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