American Literature - Realism, Regionalism, and Naturalism
regionalism
"local color"; focuses on characters, dialect, customs, topography, and other features specific to a specific region; coincided with realism; 1865-1895
main characteristics of naturalism
1. pessimism 2. detachment 3. determinism (fate or nature controls a person's decisions in contrast to realism's belief of free will) 4. the surprising twist at the end of the plot
regionalist writers
Kate Chopin (South), Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman (New England), Mark Twain (West), Willa Cather (Midwest)
realist writers
Mark Twain, William Dean, Howells, Henry James, Edgar Lee Masters
reasons regionalism developed
Romanticism and Realism The Civil War building of national identity more focus on particular setting's influence over characters
naturalist writers
Stephen Crane, Ambrose Bierce, Jack London, Ewin Arlington Robinson, Katherine Anne Porter, Charlotter Perkins Gilman, Edith Wharton
reasons realism developed
The Civil War the urbanization of America reaction to Romanticism increasing democracy and literacy the emerging middle class
realism, regionalism, and naturalism
are intertwined and connected, the most dominant type of literature created since 1920, and American modes of writing
recent
as compared to romanticism and realism, naturalism is more __________ in the literary cycle.
naturalism
objectivity and detachment attached to human beings; influenced by Darwinism and psychology; "men are governed by heredity and enviornment"; 1880-1920s connotes a philosiphical pessimism
realism
representation of reality in literature, also known as "versimilitude" with believable characters; written in vernacular, or dialect
reasons naturalism developed
swell of immigrants (larger lowerr class and increased poverty) psychology (Freud, esp.) Civil War and Reconstruction publication of Charles Darwin's "Origin of the Species"
1860 to 1890
time period of realism