Realism  and  Naturalism  

Goya’s  “The  Third  of  May  1808”  (1814)  

Edouard  Manet’s  “The  ExecuBon  of  Emperor  Maximillian”  (1867)  

DefiniBon  •  Realism  in  the  visual  arts  and  literature  refers  to  faithful  

representaBon  of  life  as  it  actually  is  •  Largely  a  reacBon  against  what  were  viewed  as  the  excesses  of  

RomanBcism  (seen  as  overly  emoBonal  or  idealisBc,  distorBng)  •  Subjects  depicted  are  believed  to  exist  in  objecBve  reality,  

without  embellishment  or  interpretaBon    

“The Third-Class Carriage” by Honoré Daumier” (1865)

Influences  Industrializa,on  

Influences  In  America  •  Civil  War  

–  Industrialized  North  wins  out  over  more  pastoral  South  

–  Steam  power  takes  over  from  water  power  

 

In  America    •  Westward  Expansion  •  Technological  

InnovaBons  –  Railroads  –  CommunicaBon  

•  Rapidly  increasing  contrast  between  rural  and  urban  life  –  ImmigraBon  

Influences  Photography  

Jacob Riis, Five Cents Lodging, Bayard Street, c. 1889

Verisimilitude  

•  Verisimilitude:    the  quality  of  appearing  to  be  true  or  real  

•  Metaphor  of  a  “mirror  to  the  world.”    

 

•  Accurately  observing  wealth  of  details  of  ordinary  life:    houses,  furniture,  clothing,  train  staBons,  seasonal  changes,  social  habits,  etc.  

Techniques that suggest verismilitude

Dialect  •  Verisimilitude  also  sustained  

by  close  observaBon  of  real  speech  pa[ern—how  people  actually  spoke  

•  Especially  in  America,  realisBc  works  of  literature  o]en  rely  heavily  on  dialect    

EXPLANATORY IN this book a number of dialects are used, to wit: the Missouri negro dialect; the extremest form of the backwoods Southwestern dialect; the ordinary "Pike County" dialect; and four modified varieties of this last. The shadings have not been done in a hap- hazard fashion, or by guesswork; but painstakingly, and with the trustworthy guidance and support of personal familiarity with these several forms of speech. I make this explanation for the reason that without it many readers would suppose that all these characters were trying to talk alike and not succeeding.

Rebecca  Harding  Davis  and  Realism  •  In  her  autobiography,  speaks  of  

Emerson  •  Notes  that  working  class  men  and  

women  made  pilgrimages  to  Concord  to  hear  the  “Great  Sage”  

•  But  he  offered  them  only  “theories  [that]  were  like  beauBful  bubbles  blown  from  a  child’s  pipe,  floaBng  overhead,  with  queer  reflecBons  on  them  of  sky  and  earth  and  human  beings,  all  in  a  glow  of  fairy  color  and  all  a  li[le  distorted.”  

Two  Ways  of  Looking  at  War  That  was  the  first  peculiarity  which  struck  an  outsider  in  Emerson,  

Hawthorne,  and  the  other  members  of  the  “AtlanBc”  coterie;  that  while  they  thought  they  were  guiding  the  real  world,  they  stood  quite  outside  of  it,  and  never  would  see  it  as  it  was.  

…I  remember  listening  during  one  long  summer  morning  to  Louisa  Alco[’s  father  as  he  chanted  paeans  to  the  war,  the  “armed  angel  which  was  wakening  the  naBon  to  a  lo]y  life  unknown  before.”…  

I  had  just  come  from  the  border  where  I  had  seen  the  actual  war;  the  filthy  spewings  of  it;  the  poliBcal  jobbery  in  Union  and  Confederate  camps;  the  malignant  personal  hatred  wearing  patrioBc  masks,  and  glu[ed  by  burning  homes  and  outraged  women;  the  chances  in  it,  well  improved  on  both  sides,  for  bruBsh  men  to  grown  more  bruBsh,  and  for  honorable  gentlemen  to  degenerate  into  thieves  and  sots.    War  may  be  an  armed  angel  with  a  mission,  but  she  has  the  personal  habits  of  the  slums.”                                                                                                    Rebecca  Harding  Davis  (1904)    

