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Introduction
The vast intellectual movement which made its appearance at the close of the "Glorious
Revolution" in England (1688) and continued until the French Revolution (1789) is
called Illuminism, or the Enlightenment. The new culture, advancing under the aegis of
"reason," launched itself in bitter opposition to all the past in general, and in particular to
the Middle Ages. According to the Illuminati -- the exponents of the Enlightenment -- the
Middle Ages, victim of philosophical and religious prejudices, had not made use of
"reason," and hence they called it the age of obscurantism, or the Dark Ages. The new
philosophy, on the other hand, was to introduce an age of enlightenment; it was to dispel
the darkness of the past.
Opposition to the immediate past had manifested itself, though to a limited degree, during
the Renaissance. Humanism had in fact minimized and ignored the Middle Ages, and had
accentuated and lauded the classical world of ancient Greece and Rome; and
Protestantism had extolled "primitive Christianity."
Illuminism attempted to go further still, to excel the past in its various manifestations of
culture, religion and government -- for its philosophers considered the entire past to be
the work of "non-reason" (Anti-historicalism). Everything appeared before the tribunal of
"reason" to receive its condemnation. With all science of the past discredited, man was
brought back at last to his origins, to his natural state; Illuminism then worked to
formulate a new philosophical system, a rational system because it was evolved by reason
purified of all prejudice. It is a system which embraces all human activity -- civil,
juridical and religious (Naturalism).
Reason, as understood by the Illuminati, is the faculty which Descartes had called "good
sense" and is equally distributed and common to all men. The rational order means the
association of one phenomenon with another, not by reason of finality or causality but
simply by virtue of mechanical necessity.
In order to understand the strange trend of the philosophy of the Enlightenment, we must
bear in mind that this age is witness to the establishment of modern physics as the science
of nature; and physics, as we know, is regulated by mechanical necessity. Illuminism
attempted to apply the same laws and methods of mechanical necessity to every field of
human knowledge. With all authority and finalism banished and mechanism proclaimed
in their stead as the single rational means of solving the problems of nature, there
inevitably emerges a natural right, a natural society, a natural religion. Everything
consists in a succession of phenomena starting from the so-called "state of nature" and
proceeding one from another by mechanical necessity. All these suppositions of
naturalism were to find violent manifestation in the great upheaval of the French
Revolution.
I. ENGLISH ILLUMINISM
Illuminism in England was concerned with defending religion and morality against the
atheistic conclusion of empiristic philosophy, particularly as expressed by Thomas
Hobbes. This aim gave rise to two manifestations, namely, the moralism of Cambridge,
and the "common sense" of the Scottish School (Thomas Reid).
The first, starting from a world Platonically conceived, tried to defend and justify the
laws of "natural religion" and "natural morality." The second held that morality finds its
justification in certain primitive judgments which are intuitively known as "common
sense." (Note: the use of the term "common sense" here is not the same as we use it in
traditional commonsense philosophical realism.)
than recorder (Spiller 169) of the American social structure. He wrote from a perspective
that allowed him to contrast American society with that of Europe by contrasting the
peoples ideas. By contrasting social values and personal though about America in America,
he presented to the people the differing motivational factors that stimulated the different
social classes (Bradley 1143). Overall, these writers managed to very formally portray
America as it was while adding their own criticisms about it in an attempt to stimulate
change.
The naturalist movement slowly developed with most of the same ideals as those of
the realists in that it attempted to find lifes truths. In contrast, Naturalists, extreme
realists, saw the corrupt side of life and how environment deprived individuals of
responsibility (Elliott 514). Literary naturalism invited writers to examine human beings
objectively, as a scientist studies nature (Am. Lit. Comptons). In portraying ugliness
and cruelty, the authors refrained from preaching about them; rather they left readers
to draw their own conclusions about the life they presented. Generally, these authors took
a pessimistic view to portray a life that centered on the negative part of mans existence.
When dealing with society directly, naturalists generally detailed the destruction of people
without any sentiment.
To do this, they wrote more open about societys problems in a more
open manner usually using nature as a symbol for society. Naturalistic literature, like
realistic, served as a catalyst for change but, in contrast, was a little more
like propaganda.
Even though only twenty years may have separated them, the transformation from
realism/naturalism to modernism was a long one in terms of how much society had changed.
