Realistic Period: 1855-1915

Regionalism

• Writers attempt to capture the cultural, geographic, and speech uniqueness of different regions of U.S.
• Also known as "local color."
• Vernacular style: dialect represented by misspelled words.
• Transition between Romanticism and hard-core realism
• Often indicted as “sentimentalism.”
• Noted writers: Mark Twain, Bret Harte

Realism

• Focuses on the ordinary; no aspect of life unworthy of literature.
• Often referred to as a "slice of life"; microscopic view of life; up-close look at society and people.
• verisimilitude: truthful similarity.
• Writers thought of themselves as literary scientists and objective reporters.
• psychological realism
• Champion: Writer/critic William Dean Howells

Naturalism

• Charles Darwin; HMS Beagle
• Origin of Species
• Survival of fittest; dog eat dog
• Social Darwinism; monopolies, right of eminent domain.
• Writing often has a pessimistic tone.
• Often shows characters acting in futility with little or no free will.
• fate and fatalism; determinism
• Life is ruled by chance, heredity, fate, and randomness.
• Nature is either indifferent to man or openly hostile to man.
• Noted authors: Stephen Crane, Ambrose Bierce, Jack London