Literary naturalism

Introduction to Realism:
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Revolt against Romanticism

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Instead of Idealistic >Pessimistic

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Portraits of REAL life with all its grit

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Finding meaning in commonplace

Class example:
Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”


I Hear America Singing
by Walt Whitman
I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his as he makes ready for work,
or leaves off work, The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat,
the deckhand
singing on the steamboat deck,
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he

stands,
The wood-cutter's song, the ploughboy's on his way in the morning, or
at noon intermission or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the
girl sewing or washing,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows,
robust, friendly,
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.


Intro to Regionalism/Local Color:
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Happy medium between Romanticism and Realism
Captured the essence of life in various regions of the
nation
a way for people across the nation to reconnect after the
Civil War
concerned with the character of the region not the
individual
Stories may include lots of storytelling and revolve around
the community and its rituals.
Use of dialect to establish credibility and authenticity of
regional characters.

Class example: Kate Chopin’s “Desiree’s Baby”


Kate Chopin, 1851-1904
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“one of the most powerful
and controversial writers of
her time”
Focused on capturing the
essence of life in Louisiana
(Cajuns & Creoles)
Common themes: nature of
marriage, racial prejudice,
female equality


Introduction to Naturalism
(1870’s to mid-1900’s)


“A Man Said to the Universe”
by Stephen Crane

A man said to the universe,

“Sir, I exist!”
“However,” replied the universe,
“The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation.”


Naturalism Background
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Naturalism is an extension and
refinement of Realism, based on
the theories of the French novelist,
Emile Zola (1840 – 1902) .
Influenced by the scientific
discoveries of the time, Naturalist
saw humans as one of the pack…
not individuals. Emile Zola coined
the term “human beasts” to
demonstrate this.
Inspired by Charles Darwin &
Thomas Huxley, Zola believed
people’s actions and beliefs
resulted not from freewill but from
arbitrary, outside forces of heredity
and environment.

What was going on in the world?
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Western Expansion

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“Manifest Destiny”

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Gold rushes

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Growth of cities

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Industrialism


Major Tenets of Naturalism
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Writer must examine people and society objectively and, like a scientist, draw conclusions
from what is observed.

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Reality: the inescapable working out of natural forces

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Destiny is decided by heredity and environment, physical drives, and economic
circumstances.

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Tended to be pessimistic.

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Direct opposite of Romanticism and Transcendentalism, which saw nature as holy or
mystical

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Despite their underlying powerlessness, characters generally conduct themselves with
strength and dignity in the face of adversity, thereby affirming the significance of their
existence.
Realism vs. Naturalism: htm

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Most Popular American Naturalist Writers:
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Stephen Crane

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Jack London

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Theodore Dreiser

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Frank Norris


Stephen Crane
(1871-1900)
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The Red Badge of Courage:
An Episode of the American
Civil War (1895)
Maggie: A Girl of the
Streets (1893)
“The Blue Hotel” (1898)

“The Open Boat” (1898)


Stephen Crane Biography
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one of America's foremost realistic writers, and his works have been
credited with marking the beginning of modern American
Naturalism
Influenced by William Dean Howells's theory of realism, Crane utilized his
keen observations, as well as personal experiences, to achieve a narrative
vividness and sense of immediacy matched by few American writers
before him.
Critics suggest that [Maggie: A Girl of the Streets ] was a major development
in American literary Naturalism and that it introduced Crane's vision of life
as warfare: influenced by the Darwinism of the times, Crane viewed
individuals as victims of purposeless forces and believed that they
encountered only hostility in their relationships with other
individuals, with society, with nature, and with God.

/>

Crane’s Naturalism, however, was tempered by his
belief that in such an indifferent universe, people

must stick together with acts of kindness and
compassion to counter the terrible forces to
which they are subjected.
In his writing, Crane asks questions rather than
providing answers. This encourages the reader
to delve deeper into understanding mankind in
the face of brutal natural forces.


“The Open Boat”
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Many readers have used the term impressionist
to describe Crane's vivid renderings of moments
of visual beauty and uncertainty. Even Crane's
"discontinuous" rendering of action has been
identified as impressionist.


Jack London
(1876-1916)
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The Call of the Wild
(1903)

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White Fang (1906)

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“To Build a Fire”
(1902)


London wrote passionately and
prolifically about the great questions
of life and death, the struggle to
survive with dignity and integrity,
and he wove these elemental ideas
into stories of high adventure based
on his own firsthand experiences at
sea, or in Alaska, or in the fields and
factories of California. As a result,
his writing appealed not to the few,
but to millions of people all around
the world.


If man is at the mercy of nature…then what ’s the point? Right?

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"I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out in a
brilliant blaze
than it should be stifled by dry rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor,
every atom of me in magnificent glow,

than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time"
Jack London (1876 - 1916)


Key themes of Naturalism in literature
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The "brute within" each individual, comprised of
strong and often warring emotions: passions, such as
lust, greed, or the desire for dominance or pleasure; and
the fight for survival in an amoral, indifferent universe.

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The indifference of nature as man struggles to
survive.

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The forces of heredity and environment as they
affect—and afflict—individual lives.

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Determinism: the inability to express free will.

How Culture Influenced Literature and Led to Naturalism:
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Darwin says it's natural selection, not a divine blueprint of some
sort, that determines which organisms live and die in the world -it's mere "survival of the fittest."
Marx says the masses are at the mercy of a capitalist economy,
which more often than not brutally exploits them.
Freud says we're all at the mercy of dark internal drives and desires
we can scarcely hope to control.
U.S. population grew at a staggering rate. Millions of people are
settling into densely crowded urban areas where they seem to be
living and working more and more like insects, basically--there's not
a whole lot of difference between humans, who we like to think are
individualistic and have free will, and animals, who of course live in
flocks, herds, and schools and have to run on instinct.


Expanding ideas of naturalism
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Another side to nature controlling our destiny, is the nature inside of
us such as the need for food, sex, shelter, social dominance, etc.

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Naturalism doesn’t just focus on nature’s influence. It encompasses

many environments, the man-made environment, or finance,
industry, and the economy. Something is always beating down and
controlling the lives of lowly individual humans.

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Naturalist works are more likely to be political than traditional realist
works. A great many naturalists (like Upton Sinclair in The Jungle,
which is about the plight of the working poor in Chicago's meatpacking industry) want to expose the cruelty of certain "larger
forces," more often than not America's voracious capitalist economy.


In a nutshell
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Donald Prizer states, "The naturalistic novelist is willing to concede
that there are fundamental limitations to man's freedom, but he is
unwilling to concede that man is thereby stripped of all value."