The Realism Movement
1865-1914
“True realism consists in revealing the surprising
things which habit keeps covered and prevents us
from seeing.” – Jean Cocteau
Realism
• First developed in France
in mid-1900s
• Spread to England, Russia,
and U.S.
• Best represented by the
novel
• William Dean Howells
considered the foremost
American author of this
movement
Realism: Themes
• Class conflict
• The city
• Philosophy and morality
• Marriage and family
Realism: Style
• Narrative voice – Writers sought to narrate stories
in omniscient, objective voice.
• Setting – Writers sought to document every aspect of
their contemporary culture through accurate
representations of specific settings. They usually set
their stories during specific historical events of the
18th and 19th centuries.
• Characterization – Writers created a wide range of
characters from all walks of life. They were also
celebrated for their psychological detail by which their
fictional characters are portrayed. Character is more
important than action and plot.
• Major authors – William Dean Howells, Henry
James, Edith Wharton
Realism: Offshoots
Naturalism
Regionalism/local
color
Naturalism
1. Naturalism extended and intensified the tenets of
Realism in that the naturalist writers sought to
apply the evolutionary principles of Charles
Darwin to their fiction. They believed that the
course of each individual’s life is determined by a
combination of his or her hereditary traits and
the historical and sociological environment into
which she or he was born. Each character is thus
essentially a victim of circumstance and has little
power to change the course of his or her life.
2. The naturalist writers extended the values of
Realism to even greater extremes of objectivity in
their detailed observations and descriptions of all
echelons of contemporary life.
3. At times, novels contain sensational, dramatic
elements not found in realism.
Naturalism
4.
Themes


Scientific principles
Ordinary people in extraordinary
situations
5. Style


Symbolism
Details

Stephen Crane – The Red Badge of Courage
(1895)
Frank Norris – McTeague: A Story of San
Francisco (1899)
Jack London - The Call of the Wild (1903)
Theodore Dreiser – Sister Carrie (1900)
6. American authors



Regionalism/local color
1. Setting
▫
▫
▫
▫
Landscape
Dialect
Customs
Folklore specific to a
geographic region or locale
2. Characters
▫ Traditional gender, ethnic,
and socioeconomic roles
3. Themes
▫ Aversion to change
▫ Weakness for sentimentality
or nostalgia for the
anachronistic practices of the
past
Regionalism/local color
4. Major authors
▫ Bret Harte – “The Luck of Roaring Camp”
(1868)
▫ Mark Twain – “The Celebrated Jumping Frog
of Calaveras County” (1865)
▫ Harriet Beecher Stowe – Oldtown Fireside
Stories (1871)
▫ Sarah Orne Jewett – The Country of the
Pointed Firs (1896)
▫ Kate Chopin – Bayou Folk (1894) and A Night
in Acadie (1897)