The aforementioned rapid change in American society and Americas relation with the rest of
the world left America in disarray. After the first World War, American society was divided
and left without definition. This called for a new age of literary expression to control
and document the isolationist fears, corruption, and disenchantment (Bradley
1339-1340) caused by the war. Authors looked to explain their generation and to respond to
the social and moral confusions (1340).
The World War broke down Americas fundamental institutions by dehumanizing the people that
provided their strong foundations (1339).
War diminished the individual identity and the society as a whole. The human personality
was dwarfed as much by the ...dehumanizing magnitude of modern events... as by natural
laws that controlled man to their own destiny.
Authors after World War I created a new literature of enduring merit...that
shattered conventional taboos in their expression of physical and psychological actuality.
(Bradley 1339)
This was the beginning of modernism. Modernism, although strongly influenced by realism and
often referred to as an extension of naturalistic values, was the answer to Americas newfound problems.
Modernism promoted and combined the scientific aspects of naturalism along with a
psychological examination of the individual and the culture. By being so experimental
(1340) and intense(1337), modernism was able to unite America after a period of crisis.
Modernism centered on explorations into the spiritual nature of men and the value of his
society and institutions. (1337) Like realism, modernists focused on changes on society
(Elliott 699) and used symbolism, although in this case spiritual, to draw their fiction
(Bradley 1340).
Modernist writers, like most Americans, were amazed at the destructive
power of war on the common man.
Writers such as Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and F.
Scott Fitzgerald spearheaded the modernistic renaissance by employing
realistic and naturalistic techniques. Hemingways The Sun Also Rises
details the principle of an alienation from society that had been
forced upon by the circumstances of the time (Spiller 271). In this
case, it describes a young boy alienated from society because of his
involvement in World War I, the ...loss of faith and hope..., and
...collapse of former values... that occurs (Hart 284).
His
earlier works can sometimes be described as containing characteristic
influences of naturalism (Bradley 1339). This can be reflected in his presentation of the
strict relations between environment and fate... (1339). Later in his career, Hemingway
once again took the alienation from society route. This time, in the spirit of realist
Henry James, he separates himself from American society to better judge it. With his novel
The Rolling Hills of Africa, Hemingway compares American culture to that of another. At
times, Hemingway ...began to seem like a little more than a modern realist...
(Spiller Lit His 1300).
William Faulkner, producer of some of the most important books of the twentiethcentury, also draws the connection between environment and fate strongly. He combines
naturalism and primitivism, a literary technique involving clear imagery, to create a
sometimes confusing and complex detailed reading that involves ...people of all sorts
wealthy and poor, evil and good, slave and free come into sharp focus in his writing.
(Faulkner Comptons)
This idea, much like that of realist James, provides the reader with
the whole picture of society.
The novels and short stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald are famous for portraying the
"lost generation" of the post-World War I era. Faulkner's moral values were social rather
than personal (Fitzgerald Comptons). He believes that his writing should address
the problems that society has and the problems that he has with society. Faulkner's prose
is ornate and complex. His sentences are long and complicated, and many nouns and adjectives
are used. Hemingway's style is quite the opposite. His sentences are short and pointed, and
adjectives are used sparingly. The effect is one of great power and compression. By
compressing his literary ideas in his writing, he makes his literature easily understood and
direct to his readers.
Many connections can be made between the literature of the late 19th century realism
and naturalism and that of post-World War I modernism. First and most importantly of all,
modernists, like realists and naturalists, attacked societys problems by using
symbolism to make their own judgments of the basic foundations of American life.
Modernists, such as Ernest Hemingway, looked at American society and compared to that of
other cultures of the world.
This technique had been extensively employed by such realists as Henry James. Modernism
used the naturalist method of scientifically exploring the individual and the society.
Stylistically, modernists, with the exception of Hemingway, wrote in a very formal, defined
form.
Modernists and realists both attacked the moral dilemmas in society.
The only difference was that these dilemmas were different.
While that realists attempted to give a comprehensive picture of modern life...
(502), modernists wished express the whole experience of modern life. (Elliott 598).
These authors of the realistic and modernistic period had the same goals so naturally they
wrote using the same ideas, methods, and principles. Realists focused on different literary
aspects to detail how American culture was effected by these changes. They detailed
characters shaped by society and tried to convey the good and evil aspects of life.
Mirroring this technique, modernists portrayed people alienated and rejected from society
because of the effects of the first World War. Both focused on detailing problems facing
their characters, externally and internally, while not focusing on plot development.
