Realizing

that it’s

Realism

Celestine Pham, Danely Roman, Joseph Galm, and Jennifer Lam P.3

KEY ELEMENTS & DISTINGUISHED CHARACTERISTICS OF REALISM

♣ characteristics include the attention to detail, and an effort to replicate the true nature of reality- unknowable, uncertain, and ever-shifting.

♣ was influenced by human psychology and internal monologues.

♣ Realist authors believed novel should be a report of situations without any judgment orcomment.• opted for banal, everyday depictions as opposed to romanticized presentation.

♣ popular device/literary technique for many novelists was the frame narrative (story inside astory).• --It highlights the use of an unreliable narrator by placing the reader at a further removefrom the events of the novel.

♣ Realist novels are marked by journalistic techniques such as objectivity and fidelity to facts.

• attempts to reveal internal struggles: most of the action happens in the mind

• character and personality are the highlights of realist fiction--novelists tried to createintricate, layered characters

• plot structure in a realist novel does not contain grand happenings, tragedies, or epic turn of events

• narrative style uses unreliable narrators (opposed to omniscient); narrator's perceptionsare colored by their own biases

· Realism started in the early 1860s and went into the late 1890s, but extended into the early 1920s.

Historical Context

· The American Civil War (1861)· Austro-Prussian War (1866)· The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, gave the right to vote to black males (1870)· Yellowstone National Park established (1872)· Blue jeans and barbed wire are invented (1873)

What Was Happening in the World

· First successful telephone call (1876)· The American Red Cross was incorporated (1881)· Brooklyn Bridge opened (1883)· Statue of Liberty finished (1886)· Slavery Banned in Brazil (1888)

· Fingerprinting is adopted (1892)· Volleyball invented (1895)· Boxer Rebellion (1900)· First Nobel Prize awarded (1901)· Teddy Bear introduced (1902)

· First silent movie (1903)· Einstein proposed Theory of Relativity (1905)· Plastic invented (1909)· World War I (1914)· Daylight savings introduced (1918)

What Was Happening in the World

Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)-French novelist & playwright-one of the firsts with realist narrative style - characters were of great importance-spoke with associates to learn more about specific subjects- in his work, the locale would become a character of its own-most famous work: The Human Comedy

-tales/novels of French life in early 19th century -didn’t rely on spectacular events, focused on small things that expressed the typical French life experience

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881)-Russian writer-psychologically complicated characters- Crime and Punishment :Raskolnikov

-conflicting impulses-most of the action happened in characters’ head-unreliable narrators

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) (1835-1910)-early pioneer of Realism- known for speech patterns & vocabulary

-focused on lower & middle class characters

-seen as unusual compared to those “elite” characters- most

frequently banned: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

-offensive language, honest speech

Henry James (1843-1916)most famous work Daisy Millermost successful novel The Portrait of a Ladyin his stories, readers see events through characters’ eyesthemes: greed, power, and exploitation

Events that Spurred the Movement of Realism &

How the Movement was a Reaction to the Time Period· Began from 19th century French writers such as Honoré de Balzac that depicted contemporary life and society as they were rather than how the writers wanted it to be.· The growth of Realism is considered to be linked to developments in science, commerce and industrialization, the rise in philosophy and a reaction against romanticism.

· Concept that people were neither completely good or completely bad.· Labor unrest and reform.· Tenement life and immigration issues.· Birth control and sexuality.· A time of middle class life and photography.· A time of breakthroughs and a time of new inventions as well as discovery.

· A time of war as well as prosperity where people tried to depict the realities of life.· Many emigrants from Europe and other countries were coming to America and it caused a sense of pride to develop among citizens for their country.· Realism developed as a new style due to pride national pride or nationalism.