AMERICAN LITERATURE

Subject: REALISM AND NATURALISM (1861-1914)

Group: 3
Members of Group
1. Lưu Quốc Tuấn – Leader group
2. Ngô Huy Hoàng
3. Nguyễn Thanh Dũng
4. Nguyễn Hoàng Hiệp
5. Nguyễn Hồng Sơn
 • Civil War
Realism • Reconstruction

OUTLINE
Naturalism

Famous Authors
and Works
 I.I.Realism
Realism

1.1.CIVIL
CIVILWAR
WAR

b. Common
subjects; slums of
rapidly growing
a. Feelings of cities, factories
disillusionment replacing
farmlands, poor
factory workers,
corrupt politicians
I.I.CIVIL
CIVILWAR
WAR More than 2.3 million soldiers
fought in the war, and perhaps
851,000 died in 1861–1865. Walt
Whitman declared that “a great
literature will… arose out of the
age of those four years,” and
what emerged in the decades
that followed was a literature
that presented a detailed and
unremarkable vision. embrace
the world as it really is. This is
the essence of realism.
Naturalism is an enhanced
form of realism. After the grim
realities of a brutal war, they
become the writer's main mode
of expression.
 I.I.Realism
Realism

2.RECONSTRUCTION
2.RECONSTRUCTION

a. Represented the manner and environment

of everyday life and ordinary people as
realistically as possible (regionalism)

b. Sought to explain behavior

(psychologically/socially).
 II.II.Naturalism
Naturalism
Overlapping with the development
of Realism was the literary movement
known as Naturalism (approximately
1880–1930). Naturalist literature sought
to apply scientific principles of
objectivity and detachment to the
characters and subjects represented in
novels and short fiction. In this way,
Naturalism is influenced more by
philosophical ideals than literary
techniques including, though not
exclusively, existentialism and social
determinism.
II.II.Naturalism
Naturalism

In order to convey what they

felt to be the harshness of life
circumstances across the
spectrum of human experience,
some Naturalist writers combined
elements of Realism (a focus on
the everyday) with elements of
Romanticism (a focus on emotion
and symbolism) in order to
portray what they understood to
be the futility of human striving in
an indifferent universe.
 III.
III.Famous
FamousAuthors
Authorsand
andWorks
Works
Samuel Clemens was a typewriter, a
journalist, a riverboat captain, and an
itinerant worker before becoming Mark
Twain in 1863 at the age of 27. He first
used that name while reporting on
politics in the Nevada Territory. It later
appeared in the short story "The
Famous Jumping Frog of Calaveras
County," published in 1865, making him
nationally known. Twain's story is a
highly humorous one, but its characters
are realistic depictions of actual
Americans. Twain implemented this
combination of humor and realism
AMUEL CLEMENS (MARK TWAIN) throughout his writing. Some of his
(1835 - 1910) notable works include
Major Novels: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)
Travel Stories: Innocents Abroad (1869), Rough It Up (1872), Life on Mississippi (1883)
Short Stories: "Jim Baker's Blue-Jay Yarn" (1880), "The Man Who Spoiled Hadleyburg" (1899)
For Twain and other American writers of
the late 19th century, realism was not
merely a literary technique: It was a way
of speaking truth and exploding worn-
out conventions. Thus it was profoundly
liberating and potentially at odds with
society. The most well-known example is
Huck Finn, a poor boy who decides to
follow the voice of his conscience and
help a Negro slave escape to freedom,
even though Huck thinks this means that
he will be damned to hell for breaking
the law.
Twain's serious purpose,
combined with a rare genius for
humor and style, keep his writing
fresh and appealing.
 Henry James once wrote
that art, especially literary
art, "makes life, makes
interest, makes
importance." James's
fiction and criticism is the
most highly conscious,
sophisticated, and difficult
of its era. With Twain,
James is generally ranked
as the greatest American
novelist of the second half
of the 19th century.