Thematically, both groups of authors conveyed the good and bad aspects of a changing
American society. Both rallied for change and both asked for the unification of society,
but both still lingered more on the presence of corruption in America.
The only thing that separated the two movements was the societies around them.
While both societies were experiencing major change quickly, they were so different. The
two literatures had to be distinguished not because of their content and character, which
was for the most part the same, but instead because of the differing conditions that existed
around the literature. Even though both wanted to accurately depict life, they were written
in two very distinct times in American history. In one, American culture was expanding and
adapting. In the other, life was being oppressed by the dehumanizing agents of warfare on
a large scale. As we know, culture influences literature. Even though these two literary
movements may have only been separated by about twenty years, in these twenty years,
focus shifted from the interior of American society to how American society was effected by
a conflict created as a result of opposing cultures. This idea of differing cultures
producing differing literatures provides the basis for the differences in
the movements.
Modernism after World War I was influenced by the realistic/naturalistic movement of
the late Nineteenth century. The literary goals, techniques, and principles of the
modernists and realists/naturalists were the same. Both wanted to paint an unbiased,
accurate picture of society by confronting the problems of the individual and of the
society. To do this, most of the time they resorted to the same techniques. They created
literature that combined scientific reasoning, unidealistic views, and physical and
psychological examination that painted a portrait of society that could be used to help
American society adjust, define, and heal. Realists of the late Nineteenth century and
modernists of the 1920s wrote alike but were divided on the basis that their respective
societies were so different.
--
Definitions
Broadly defined as "the faithful representation of reality" or "verisimilitude,"
realism is a literary technique practiced by many schools of writing.
Although strictly speaking, realism is a technique, it also denotes a
particular kind of subject matter, especially the representation of middleclass life. A reaction against romanticism, an interest in scientific method,
the systematizing of the study of documentary history, and the influence of
rational philosophy all affected the rise of realism. According to William
Harmon and Hugh Holman, "Where romanticists transcend the immediate to
find the ideal, and naturalists plumb the actual or superficial to find the
scientific laws that control its actions, realists center their attention to a
remarkable degree on the immediate, the here and now, the specific action,
and the verifiable consequence" (A Handbook to Literature 428).
Many critics have suggested that there is no clear distinction between
realism and its related late nineteenth-century movement, naturalism. As
Donald Pizer notes in his introduction to The Cambridge Companion to
American Realism and Naturalism: Howells to London, the term "realism" is
difficult to define, in part because it is used differently in European contexts
than in American literature. Pizer suggests that "whatever was being
produced in fiction during the 1870s and 1880s that was new, interesting,
and roughly similar in a number of ways can be designated as realism, and
that an equally new, interesting, and roughly similar body of writing
produced at the turn of the century can be designated as naturalism" (5).
Put rather too simplistically, one rough distinction made by critics is that
realism espousing a deterministic philosophy and focusing on the lower
classes is considered naturalism.
In American literature, the term "realism" encompasses the period of time
from the Civil War to the turn of the century during which William Dean
Howells, Rebecca Harding Davis, Henry James, Mark Twain, and others
wrote fiction devoted to accurate representation and an exploration of
American lives in various contexts. As the United States grew rapidly after
the Civil War, the increasing rates of democracy and literacy, the rapid
growth in industrialism and urbanization, an expanding population base due
to immigration, and a relative rise in middle-class affluence provided a
fertile literary environment for readers interested in understanding these
rapid shifts in culture. In drawing attention to this connection, Amy Kaplan
has called realism a "strategy for imagining and managing the threats of
social change" (Social Construction of American Realism ix).
Characteristics
from Richard Chase, The American Novel and Its Tradition)
Renders reality closely and in comprehensive detail. Selective
presentation of reality with an emphasis on verisimilitude, even at the
expense of a well-made plot
Character is more important than action and plot; complex ethical
choices are often the subject.
Characters appear in their real complexity of temperament and motive;
they are in explicable relation to nature, to each other, to their social class,
to their own past.
Class is important; the novel has traditionally served the interests and
aspirations of an insurgent middle class. (See Ian Watt, The Rise of the
Novel)
Events will usually be plausible. Realistic novels avoid the sensational,
dramatic elements of naturalistic novels and romances.
Diction is natural vernacular, not heightened or poetic; tone may be
comic, satiric, or matter-of-fact.
