American Literary Realism: 1865-1915
Posted on Mar 18, 2025 in English Studies
Realism (1865-1915)
I. Historical Context
- A. Civil War brings demand for a “truer” type of literature that doesn’t idealize people or places.
- B. People in society defined by “class”; materialism.
- C. Reflect ideas of Darwin (survival of the fittest) and Marx (how money and class structure control a nation).
II. Genre/Style
- A. Realism
- A reaction against Romanticism; told it like it was.
- Focus on lives of ordinary people; rejected heroic and adventurous.
- Anti-materialism; rejected the new “class” system.
- View of nature as a powerful and indifferent force beyond man’s control.
- B. Naturalism (sub-genre of Realism)
- Like Realism but with a darker view of the world.
- The universe is unpredictable; fate is determined by chance; free will is an illusion.
- Characters’ lives shaped by forces they can’t understand or control.
C. Novels, short stories.
D. Often aims to change a specific social problem.
E. Dominant themes: survival, fate, violence, nature as an indifferent force.
III. Major Writers
- A. The Civil War (1855-1865)
- Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896)
- a. The most famous woman of her day.
- b. Uncle Tom’s Cabin
- (1). Most influential book of the 19th Century; 1st to sell 1 million copies.
- (2). One of the most effective documents of propaganda; helped fuel the Civil War.
- Frederick Douglass (1817-1895)
- a. An escaped slave; one of the most effective orators of his day.
- b. Influential newspaper writer; militant abolitionist; diplomat.
- c. Autobiography an instant and enduring classic of courage.
- B. The Frontier (1865-1915)
- Mark Twain (1835-1910)
- A True Story, Repeated Word for Word as I Heard It.
- American humorist and one of our greatest novelists.
- b. Used vernacular, exaggeration, and a deadpan narrator to create humor.
- Stephen Crane (1871-1900) (Naturalist)
- a. Crane attacked patriotism, individualism, and organized religion; confronted the meaninglessness of the world.
- b. Crane’s writing is known for its images and symbolism.
- c. Red Badge of Courage (most famous work; set in Civil War).
- d. The Open Boat (man vs. Nature’s indifference).
- e. An Episode of War (short story).
- Jack London
- a. Pushed Naturalism to its limits.
- b. Call of the Wild (tame dog forced to revert to its original primitive state).
- c. To Build a Fire (survival of the fittest).
- The Local Colorists (1865-1930)
- a. Regional writers tried to capture the essence of a particular area, or its “local color.”
- c. Kate Chopin (1851-1904)