Realism
Realism is an attempt to describe human behavior and surroundings or
to represent figures and objects exactly as they act or appear in life ( a faithful representation of reality).
a movement that began in the mid-19th century, in reaction to the highly subjective approach of romanticism
the novels of Gustave Flaubert
the short stories of Guy de Maupassant
the plays and short stories of Anton Chekhov
George Eliot introduced realism into English fiction
Mark Twain and William Dean Howells, the pioneers of realism in the United States
Henry James's concern with character motivation and behavior led to the development of the psychological novel
the main tenet of realism = writers must set down their observations impartially and objectively
the faithful representation of life favor character and middle-class life and preoccupations
Naturalism
Naturalism, in literature, the theory that literary composition should be based on an objective, empirical presentation of human beings.
Naturalistic writers regard human behavior as controlled by:
instinct, emotion, or social and economic conditions,
reject free will,
adopt the biological determinism of Charles Darwin and the economic determinism of Karl Marx.
First prominently exhibited in the writings of:
Edmond Louis Antoine de Goncourt, his brother Jules Alfred Huot de Goncourt, and Émile Zola.
American exponents of naturalism:
Frank Norris, Sherwood Anderson, John Dos Passos, Theodore Dreiser, and James T. Farrell.
Howells, William Dean
Howells, William Dean (1837-1920), American novelist and critic
Born in Ohio. In 1860, he wrote the campaign biography of Abraham Lincoln. After Lincoln's election, Howells was appointed United States consul in Venice, Italy, in 1861.
In 1866, he became assistant editor of the literary magazine The Atlantic Monthly;
he served as editor in chief from 1871 through 1881.
From 1909 until his death, he was president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Wrote more than 30 novels:
A Modern Instance (1882), the story of a failed marriage,
A Woman's Reason (1883), a study of Boston society
The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885), a study of a self-made businessman who never loses his integrity.
1880s Howells became concerned with social issues:
Annie Kilburn (1888) deals with class contrasts in a New England town
A Traveler from Altruria (1894) and Through the Eye of the Needle (1907), explored the problems of industrial America
A Hazard of New Fortunes (1890), a dramatic novel about the newly rich, socialism, and labor strife in New York City, may be Howells's best work of fiction.
His critical works include:
Criticism and Fiction (1891), My Literary Passions (1895), and Literature and Life (1902)
Supported a diverse group of authors. Introduced American audiences to:
Émile Zola, Benito Pérez Galdós, Henrik Ibsen, and Leo Tolstoy.
Encouraged: Stephen Crane, Frank Norris, and Hamlin Garland.
Promoted women writers: Sarah Orne Jewett, Edith Wharton, and Emily Dickinson.
He was an editor and friend to Henry James and Mark Twain.
Garland, (Hannibal) Hamlin
Garland, (Hannibal) Hamlin (1860-1940),
Born in West Salem, Wisconsin. He grew up working on farms.
In 1884 he moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where he established a friendship with William Dean Howells.
The economics of farming in the Midwest furnished the central themes of his short stories:
the grim conditions of American farm life,
Main-Travelled Roads (1890) and Other Main-Travelled Roads (1910).
In 1894 Garland published Crumbling Idols, a volume of essays on literature and art in which he proposed his critical theory of
veritism, a socially conscious realism intended to express unembellished truth.
Involved in economic reform, feminist reform movements
an advocate for Native American rights.
autobiographical work:
1917 Son of the Middle Border,
1922 Daughter of the Middle Border
London, Jack (1876-1916),
born John Griffith London in San Francisco
worked at various odd jobs, and in 1897 and 1898 he participated in the Alaska gold rush
wrote more than 50 books, experienced enormous popular success as an author,
The Call of the Wild (1903)
People of the Abyss (1903), about the poor in London;
The Sea Wolf (1904), a novel based on the author's experiences on a seal hunting ship;
Martin Eden (1909), an autobiographical novel about a writer's life; John Barleycorn (1913), an autobiographical novel about London's struggle against alcoholism;
The Star Rover (1915), a collection of related stories dealing with reincarnation
Norris, Frank (1870-1902)
Born in Chicago, educated at the University of California and Harvard University.
A newspaper correspondent during the Spanish-American War (1898) and the Boer War (1899-1902).
McTeague (1899), the tragedy caused by greed in the lives of ordinary people;
The Octopus (1901)
The Pit (1903)
Vandover and the Brute (1914)
A Man's Woman (1900)
The Responsibilities of the Novelist and Other Literary Essays (1903).
Dreiser, Theodore Herman Albert (1871-1945)
Born in Indiana, Dreiser was a reporter for the Chicago Daily Globe in 1892, traveling correspondent for the St. Louis Globe Democrat and for the St. Louis Republic from 1893 to 1894.
Sister Carrie (1900)
Jenny Gerhardt (1911)
The Financier (1912)
The Titan (1914)
The “Genius” (1915)
An American Tragedy (1925))
Dreiser believed in representing life honestly in his fiction:
through detailed descriptions of the urban settings
his characters are victims of social and economic forces and of fate
a member of the United States Communist Party
Dreiser Looks at Russia (1928)
Tragic America (1932)
America Is Worth Saving (1941).
Crane, Stephen (1871-1900)
Born in Newark, New Jersey.
In 1891, New York City as a freelance reporter in the slums
Maggie, a Girl of the Streets (1893)
The Red Badge of Courage (1895)
a correspondent during the Greco-Turkish War (1897 and the Spanish-American War (1898)
The Open Boat and Other Stories (1898)
befriended by Joseph Conrad and Henry James
two volumes of poetry:
The Black Riders and Other Lines (1895)
War Is Kind and Other Poems (1899)
early examples of experimental free verse.