Objectivity in presentation becomes increasingly important: overt
authorial comments or intrusions diminish as the century progresses.
Interior or psychological realism a variant form.
In Black and White Strangers, Kenneth Warren suggests that a basic
difference between realism and sentimentalism is that in realism, "the
redemption of the individual lay within the social world," but in sentimental
fiction, "the redemption of the social world lay with the individual" (75-76).
The realism of James and Twain was critically acclaimed in twentieth
century; Howellsian realism fell into disfavor as part of early twentieth
century rebellion against the "genteel tradition."
Practioners
Mark Twain
William Dean Howells
Rebecca Harding Davis
John W. DeForest
Henry James
ENGLISH ROMANTICISM
English Romanticism started in the 1740s.The word Romanticism derives from
the French word "Romance", which referred to the vernacular languages derived
from Latin and to the works written in those languages. Even in England there
were cycles of "romances" dealing with the adventures of knights and containing
supernatural elements.
Romanticism
attitude or intellectual orientation that characterized many works of literature,
painting, music, architecture, criticism, and historiography in Western civilization
over a period from the late 18th to the mid-19th century. Romanticism can be
seen as a rejection of the precepts of order, calm, harmony, balance, idealization,
and rationality that typified Classicism in general and late 18th-century
Neoclassicism in particular. It was also to some extent a reaction against the
Enlightenment and against 18th-century rationalism and physical materialism in
general. Romanticism emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational,
the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and
the transcendental.
Among the characteristic attitudes of Romanticism were the following: a
deepened appreciation of the beauties of nature; a general exaltation of emotion
over reason and of the senses over intellect; a turning in upon the self and a
heightened examination of human personality and its moods and mental
potentialities; a preoccupation with the genius, the hero, and the exceptional
figure in general, and a focus on his passions and inner struggles; a new view of
the artist as a supremely individual creator, whose creative spirit is more
important than strict adherence to formal rules and traditional procedures; an
emphasis upon imagination as a gateway to transcendent experience and
spiritual truth; an obsessive interest in folk culture, national and ethnic cultural
origins, and the medieval era; and a predilection for the exotic, the remote, the
mysterious, the weird, the occult, the monstrous, the diseased, and even the
satanic.
Literature. Romanticism proper was preceded by several related developments
from the mid-18th century on that can be termed Pre-Romanticism. Among such
trends was a new appreciation of the medieval romance, from which the
Romantic movement derives its name. The romance was a tale or ballad of
chivalric adventure whose emphasis on individual heroism and on the exotic and
the mysterious was in clear contrast to the elegant formality and artificiality of
prevailing Classical forms of literature, such as the French Neoclassical tragedy
or the English heroic couplet in poetry. This new interest in relatively
The adjective Romantic first appeared in English in the second half of the
17th century as a word to describe the fabulous, the extravagant and the
unreal, something having no basis in fact. Throughout the 18th century
"romantic" was used to refer to the picturesque in landscape, but gradually
the term came to be applied to the feeling the landscape aroused in the
observer, and generally to the evocation of subjective and individual
emotions, especially loneliness and melancholy. The first to boast of
having used the term in this way were Goethe and Schiller. They did so in
opposition to "classic", thus clearly stating that the new meaning indicated
not just a change in taste but an open revolt against tradition.
A movement in art and literature in the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries in revolt against the Neoclassicism of the previous
centuries...The German poet Friedrich Schlegel, who is given credit for
first using the term romantic to describe literature, defined it as "literature
depicting emotional matter in an imaginative form." This is as accurate a
general definition as can be accomplished, although Victor Hugo's phrase
"liberalism in literature" is also apt. Imagination, emotion, and freedom are
certainly the focal points of romanticism. Any list of particular
characteristics of the literature of romanticism includes subjectivity and an
emphasis on individualism; spontaneity; freedom from rules; solitary life
rather than life in society; the beliefs that imagination is superior to reason
and devotion to beauty; love of and worship of nature; and fascination with
the past, especially the myths and mysticism of the middle ages.
