realism and the three复习讲义.doc

American Realism (1865-1910) I. General Review ☆A literary and intellectual movement that led poets and novelists not to imagine life as it could be, but to examine life as it was actually lived and to record what they saw around them as honestly as they could. ☆a contemporary view of what was happening; an attempt at defining what was real. ☆ General Features ① Story: detailed followings of reality, realistic events ② Character: superior to plot; complexity of human emotions; distinguished social classes or status ③ Theme: ethical decisions at the root of the story II. American Realism 1. Backgrounds: ⑴ Politically: Civil War ☆ headed resolutely towards capitalism ☆ a deterioration in American moral values ☆ lead to questions of the ever-lasting Emersonian goodness ⑵ Economy: increasing industrialization and mechanization ☆ appearance of economic thumbs: Rockefeller, Morgan, ect. ☆ the redirection of American dream: the popularity of Horatio Alger (1867, Ragged Dick) the spirit of self-reliance the seek of money and power ☆ Charles Darwin’s “survival of the fittest”, the Jungle Law. ⑶ Geography: The closing of frontier end of the spiritual sustenance of “the next hill” (illusion) reexamination of life (disillusionment) ⑷Literature: against “the lie” of Romanticism. Liberty Sincerity Poetic diction idealization accurate documentation sociological insight Beauty objects from everyday life, preferably from lower classes An individual and emotional age A positivist and scientific age Realism vs. Romanticism What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us. --------Ralph Waldo Emerson Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society. ------------Mark Twain 2. The Three Primary Founders ⑴ William Dean Howells (1837-1920) ☆The Dean of American Literature ☆The Dean of American Letters ☆ The Father of American realism and a denouncer of the