Naturalism  

•  A subset of Realism •  Literary movement starting in the late 19th Century, influential on the first half of the 20th Century

Émile  Zola  (1840-­‐1902)  

•  French  novelist  •  Figure  most  associated  with  

start  of  literary  Naturalism  •  Wrote  about  prosBtuBon,  

alcoholism,  coal  mines,  but  also  the  bourgeoisie  

•  Influenced  by  Dr.  Claude  Bernard  

•  Wanted  to  apply  scienBfic  principles  to  psychological  studies  of  character  

•  Realists  considered  themselves  observers  of  society  

•  Naturalists  thought  of  themselves  as  experimental  scienBsts  

•  Manipulated  characters  and  plots  to  test  hypotheses  about  social  forces  

Now,  to  return  to  the  novel,  we  can  easily  see  that  the  novelist  is  equally  an  observer  and  experimentalist.    The  observer  in  him  gives  the  facts  as  he  has  observed  them,  suggests  the  point  of  departure,  displays  the  solid  earth  on  which  his  characters  are  to  tread  and  the  phenomena  to  develop.    Then  the  experimentalist  appears  and  introduces  an  experiment,  that  is  to  say,  sets  his  characters  going  in  a  certain  story  so  as  to  show  that  the  succession  of  facts  will  be  such  as  the  requirements  of  the  determinism  of  the  phenomena  under  examinaBon  call  for.          -­‐-­‐Émile  Zola,  The  Experimental  Novel,  p.  8  

 

Emphasis  on  the  Extraordinary  

•  Instead  of  middle-­‐class  realiBes  of  a  George  Eliot  or  William  Dean  Howells,  the  Naturalists  presented  the  fringes  of  society:    the  criminal,  the  fallen,  the  down-­‐and-­‐out  

Darwin,  Science,    and  Determinism  

•  Post-­‐Darwinian  worldview  tends  to  be  more  determinisBc  

•  Emphasizes  environment  and  heredity  

•  In  Naturalism,  Fate  =  Heredity  +  Environment  +  Chance    

•  We  o]en  follow  characters  as  they  spiral  downward  

Examples  of  Naturalism  

Stephen  Crane’s  Maggie,  A  Girl  of  the  Streets  (1893)  •   About  life  in  the  slums  of  the  bowery  in  New  York.    A  young  girl  is  driven  to  prosBtuBon.    Ends  up    dead.  

Examples  of  Naturalism  

Theodore  Dreiser’s  An  American  Tragedy  (1925)  •   AmbiBous  but  poor  young  man  falls  in  with  the  wrong  crowd,  accidentally  (?)  kills  a  girl  he  had  go[en  pregnant.    Ends  up  in  the  electric  chair.  

Examples  of  Naturalism  

Richard  Wright’s  NaIve  Son  (1940)  •   Young  black  chauffeur  accidentally  smothers  white  daughter  of  his  wealthy  employer  as  he  carries  her  home  drunk  one  night.    Ends  up  in  the  electric  chair.    

“Life  in  the  Iron  Mills”  (1861)  

•  A  NaturalisBc  work  ahead  of  its  Bme?  •  How  is  Hugh’s  Fate  (his  downward  spiral)  a  result  of  Environment  +  Chance?  

Review Roman,cism  

Realism   • Emphasizes the search for spiritual

and supernatural truths

• Interested in truth as it exists in the material world (empirical and sensory truth) • Emphasizes the ideal

-Characters tend to be larger than life, extraordinary, heroic or evil -Environments can include supernatural, sublime settings -Language tends toward the formal or poetic

• Emphasizes the real -Characters tend to be ordinary, average people, flawed, imperfect -Environments are natural and ordinary -Language includes dialect, realistic speech

• Technique sometimes considered a lamp (Illuminates reality; changes the way we see it)

• Technique sometimes considered a mirror (Tries to represent reality exactly as it is)

• Anti-authoritarian

• Concerned with social problems

• Emphasizes human capacity for free will

• When Realism becomes Naturalism, emphasizes scientific determinism

Local  Color  WriBng  

•  1870-­‐1890;  associated  with  William  Dean  Howells  and  The  AtlanIc  Monthly    

