsh realities and pressures in the post-Civil War society either by a comprehensive picture of modern life in its vario
20、us occupations,class stratifications and manners,or by a psychological exploration of mans subconsciousness.nThe three dominant figures of the period are William Dean Howells,Mark Twain,and Henry James.Together they brought to fulfillment native trends in the realistic portrayal of the landscape and
21、 social surfaces,brought to perfection the vernacular style,and explored and exploited the literary possibilities of the interior life.The three dominant figures of the Realistic period differed intheir understanding of the“truth”n(1)While Mark Twain and Howells paid more attention to the life“of th
22、e Americans,Henry James laid a greater emphasis on the inner world of man.He came to believe that the literary artist should not simply hold a mirror to the surface of social life in particular times and places.In addition,the writer should use language to probe the deepest reaches of the psychologi
23、cal and moral nature of human beings.nHe is a realist of the inner life.n(2)Though Twain and Howells both shared the same concern in presenting the truth of the American society,they had each of them different emphasis.nHowells focused his discussion on the rising middle class and the way they lived
24、,while Twain preferred to have his own region and people at the forefront of his stories,which is known as“local colorism”,a unique variation of American literary realism.What is Local Colorism?nPost-Civil War America was large and diverse enough to sense its own local differences.Regional voices ha
25、d emerged.“Local colorism”is a unique variation of American literary realism.Generally,the works by local colorists are concerned with the life of a small,well-defined region or province.nThis kind of fiction depicts the characters from a specific setting or of an era,which are marked by its customs
26、,dialects,costumes,landscape,or other peculiarities that have escaped standardizing cultural influence.Yet for all their sentimentality,they dedicated themselves to minutely accurate descriptions of the life of their regions.nThey worked from personal experience;they recorded the facts of a unique e
27、nvironment and suggested that the native life was shaped by the curious conditions of the locale.Their materials were necessarily limited and topics disparate,yet they had certain common artistic concerns.Writers whose works are characterized with local colors are Mark Twain,Sarah Orne Jewett,Joseph
28、 Kirkland and Hamlin Garland.The influence of Darwinism and French naturalist writers onAmerican literature in its Realistic PeriodnThe impact of Darwins evolutionary theory on the American thought and the influence of the 19th century French literature on the American men of letters gave rise to ye
29、t another school of realism:American naturalism.Darwin,in his The Origin of Species(1859)and Descent Of Man(187l),expounded his theory of natural selection.The American naturalists accepted the more negative implications of this theory and used it to account for the behavior of those characters in l
30、iterary works who were conceived as more or less complex combinations of inherited attributes,their habits conditioned by social and economic forces.And consciously or unconsciously the American naturalists followed the French novelist and theorist Emile Zolas call that the literary artist“must oper
31、ate with characters,passions,human and social data as the chemist and the physicist work on inert bodies,as the physiologist works on living bodies.”nThey chose their subjects from the lower ranks of society and portrayed the people who were demonstrably victims of society and nature.And one of the
32、most familiar themes in American Naturalism is the theme of human“bestiality”,especially as an explanation of sexual desire.For example,Frank Norris,in his McTeague(l899),described the relations of a crude dentist with a superficially refined German-American girl,who,awakened by his desires,is drawn
33、 into an animalistic affection.What is Naturalism?(or American Naturalism)nIn literature,the term refers to the theory that literary composition should aim at a detached,scientific objectivity in the treatment of natural man.The movement is an outgrowth of 19th century scientific thought,following i
34、n general the biological determinism of Darwins theory,or the economic determinism of Karl Marx.n American Naturalism is a more advanced stage of realism toward the close of the 19th century.The American naturalists accepted the more negative implications of Darwins theory and used it to account for
35、 the behavior of those characters in literary works who were conceived as more or less complex combinations of inherited attributes,their habits conditioned by social and economic forces.nAnd consciously or unconsciously the American naturalists followed the French novelist and theorist Emile Zolas
36、call that the literary artist“must operate with characters,passions,human and social data as the chemist and the physicist work on inert bodies,as the physiologist works on living bodies.”They chose their subjects from the lower ranks of society and portrayed the people who were demonstrably victims
37、 of society and nature.And one of the most familiar themes in American Naturalism is the theme of human“bestiality”,especially as an explanation of sexual desire.nArtistically,naturalistic writings are usually unpolished in language,lacking in academic skills and unwieldly（笨重的）in structure.Philosoph
38、ically,the naturalists believe that the real and true is always partially hidden from the eyes of the individual,or beyond his control.Devoid of rationality and caught in a process in which he is but a part,man cannot fully understand,let alone control,the world he lives in;hence,he is left with no
39、freedom of choice.nIn a word,naturalism is evolved from realism when the authors tone in writing becomes less serious and less sympathetic but more detached,ironic and more pessimistic.It is no more than a different philosophical approach to reality,or to human existence.Notable writers of naturalis
40、tic fiction were Frank Norris,Sherwood Anderson,and Theodore Dreiser.The distinction between Realism and NaturalismnNaturalism is evolved from realism when the authors tone in writing becomes less serious and less sympathetic but more detached,ironic and more pessimistic.It is no more than a differe
41、nt philosophical approach to reality,or to human existence.nThe distinction lies,first of all,in the fact that Realism is concerned directly with what is absorbed by the senses;Naturalism,a term more properly applied to literature,attempts to apply scientific theories to art.Second,Naturalism differ
42、s from Realism in adding an amoral attitude to the objective presentation of life.nNaturalistic writers,adopting Darwins biological determinism and Marxs economic determinism,regard human behavior as controlled by instinct,emotion,or social and economic conditions,and reject free will.Third,Naturali
43、sm had an outlook often bleaker than that of Realism,and it added a dimension of predetermined fate that rendered human will ultimately powerless.What is(Social)Darwinism?nSocial Darwinism is a belief that societies and individual human beings compete in a struggle for existence in which natural sel
44、ection results in“survival of the fittest.”Social Darwinists base their beliefs on theories of evolution developed by British naturalist Charles Darwin.Social Darwinists typically deny that they advocate a“law of jungle.”But most propose arguments that justify imbalances of power between individuals
45、,races,and nations because they consider some more fit to survive than others.The theory had produced a big impact on Naturalism.Mark Twain(1835-19l0)nMark Twain is a great literary giant of America,whom H.L.Mencken considered“the true father of our national literature.”nWith works like The Adventur
46、es of Huckleberry Finn(1884)and Life on the Mississippi(1883)Twain shaped the worlds view of America and made a more extensive combination of American folk humor and serious literature than previous writers had ever done.Twains life and writing:nMark Twain,Pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens,was bo
47、rn on November 30,1835,in Missouri,and grew up in the river town of Hannibal.After his father died,he began to seek his own fortune.He once worked as a journeyman printer,a steamboat pilot,a newspaper columnist and as a deadpan lecturer.Twains writing took the form of humorous journalism of the time
48、,and it ennabled him to master the technique of narration.nMark Twains major works:nIn l865,he published his frontier tale“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,”which brought him recognition from a wider public.But his full literary career began to blossom in 1869 with a travel book Innoc
49、ents Abroad,an account of American tourists in Europe which pokes fun at the pretentious,decadent and undemocratic Old World in a satirical tone.nMark Twains best works were produced when he was in the prime of his life.All these masterworks drew upon the scenes and emotions of his boyhood and youth
50、.The first among these books is Roughing It(1872),in which Twain describes a journey that works its way farther west.Life on the Mississippi tells a story of his boyhood ambition to become a riverboat pilot.nTwo of the best books during this period are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer(1876)and The Adven