Realism (1855-1900)

Major Historical Events

• 1861-1865: American Civil War • 1863: (Jan. 1): Emancipation Proclamation

(abolish slavery)• 1865: 13th Amendment (abolish slavery) • 1869: First transcontinental railroad• 1859: Darwin’s The Origin of Species

Prominent Writers

• Mark Twain (1835-1910) Novel/Short Stories• Henry James (1843-1916) Novel • Kate Chopin (1851-1904) Novel/Short Stories• Robert Frost (1874-1963) Poetry (Early Works)• Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)Poetry(Early Works)

Characteristics of the Writing

• Realism was a reaction against the Romantic emphasis on the strange and idealistic. It has focus on the “ordinary” life.

• Dialogue includes “voices” from around the country. (Dialect) This is considered colloquial speech (everyday words and phrases). Characters were often common people such as industrial workers, rural or poor people, ambitious businessmen and vagrants, prostitutes , and unheroic soldiers.

• The writing sought to expose political corruption, economic inequity, business deception, the exploitation of labor, women rights problems, and racial inequity.

• This writing focuses on life in the writer’s time and does not shrink away from the harsh and brutal realities on life and death.

Characteristics of the writing continued..

Regionalism (Local Color) & Naturalism

Major Historical Events• Both of these fall under the category of

Realism. Thus, the historical events are the same.

Prominent Writers • Mark Twain (Regionalist-South & West)• Kate Chopin (Regionalist- Louisiana) • Bret Harte 1836-1902 (Regionalist-West)• Sarah Orne Jewett (Regionalist-New England) • Hamlin Garland (Regionalist-Midwestern)(Naturalist)• Stephen Crane 1871-1900 (Naturalist) • Theodore Dreiser 1871-1945 (Naturalist)• Edith Wharton 1862-1937 (Naturalist)• Jack London 1879-1916 (Naturalist)• John Steinbeck 1902-1968 (Naturalist)

Major Characteristics of the writing

• Regionalism is a literary movement that focused on the “local color” of a particular area. The regionalist accurately re-creates the activities, dialect, appearance, and customs of the characters, as well as the environment in which they live.

• In regional writing. There is a desire to preserve distinctive ways of life and to satisfy a demand to know how people lived in other parts of the country.

• In naturalistic writing characters are often caught within forces of nature or society that are beyond their understanding or control. This style of writing uses a facts-only approach, a style made through detailed observation of the “truth” of the human experience. These writers may seek to better the world through social reform.

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