English poets: William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron,
Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats
English Romanticism can be seen as a creative period in which, owing to the
radical changes taking place in the historical and social spheres, the cultural view
of the world had to be reconstructed or totally readjusted. The attitudes of many
Romantic writers were responses to the French and the Industrial Revolution The
remarkable expansion of industry and economy made its effects felt in the field of
economic theory which greatly flourished in the period. Adam Smith's The wealth
of Nations (1776) was a seminal book in the development of the theory of laissez
faire policies. It advocated no interference from the government in economic
activities and supported the idea that efficiency and profit are absolute goods,
thus widening the gap between the affluent layers of society and the poor.
English Romanticism is best represented by poetry, which was more suitable to
the expression of emotional experiences, individual feeling and imagination. The
great English Romantic poets are usually grouped into two generations: the first,
represented by William Blake, William Wordsworth and S. Taylor Coleridge; while
the poets of the second generation were John Keats, P. Bysshe Shelley and G.
Gordon Byron. No two writers were Romantic in the same way, nor was a writer
necessarily romantic in all his work or throughout his life. These poets did not
Characteristics of Romanticism
Resulting in part from the libertarian and egalitarian ideals of the French Revolution,
the romantic movements had in common only a revolt against the prescribed rules of
classicism. The basic aims of romanticism were various: a return to nature and to
belief in the goodness of humanity; the rediscovery of the artist as a supremely
individual creator; the development of nationalistic pride; and the exaltation of the
senses and emotions over reason and intellect. In addition, romanticism was a
philosophical revolt against rationalism
Romanticism
(European) Romanticism 1820-1865: A European artistic and intellectual
movement of the early 19th century, characterized by an emphasis on individual
freedom from social conventions or political restraints, on human imagination,
and on nature in a typically idealized form. Romantic literature rebelled against
the formalism of 18th century reason. Many Romantic writers had an interest in
the culture of the Middle Ages, an age noted for its faith, which stood in contrast
to the age of the Enlightenment and pure logic.
Romanticism differs significantly from Classicism, the period Romanticism
rejected. Romanticism is more concerned with emotion than rationality. It values
the individual over society, nature over city. It questions or attacks rules,
Characters and setting set apart from society; characters were not of our own
conscious kind
Static characters--no development shown
Characterization--work proves the characters are what the narrator has stated or
shown
Universe is mysterious; irrational; incomprehensible
Gaps in causality
Formal language
Good receive justice; nature can also punish or reward
American
Romanticists:
James Fenimore Cooper
Emily Dickinson
Frederick Douglass
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Margaret Fuller
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Washington Irving
Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow
Herman Melville
Edgar Allen Poe
Henry David Thoreau
Walt Whitman
European
Romanticists:
William Blake
Lord Byron (George
Gordan)
Samuel Coleridge
John Keats
Ann Radcliffe
Mary Wollstonecraft
Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Realism
Realism 1861- 1914 (American Realism 1865-1890): An artistic movement
begun in 19th century France. Artists and writers strove for detailed realistic and
factual description. They tried to represent events and social conditions as they
actually are, without idealization.
This form of literature believes in fidelity to actuality in its representation.
Realism is about recreating life in literature. Realism arose as an opposing idea to
Idealism and Nominalism. Idealism is the approach to literature of writing about
everything in its ideal from. Nominalism believes that ideas are only names and
have no practical application. Realism focused on the truthful treatment of the
common, average, everyday life. Realism focuses on the immediate, the here and
now, the specific actions and their verifiable consequences. Realism seeks a oneto-one relationship between representation and the subject. This form is also
known as mimesis. Realists are concerned with the effect of the work on their
reader and the reader's life, a pragmatic view. Pragmatism requires the reading of
a work to have some verifiable outcome for the reader that will lead to a better life
for the reader. This lends an ethical tendency to Realism while focusing on
common actions and minor catastrophes of middle class society.
Realism aims to interpret the actualities of any aspect of life, free from subjective
prejudice, idealism, or romantic color. It is in direct opposition to concerns of the
unusual, the basis of Romanticism. Stresses the real over the fantastic. Seeks to
treat the commonplace truthfully and used characters from everyday life. This
emphasis was brought on by societal changes such as the aftermath of the Civil
War in the United States and the emergence of Darwin's Theory of Evolution and
its effect upon biblical interpretation.
