american realism 1850-1914
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American Realism 1850-1914. Mrs. Crandall American Literature. What is realism. Response to the Civil War Rejection of Romanticism Portrays “real life” as ordinary people lived Attempted to show characters and events in an honest, objective and factual way - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
MRS. CRANDALLAMERICAN LITERATURE
American Realism1850-1914
What is realism
Response to the Civil WarRejection of RomanticismPortrays “real life” as ordinary people
livedAttempted to show characters and events
in an honest, objective and factual wayPsychological stories: focus on character
motivationRegionalismNaturalism
Realism
Historical Background
American North Northern Industrial Revolution- advances in
education, banking and science Immigration- influx of Irish and German immigrants Agriculture- slow pace plantations Slavery- economy highly dependant on slave labor
1850 Fugitive Slave Act passed (mandated the return of fugitive slaves)
1854 Kansas- Nebraska Act1859 Harpers Ferry West Virginia- slave
revolt led by John Brown (later hanged for treason)
Literary Connection
Uncle Tom’s CabinHarriet Beecher Stowe
1852Became a powerful antislavery weaponMore than 300,000 copies soldVividly depicted the cruelty of slavery
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Historical Timeline
1860- Abraham Lincoln elected as President of the United States
1861- Civil War begins April 12- Confederate fired on Union troops holding
fort Sumter- started the Civil War
1865- Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders Just days later, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated
(April 14, 1865)
Soldiers
Historical Timeline
1862- Homestead Act which encouraged westward expansion Promised land (160 acres) to Americans willing to
move westward to inhabit and develop land on the Great Plains
1869- Transcontinental Railroad openedBy 1890, virtually all Native Americans in the
West had been forced from their land
Industrial Revolution
Began in the 1880’s after electricity was introduced Population just over 50 million By the turn of the century the population is about 76
million A significant portion was due to more than 9 million
immigrants who came during this period
Electricity replaced steam powerInventions: electric lights, telephone,
automobiles, motion picture, and phonographsLed to a boost in consumer goods, advertising,
skyscrapers, department storesAlso led to pollution, crimes, slums, traffic jams
Wealth and Poverty
The industrial boom of the late nineteenth century created new extremes in wealth and poverty Wages of industrial workers were so low that a single
worker, or even two, often could not support one family
Child labor became the norm among the poor and working class
Immigrant families often lived in small, dark, unventilated apartments without toilets
In these conditions, disease was rampant!
Literary Connections
How the Other Half LivesJacob Riis
1890First expose documentaryPowerful photographyExposed the living conditions of the poor
working class citizens
How the Other Half Lives
How the Other Half Lives
How the Other Half Lives
Emergence of African American Literature
Sojourner Truth- “An Account of and Experience with Discrimination”
Fredrick Douglass- My Bondage and My Freedom
Charles Chestnutt- Marrow of Tradition
Stories were told through slave quilts and slave spirituals
Regionalism
Focus on specific geographical setting, dialects, landscapes, mannerisms, and cultural customs of a region
Also called Local Color FictionMark Twain
How’r y’all doin’ down yonder?
Naturalism
Naturalist writers also depicted real people in real situations, but they believed in forces larger than the individual- nature, fate, heredity- shaped individual destiny
If the reality these writers depicted seemed to be a harsh one, it was because hardship influenced their artistic vision. It was a vision rooted in war, in the frontier, and increasingly, in America’s growing cities
Also called DeterminismKate ChopinJack London