American Realism English 11 Unit 3 American Realism Objective - In this lesson, you will evaluate the emergence of the realist period and its literature.
American Realism Literary Realism - Realism originated as a nineteenth-century artistic movement that rebelled against the romantics.
- While the romantics felt that art should show the ideal, realist artists and writers focused on truth, rather than beauty.
- They depicted the everyday world as it existed around them.
American Realism - The American realism movement began around the end of the Civil War in 1865 and lasted to the beginning of the twentieth century.
- Authors such as Robert Frost, Mark Twain, Charles W. Chesnutt, and Henry James focused their writing on real-life situations with true-to-life characters.
- They wrote as though they were documenting true events and included realistic speech patterns, gritty characters, and even unhappy endings.
- Realist literature focused on the everyday lives of ordinary citizens.
American Realism Characteristics of American Realism - Objective
- Free Will
- Sometimes Optimistic
- Everyday Settings
- Ordinary Events
- Common Man Characters
- There is frequent use of colloquial speech. Diction is natural vernacular, not heightened or poetic; tone may be comic, satiric, or matter-of-fact.
- Characters are of the middle and low classes.
American Realism - Another text that illustrates the way realism rebels against romanticism is Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
- The main character, Huck, is a faithful depiction of many young, poor boys at the time: he was an uneducated child who spat and questioned the existence of God.
- The book has romantic characters as well, including Tom Sawyer, who serves as a foil to Huck and views life as a series of grand adventures.
- Twain uses the two boys to provide a contrast between romantic idealism and realist practicality.
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |