literature
Bella edwards
Introduction_to_NaturalismMine2017.pptxIntroduction to Naturalism
An Overview
The Naturalists and Realists…
Attempt to use literature for scientific purposes:
To study and understand human behavior!
This group of writers will signal a shift away from writers like Whitman.
Historical Context
1859 Darwin, Origin of Species
1861-65 Civil War
1871 Darwin, Descent of Man; 1876 Bell first uses a telephone
1877 Reconstruction ends
Intellectual Background
Major changes in science and philosophy→
Evolution--Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species and The Descent of Man
Scientific Method--Auguste Comte→ begins with empiricist idea that the only significant reality is what we experience
These shifts in thinking also influences the stories being written at this time.
Darwin
Environment--Competition for the resources needed to survive
Individuals within species have best traits for survival and are more likely to survive to pass those traits to offspring
Key points: random variation in offspring and “natural selection” (environment “selects” which variations aid survival); over time both will generate new species
Why is Darwin shocking in the 19th century to 19th century writers?
Denies teleological universe
Evolution moves species toward better adaption to an environment NOT necessarily an improvement in the species in idealistic terms
Design by God/some higher power NOT necessary for the existence of natural phenomena – the “designer”/God is no longer necessary
What themes do writers take from Darwin?
Thus, the universe is indifferent to human beings rather than guided by a benevolent, perhaps sometimes vengeful, God.
Natural world also indifferent—not the source of inspiration as the Romantics and Transcendentalists suggest.
Humans no longer hold a privileged place in the universe—just another species, just animals like the rest
Herbert Spencer takes Darwinian ideas and runs with them…
Herbet coins “survival of the fittest”
Uses Darwin’s general ideas about evolution with a progressive twist to posit Social Darwinism
Society could evolve to perfection (ordered universe, unlike Darwin’s)
Deemphasizes natural selection
Laissez-faire economic system brings about the survival of the socially fittest and thus contributes to evolution toward perfection
Popularized as the “cream rises to the top” idea; justifies division of wealth
Naturalism’s Relationship to Realism
Complex! Scholars and historians still cannot agree….
Is naturalism a distinct literary movement or genre with distinct goals?
OR Is Naturalism merely an offshoot or an extension of realism?
Example—Frank Norris argues that Naturalism is distinct from Realism and returns to the Romance for many of its premises.
Others suggest that the naturalists extend the realists interest in everyday life to include deterministic forces.
Characteristics of Naturalism
Character—emphasis on deterministic forces (heredity, environment, instinct, desire, chance, etc) that govern a character’s choices and destiny
Put another way, characters can be best understood in relation to their surroundings
Early definitions of naturalism suggest that characters are most often lower-class and/or uneducated (Crane, Norris, Dreiser, London)
James, Wharton, Chopin, and others expand this definition to include upper-class characters who are also trapped by deterministic forces.
Characteristics of Naturalism
Setting—most often an urban setting
Environment is key because it can (and often does) determine character
Emphasis on Plot over Character
Naturalistic Themes
Emphasis on taboo, sometimes violent subject matter (sex, murder, crime in general)
Survival of the fittest/ animal aspect of humans (brute within)
Nature is indifferent
The Universe is indifferent
Free will is an illusion for these writers
What about Romantism?
Frank Norris argues that realism deals with “the smaller details of everyday life, things that are likely to happen between lunch and supper”
In contrast, Romanticism examines “the unplumbed depths of the human heart, and the mystery of sex, and the problems of life, and the unsearched penetralia of the soul of man.”
For Norris, Emile Zola combines the best aspects of both realism and romanticism.
Writers we will read that relate to this period.
Rebecca Harding Davis—she writes during the transition from the last module to this module, so she will be a mix of old a new.
Jack London & Stephen Crane are labeled Naturalists, usually
Sarah Orne Jewett an Charlotte Perkins Gilman are Realists/Local Color*
*definition on next slide
Local Color
Local color or regional literature is fiction and poetry that focuses on the characters, dialect, customs, topography, and other features particular to a specific region.
Women writers of this time were sometimes labeled as “just regionalist writers.” However, the were also realists and natrualists.
