12. 現(xiàn)實主義

1、The American Realism(1865 - 1918)ContentsBackgroundDefinitionRepresentative WritersFeaturesI. IntroductionThe reasons for the coming of American realism:The Civil War(1861-1865) taught men that life was not so good, man was not and God was not. The war marked a change in the quality of American life

2、, a deterioration, in fact, of American moral values. It led people to question the assumptions: natural goodness, the optimistic view of nature and man, benevolent God.2) American industrialization and urbanization 城市化 with its accompanying social diseasesOversupply of labor , slumextremes of wealt

3、h and poverty.greedy materialism and political corruption3)“Gilded Agean age of extremes of decline and progress, of poverty and dazzling wealth, of gloom and buoyant 持續(xù)上漲的hope4) The age of Romanticism and Transcendentalism was by and large over.younger writers appeared on the scene, such as William

4、 Dean Howells, Henry James, Mark Twain, and so on, which means the coming of new literary age, American realism.2. What is American realism?Realism originated in France. A literary doctrine that called for “reality and truth in the depiction of ordinary life.American Realism came in the latter half

5、of the nineteenth century as a reaction against Romanticism. It stresses truthful treatment of material. It focuses on commonness of the lives of the common people, and emphasizes objectivity and offers an objective rather than an idealistic view of human nature and human experience. emphasis on psy

6、chologyoptimistic tone details pragmatic, practical slow-moving plot 3. Characteristics of RealismThe schools of American Realism:Frontier HumorMidwestern realismCosmopolitan NovelistRegionalism (local color)NaturalismFrontier HumorIt is the vital and exuberant literature that was generated by the w

7、estward expansion of the United States in the late 18th and the 19th centuries. Frontier humor appears mainly in tall tales of exaggerated feats of strength, rough practical jokes (especially on sophisticated Easterners and greenhorns), and tales of encounters with panthers, bears, and snakes. These

8、 tales are filled with rough, homely wisdom.Midwestern RealismIt just refers to William Dean Howellss realism because he came from the American midwest and carefully interweaved the life and emotions of ordinary middle-class there in his works.Also because he was the champion of realism, having help

9、ed to publish many realistic local color writings by Bret Harte, Mark Twain, George Washington Cable, and others.Cosmopolitan Novelists(世界小說)Henry James s fame rested largely upon his handling of his major fictional theme, the international theme, that is the meeting of America and Europe, American

10、innocence in contact and contrast with cosmopolitan European decadence, and the moral and psychological complications arising there from. So he was called the cosmopolitan novelist.Henry James (1843-1916)Regionalism (local colorism)Generally, the writings of local colorists are concerned with the li

11、fe of a small, well-defined region or province. The characteristic setting is the isolated small town. Local colorists were consciously nostalgic historians of a vanishing way of life, recorders of a present that faded before their eyes. Mark Twain is a local colorist. Mark Twain(1835-1910) Naturali

12、smNaturalism applies the principles of scientific determinism to fiction and drama. It views human beings as animals in the natural world responding to environmental forces and internal stresses and drives, over none of which they have control and none of which they fully understand. The major featu

13、res of naturalism:(1) Humans are controlled by laws of heredity and environment. CharactersFrequently ill-educated or lower-class characters whose lives are governed by the forces of heredity, instinct, and passion.(2) The universe is cold, godless, indifferent and hostile to human desires.A man said to the universe: Sir, I exist! However, replied the universe, The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation. -Stephen Crane(3) Naturalistic writers are pessimistic.They choose their subjects from the lower ranks of the society, and portray misery and poverty of the “underdogs who demo