Exploring American Literary Realism and Regionalism
Bartleby, the Scrivener
Bartleby: Eccentric, mentally ill, repeats the same answer, lives in the office, looks like death. Lawyer: (narrator) sees opportunities to help Bartleby change. The Lawyer chose Bartleby because he looked beneficial upon first meeting him. He is looking for a beneficial influence, but this is not going to be fulfilled.
Other Scriveners
- Turkey: Compared with the sun (more active in the morning). He depends on food and good clothing. He is short and about 60 years old. Not very productive in the afternoon. He and the narrator are getting old at the same time – English.
- Nippers: Practical looking man. Young (about 25). Ambitious. Elegant clothing. He was productive in the afternoon. English. By putting these two workers together, we obtain one good worker.
- Ginger Nut: Very young (12). Errand boy, submissive.
Realism
- The technique changed.
- Less attention to the themes.
- Detailed (you describe what you see).
- Unromanticized (without romantic elements).
Realism and Regionalism must be included with Regionalism, Romance, and Naturalism.
Growth of Industrial America in the Post-Civil War
- Urban realism.
- Several regional literatures flourished at the same time.
We can judge realism from the 1870s through the early 1900s as developing a series of responses to:
- The transformation of land into capital, of raw materials into products, of agrarian values into urban values, and of private experience into public property.
Growth of Communication and Transportation
- Linked the regions of the country.
- Made them newly aware of differences in speech and customs. This is reflected in the novels by Mark Twain: nostalgic attention to diverse regional customs eroded by standardized urban society (regionalism).
In French aesthetic theory, “realism” designated an art based on the accurate, unromanticized observation of life and nature, or art often defiant of prevailing convention.
Naturalism and the Languages of Determinism
[“I chose characters completely dominated by their nerves and their blood, deprived of free will, pushed to each action of their lives by the fatality of their flesh” (Emile Zola)]
- Determinism is not a literary movement, it is a philosophical movement that was to do with freedom. The technique is going to be realism.
- Real will, it’s not naturalism, it’s realism.
- Character deprived of free will, subject to the “hand of life”.
- “Determinism”.
- Melodrama as a favorite genre.
The naturalists dismissed the realists as far too “genteel”.
Regionalism
In literature, regionalism or local color refers to fiction or poetry that focuses on specific features – including characters, dialects, customs, history, and landscape – of a particular region. American literary Regionalism has been the subject of scholarship for the past several decades and has been a central site for scholarly debate on a variety of methodologies. This sub-field of American literature studies has been traditionally located in the late-nineteenth century and early twentieth century.
- Southern regional writers: Kate Chopin, William Faulkner, Mark Twain, etc.
- Western and others: Mark Twain (Mississippi and surrounding regions).
Humor
In the 19th century, American humor in literature was fashionable both in Britain and America. American humor was soon known as “Western” or “Frontier humor”, although many of the most famous humorists of the time were from the East or had been brought up there.
The origin of American humor must be sought in Frontier life. Frontier life was dull and lonely. The element of fraud became a conspicuous element in American Humor: the folk-heroes of the frontier mythology (such as Buffalo Bill) were in truth very normal people or even comic figures, but literature made them look like real heroes. Burlesque names and pseudonyms were widely employed for anyone that wanted to make a name for oneself.
One of the genres that developed from typically Western humor was the so-called “tall tale”. This type of tale normally consisted of the narration of overtly exaggerated events that were meant to entertain the reader. It was normally based on comic ballads and popular stories. Another popular genre was the satirical sketch in any of the numerous newspapers and periodical journals that were born on the Frontier.
But a great deal of Western humor was oral. Ward and Twain were very successful humorous lectures. Humor was now familiar to America, and when Mark Twain started to write, the way was already prepared for his success.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- Racism/slavery.
- Education.
- Hypocrisy of “civilized society”.
Motifs
- Childhood
- Lies
- Superstition and folklore
- Parodies of Popular Romance Novels
Symbols
- Mississippi River: what is going to let them be free.
- White color (Mr. Watson died, Tom is free).
-Finn: He represents what anyone is capable of becoming: a thinking, feeling human being rather than a mere cog in the machine of society.
-Jim: Intelligent. The thought of a permanent separation from Miss Watson. Father and friend to Finn, taking care of him. He is realistic about his situation. Must find ways of achieving his goal without incurring the wrath of those who could turn him in.