HENRY JAMES (1843-1916)

Henry James shares the realist and
naturalist view that literature must
present reality, but his writing style
and use of literary form also aim to
create an aesthetic experience, not
simply record facts. He is
preoccupied with the conflict of
values ​between the United States
and Europe. His work exhibits
features of both 19th century
realism and naturalism and 20th
century modernism.
Some of his
notable
novels are
Americans
(1877)
Portrait of a
Lady (1881)
What Maisie
Knew (1897)
The Wings of
a Dove (1902)
The Golden
Bowl (1904)
 Kate Chopin was an American
author of short stories and
novels based in Louisiana.
She is considered by scholars
to have been a forerunner of
American 20th-century
feminist authors of Southern
or Catholic background, such
as Zelda Fitzgerald, and is
one of the most frequently
read and recognized writers
Kate Chopin (1850-1904)  of Louisiana Creole heritage.
Her major works were two short story collections: Bayou Folk (1894) and A Night in
Acadie (1897). Her important short stories included "Désirée's Baby" (1893), a tale
of miscegenation in antebellum Louisiana, "The Story of an Hour" (1894), and "The
Storm" (1898). "The Storm" is a sequel to "At the Cadian Ball," which appeared in her
first collection of short stories, Bayou Folk.
Chopin also wrote two novels: At Fault (1890) and The Awakening (1899), which are
set in New Orleans and Grand Isle, respectively. The characters in her stories are
usually residents of Louisiana, and many are Creoles of various ethnic or racial
backgrounds. Many of her works are set in Natchitoches in north-central Louisiana, a
region where she lived.
The twenty-one short stories in A Night in Acadie,
like those of Bayou Folk, take place in the
uniquely blended, multicultural Louisiana. Yet
unlike Chopin's first collection of short stories, A
Night in Acadie reveals a bolder, less traditional
treatment of bayou life. A Night in Acadie is
populated with memorable figures, including the
exceedingly lazy Polydore, who fakes a rheumatic
attack in order to avoid labor, and the impish
Mamouche, who subjects the neighborhood to his
mischievous pranks. In the case of these two
tricksters, both ultimately prove repentant,
thereby restoring order to their society.
Within a decade of her death,
Chopin was widely recognized
as one of the leading writers of
her time. In 1915, Fred Lewis
Pattee wrote, "some of
Chopin's work is equal to the
best that has been produced in
France or even in America. She
displayed what may be
described as a native aptitude
for narration amounting almost
to genius."
 Robert Lee Frost (March 26, 1874 –
January 29, 1963) was an American
poet. His work was initially published
in England before it was published in
the United States. Known for his
realistic depictions of rural life and his
command of American colloquial
speech, Frost frequently wrote about
settings from rural life in New England
in the early 20th century, using them
to examine complex social and
ROBERT FROST (1874-1963) philosophical themes.
A Boy's Will is a poetry collection by Robert
Frost, and is the poet's first commercially
published book of poems. The book was first
published in 1913 by David Nutt in London. Its
first American edition had come two years
later, in 1915.
Frost was apparently pleased with the book
and wrote to a friend shortly after its
publication, "I expect to do something to the
present state of literature in America."
Like much of Frost's work, the poems in A
Boy's Will thematically associate with rural life,
nature, philosophy, and individuality.
 • 1913. A Boy's Will
• 1914. North of Boston
• 1916. Mountain Interval 
 In 1915 Frost returned to the US to buy a farm in Franconia, New Hampshire, but
life was still difficult, having to tutor at universities and read poetry at clubs. His
poetry collection New Hampshire (1923) won him his first Pulitzer Prize in 1924.
Collected Poems (1930) was awarded his second Pulitzer Prize. The two episodes A
Further Range (Towards the Distance, 1936) and A Witness Tree (Tree of Testimony,
1942) brought two more Pulitzer prizes. The final collection of poems In the Clearing
(In the Clear Forest, 1962) contains poems as good as the first volumes. President
John F. Kennedy invited Robert Frost to read poetry on his inauguration day.
Mr. Frost was honored frequently during his lifetime and is the only poet to receive
four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry. He became one of America's rare “public literary
figures, almost an artistic institution”. He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal
in 1960 for his poetic works. On July 22, 1961, Frost was named poet laureate of
Vermont.