•  Emphasizes  the  color  or  disBncBve  a[ributes  of  a  specific  locale  

•  Character  (and  character  “types”)  more  important  than  plot  

Increased  American  interest  in  Local  Color  WriBng  due  to:  

•  The  Civil  War  (which  dramaBzed  U.S.  secBonal  division)    

•  Opening  of  the  West  •  Rapidly  increasing  

contrast  between  rural  and  urban  life  –  “Notorious  Jumping  

Frog”  

Twain  and    Realism  

•  Detested  ideas  of  romanBc  chivalry  promoted  by  writers  such  as  Sir  Walter  Sco[  

•  Mercilessly  spoofed  romanBc  writers  such  as  James  Fenimore  Cooper  and  senBmental  writers  such  as  Julia  A.  Moore  for  lack  of  realism.  

Julia  A.  Moore,  “The  Sweet  Singer  of  Michigan”  

LITTLE HENRY

AIR -- "Minnie Lee" Oh! come listen to my story Of a little infant child -- His spirit is in glory -- It has left us for a while. Death has robbed us of our Henry, He is with our Savior now, Where there is no pain or sorrow Comes to cloud his little brow.

CHORUS: God has took their little treasure,

And his name I'll tell you now, He has gone from earth forever,

Their little Charles Henry House.        

His cheeks were red as roses, And his eyes were black as coals, His little lips were red as rubies, And his little hair it curled. Oh, they called him little Charley, He was full of joyful mirth -- Now his little form is lying 'Neath the cold and silent earth. It was the eleventh of December, On a cold and windy day, Just at the close of evening, When the sunlight fades away; Little Henry he was dying, In his little crib he lay, With soft winds round him sighing From the morn till close of day. Etc. Etc. Etc.

LITTLE  LIBBIE  One  more  li[le  spirit  to  Heaven  has  flown,  

           To  dwell  in  that  mansion  above,  Where  dear  li[le  angels,  together  roam,              In  God's  everlasBng  love.  

 One  li[le  flower  has  withered  and  died,  

           A  bud  near  ready  to  bloom,  Its  life  on  earth  is  marked  with  pride;              Oh,  sad  it  should  die  so  soon.  

 

Sweet  li[le  Libbie,  that  precious  flower              Was  a  pride  in  her  parents'  home,  They  miss  their  li[le  girl  every  hour,              Those  friends  that  are  le]  to  mourn.  

 Her  sweet  silvery  voice  no  more  is  heard  

           In  the  home  where  she  once  roamed;  Her  place  is  vacant  around  the  hearth,              Where  her  friends  are  mourning  lone.  

 They  are  mourning  the  loss  of  a  li[le  girl,  

           With  black  eyes  and  auburn  hair,  She  was  a  treasure  to  them  in  this  world,              This  beauBful  child  so  fair.                  etc.  etc.  etc.  

“Ode  to  Stephen  Dowling  Bots,  Dec.’d”  (from  Huckleberry  Finn)  

 And  did  young  Stephen  sicken,    And  did  young  Stephen  die?    And  did  the  sad  hearts  thicken,    And  did  the  mourners  cry?      No;  such  was  not  the  fate  of    Young  Stephen  Dowling  Bots;    Though  sad  hearts  round  him  thickened,    'Twas  not  from  sickness'  shots.      No  whooping-­‐cough  did  rack  his  frame,    Nor  measles  drear,  with  spots;    Not  these  impaired  the  sacred  name    Of  Stephen  Dowling  Bots.      Despised  love  struck  not  with  woe    That  head  of  curly  knots,    Nor  stomach  troubles  laid  him  low,    Young  Stephen  Dowling  Bots.      O  no.  Then  list  with  tearful  eye,    Whilst  I  his  fate  do  tell.    His  soul  did  from  this  cold  world  fly,    By  falling  down  a  well.    

   They  got  him  out  and  emp,ed  him;    Alas  it  was  too  late;    His  spirit  was  gone  for  to  sport  aloP    In  the  realms  of  the  good  and  great  

     

 .