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REALISM IN
AMERICAN LITERATURE
(1865 – 1914)

CONTENT

Historical background

Definition

Themes and elements

Characteristics

Representatives

Comprehension check

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I. Historical background
 The Civil War ended
Most writers are Realists, not Romantics
 The increasing rates of democracy and
or Transcendentalists.
literacy
Americans were less certain and
Science, industry and transportation are
optimistic about the future.
expanding
The idealism of the Romantics and
An expanding population due to
Philosophy of Transcendentalists seemed
immigration
out of date and irrelevant
Self-reliant individualism
=> Ambition and greed for money and
power
 a fertile literary environment for readers interested in
understanding these rapid shifts in culture.
 Amy Kaplan has called realism as "strategy for
imagining and managing the threats of social change"

II. DEFINITION

Defined as "the faithful representation of reality" or "verisimilitude”

The representation of middle-class life. A reaction against Romanticism

It emphasizes on an interest in scientific method, the systematizing of the study

of documentary history, and the influence of rational philosophy

It encompasses the period of time from the Civil War to the turn of the century
(1960s through 1980s) that some authors devoted to accurate representation and
an exploration of American lives in various contexts

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III. Themes and elements

• Pragmatism
• Common place
• Real life
• Ordinary people (poor and middle class)
• Slavery and war
• American culture, morality and ethnics

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IV. CHARACTERISTICS
PLOT AND
CHARACTER

1 Attention to detail 2 Character

 specific detail of time and
place in history
 renders reality closely and in
comprehensive detail
 selective presentation of
reality with an emphasis on
verisimilitude, even at the
expense of a well-made plot
o more important than action
and plot
o appear in their real complexity
of temperament and motive
o relation to nature, to each
other, to their social class, to
their own past.

IV. CHARACTERISTICS
PLOT AND
CHARACTER
3 4
Class Events
• Important  usually be plausible
• The novel has traditionally
 realistic novels avoid the
served the interests and
aspirations of an insurgent sensational, dramatic
middle class. (See Ian elements of naturalistic
Watt, The Rise of the Novel) novels and romances

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PLOT AND
IV. CHARACTERISTICS
CHARACTER
5 Presence of humor 6
 Presence of humor,  Realism is viewed as a realization of
democracy.
whose "deflating"
 The morality of Realism is intrinsic,
tendencies find a natural integral, relativistic relations
fit with Realism's between people and society are
attention to everyday explored.
reality or limits, which  Realists were pragmatic, relativistic,
democratic and experimental. The
humans endure by
purpose of writing is to instruct and
laughing them off to entertain.

IV. CHARACTERISTICS
STRUCTURE OF
PROSE
1 2 3
Diction Use of symbolism Objectivity in
presentation
 natural vernacular  controlled and  becomes increasingly
 not heightened or limited important
poetic  the realists depend  overt authorial
 tone may be comic, more on the use of comments or
satiric, or matter- images intrusions diminish
of-fact. as the century
progresses

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IV. CHARACTERISTICS
PRINCIPLES OF REALISTIC
REALISM TECHNIQUES

1. Insistence upon and defense of "the

1. Settings thoroughly familiar to
experienced commonplace."
the writer
2. Character more important than plot.
2. Plots emphasizing the norm of
3. Attack upon romanticism and
daily experience
romantic writers.
3. Ordinary characters, studied in
4. Emphasis upon morality often self-
depth
realized and upon an examination of
4. Complete authorial objectivity
idealism.
5. Responsible morality; a world
5. Concept of realism as a realization
truly reported
of democracy.

Specific literary & historical comparisons of

Romanticism & Realism
Categories of Romanticism Realism
comparison
Attention to detail generic, typical, or symbolic specific detail of time and place in
history
Settings rural, pastoral, domestic; often idealized urban, time-specific

Speech, diction elevated, florid, archaic, bookish, common vernacular, dialects,

abstract references (e.g. honor) concrete references (e.g., money,
food, shelter, decor)
Human figure heroic individualism limiting social relations

Characterization heroes & villains, mixed characterizations,

oppressors & underdogs shared guilt or responsibility
Political movements "Era of the Common Man"; Manifest Destiny; "Gilded Age" / Plutocracy:
Abolition of Slavery; early Women's Rights increasing class inequality
movement

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CATEGORY OF
Romanticism Realism
COMPARISON

1820-60; "Era of the Common 1865-1910; Industrialization,

Historical period & political
Man"; Abolition; early Urbanization, Gilded Age;
economics:
women's movement Reconstruction and Reaction

Human form: heroic individualism social relations

survival of fittest; greed, lust,

Human motivation: honor, love, ideals
confusion
growing cities; social class
Setting: sublime frontier or gothic past
limits

Literary styles: elevated language dirty details (verisimilitude)

V. REPRESENTATIVES OF REALISM

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V. REPRESENTATIVES OF REALISM

1. William Dean Howells (1837-1920)

 The champion of Realism
 A critic, an editor and a novelist
 Attack against a romanticized vision of
life, write about ‘real life’, and to criticize
the new industrialized society
 His novels: The Rise of Silas Lapham
(1885), A Modern Instance, A Hazard of
New Fortunes.

V. REPRESENTATIVES OF REALISM

2. Henry James (1843-1916)

 Interested in psychological realism
 Wrote about the importance of
appearances and perception, the
relationships between fact and fiction
 His novels: Daisy Miller (1879), The
Ambassadors (1903) or The Portrait of a
Lady (1881).
 His short stories: “The Turn of
the Screw” (1898) and “The Real Thing”
(1893)

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V. REPRESENTATIVES OF REALISM

3. Mark Twain (1835-1910)

 The father of American literature
 Created a new style for authors to follow, which
went against the old New England way of writing
 Use colloquial narrative voice, use of humor,
themes like slavery and death

 1873, along with Charles Dudley Warner

wrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today
 Some other works: Life on the
Mississippi, The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn

V. REPRESENTATIVES OF REALISM

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