Characteristics:
Sub Genres:
American Realists:
Henry James
Rebecca Harding Davis
Sarah Orne Jewett
Mark Twain
William Dean Howells
Ambrose Bierce
European/International
Realists:
Gustave Flaubert (French)
Guy de Maupassant (French)
Anton Chekhov (Russian)
George Eliot (English
Naturalism (1890 - 1915): The term Naturalism describes a type of literature that
attempts to apply scientific principles of objectivity and detachment to its study of human
beings. Unlike, Realism which focuses on literary technique, naturalism implies a
philosophical position: for naturalistic writers, since human beings are, in Emile Zola's
phrase, "human beasts," characters can be studied through their relationships to their
surroundings. The Naturalist believed in studying human beings as though they were
"products" that are to be studied impartially, without moralizing about their natures.
Naturalistic writers believed that the laws of behind the forces that govern human lives
might be studied and understood through the objective study of human beings.
Naturalistic writers used a version of the scientific method to write their novels; they
studied human beings governed by their instincts and passions as well as the ways in
which the characters' lives were governed by forces of heredity and environment. This is
a logical extension of Realism. The term was invented by Emile Zola partially because he
was seeking for a striking platform from which to convince the reading public that it was
getting something new and modern in his fiction. Naturalism is considered as a
movement to be beyond Realism. Naturalism is based more on scientific studies.
Darwin's Theory of Evolution is a basis for the Naturalist writer. Natural selection and
survival of the fittest help to depict the struggle against nature as a hopeless fight.
Characteristics:
Objective
Darwinistic--survival of the fittest
Detached method of narration
Language--formal; piling on of images ("wretched excess")
Human beings unable to stand up against enormous weight of circumstances.
Deterministic--natural and socioeconomic forces stronger than man.
Heredity determines character
Violence--force against force
Taboo topics
Animal imagery
Attention to setting to the point of saturation
Characters--lower socioeconomic class
Static characters
Naturalists observe, then write. Often about the black, darker side of life.
"Pessimistic materialistic determinism" (Pizer)
Characters conditioned or controlled by environment, heredity, instinct or chance
but they have a compensating humanistic value that affirms the significance of the
individual (Pizer).
Characters do not have free will (determinism)
Themes:
"The conflict in naturalistic novels is often 'man against nature' or 'man against
himself' as characters struggle to retain a 'veneer of civilization' despite external
pressures that threaten to release the 'brute within' " (Campbell).
Nature is indifferent to man
The universe is deterministic
American Naturalists:
Jack London
Frank Norris
Stephen Crane
Theodore Dreiser
Edith Whatron
Ellen Glasgow
John Steinbeck
Richard Wright
European Naturalists:
Emile Zola
Maksim Gorky (Russia)
Stephane Mallarme
and Environs," seems scarcely less strange and new than when it was first published in
1939. Little wonder, then, that it is probably the least read of the acknowledged
"masterpieces" of English literature. In looking to carry on many of the aesthetic goals of
the Modernist project, hypertext fiction must confront again the politics of its
achievements in order to position itself anew with regard to reader. With its reliance on
expensive technology and its interest in re-thinking the linear nature of The Book,
hypertext fiction may find itself accused of the same elitism as its modernist
predecessors.
American Renaissance/Romanticism
1800-1855
Content:
writing that can be interpreted 2 ways, on the surface for common folk or in depth for
philosophical readers
sense of idealism
focus on the individual's inner feelings
emphasis on the imagination over reason and intuition over facts
urbanization versus nostalgia for nature
burden of the Puritan past
Genre/Style:
literary tale
character sketch
slave narratives,
political novels
poetry
transcendentalism
Effect:
helps instill proper gender behavior for men and women
fuels the abolitionist movement
allow people to re-imagine the American past
Historical Context:
expansion of magazines, newspapers, and book publishing
slavery debates
Gothic
sub-genre of Romanticism
1800-1850
Content:
sublime and overt use of the supernatural
individual characters see themselves at the mercy of forces our of their control which
they do not understand
motif of the "double": an individual with both evil and good characteristics
often involve the persecution of a young woman who is forced apart from her true love
Style:
short stories and novels
hold readers' attention through dread of a series of terrible possibilities
feature landscapes of dark forests, extreme vegetation, concealed ruins with horrific
rooms, depressed characters
Effect:
today in literature we still see portrayals of alluring antagonists whose evil
characteristics appeal to one's sense of awe
today in literature we still see stories of the persecuted young girl forced apart from
her true love
Historical Context:
industrial revolution brings ideas that the "old ways" of doing things are now irrelevant
Realism
1855-1900
Content:
common characters not idealized (immigrants, laborers)
people in society defined by class
society corrupted by materialism
emphasizes moralism through observation
Style:
novel and short stories are important
prefers objective narrator
dialogue includes many voices from around the country does not tell the reader how to
interpret the story
Effect:
social realism: aims to change a specific social problem
aesthetic realism: art that insists on detailing the world as one sees it
Historical Context:
Civil War brings demand for a "truer" type of literature that does not idealize people
or places
Naturalism
(sub-genre of realism)
1880-1900
Content:
dominant themes: survival fate violence taboo
nature is an indifferent force acting on humans
"brute within" each individual is comprised of strong and warring emotions such as
Modernism
1900-1946
Content:
dominant mood: alienation and disconnection
people unable to communicate effectively
fear of eroding traditions and grief over loss of the past
Genre/Style:
highly experimental
allusions in writing often refer to classical Greek and Roman writings
use of fragments, juxtaposition, interior monologue, and stream of consciousness
writers seeking to create a unique style
Effect:
common readers are alienated by this literature
Historical Context:
overwhelming technological changes of the 20th Century
World War I was the first war of mass destruction due to technological advances
rise of the youth culture
Harlem Renaissance
(runs parallel to modernism)
1920s
Content:
celebrated characteristics of African-American life
enjoyment of life without fear
writing defines the African-American heritage and celebrates their new identity as Americans
Genre/Style:
Postmodernism
1946-Present
Content:
people observe life as the media presents it, rather than experiencing life directly
popular culture saturates people's lives
absurdity and coincidence
Genre/Style:
mixing of fantasy with nonfiction; blurs lines of reality for reader
no heroes
concern with individual in isolation
detached, unemotional
usually humorless
narratives
metafiction
present tense
magic realism
Effect:
erodes distinctions between classes of people
insists that values are not permanent but only "local" or "historical"
Historical Context:
post-World War II prosperity
media culture interprets values
Contemporary
(continuation of Postmodernism)
1980s-Present
Content:
identity politics
people learning to cope with problems through communication
people's sense of identity is shaped by cultural and gender attitudes
emergence of ethnic writers and women writers
Style:
Historical Context:
people beginning a new century and a new millennium
media culture interprets values
Enlightenment (1750-1800) Called the Enlightenment period due to the influence of science and logic, this period is
marked in US literature by political writings. Genres included political documents, speeches, and letters. Benjamin
Franklin is typical of this period. There is a lack of emphasis and dependence on the Bible and more use of common
sense (logic) and science. There was not a divorce from the Bible but an adding to or expanding of the truths found there.
Characteristics of Literature
during the 1700s/18th Century
Most literature was nonfiction, which means it was based on fact rather than being made up by the
author's imagination. The literature of this period was realistic. Its aims were to instruct, to enlighten,
and to make people think. These people believed reason shows life as it is; whereas, the imagination
shows life as people wish it were or fear it may be.
The people of the Enlightenment revered the power of the mind to reason and to determine realities.
They deprecated passions and emotions. They saw reason as the ruling principle of life and the key
to progress and perfection. This was an optimistic, self-confident period of time in Europe. People
felt they knew all the answers; they were content, and they were smug!
The Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, is the name given to the period in Europe
and America during the 1700s when mankind was emerging from centuries of ignorance into a new
age enlightened by reason, science, and respect for humanity. People of the Enlightenment were
convinced that human reason could (1) discover the natural laws of the universe and (2) determine
the natural rights of mankind; (3) thereby unending progress in knowledge, technical achievement,
and moral values would be realized.
This new way of thinking led to the development of a new religious thought known as (4) Deism.
Deists believed in God as a great inventor or architect who had created the universe then allowed it
to function like a machine or clock without divine intervention. Although Deists believed in a
hereafter, they believed human achievement and happiness should be the focus of this life rather
than the life to come.
Benevolence toward less fortunate people, (5) humanitarianism, resulted. Difficult though it is for us
to realize, the idea that people who are more fortunate should assist those who are less fortunate
was, in fact, a new concept during the Enlightenment. Prior to this, religious beliefs perceived
assistance to the unfortunate as interference with God because people thought if someone were
unfortunate, it was God's will and was punishment for wrongdoing.
The main stimulus for the Enlightenment was the scientific discoveries of natural laws. For example,
Galileo recognized the movement of planets, moons, and stars, and Sir Isaac Newton discovered
gravity.