( 1 8 ) N a t u r a l i s m : D e t e r m i n i s m , t h e P l i g h t o f t h e I n d i v i d u a l ,
N a t u r e / C u l t u r e , A m e r i c a n F e a t u r e s
(Jack London, Mythic Patterns and Modernism in Stephen Crane)
N a t u r a l i sm ( 1 8 9 0 s – e a r l y 1 9 0 0 s )
-developed out of realism, orig. in Fr. (Zola), and prominent in the 1890s
-genre: mainly fiction, also drama, and poetry
-uses realistic methods and subjects to convey the philos. that everything that exist is a part of nature and can be explained by natural and material causes x not by supernatural, spiritual, or paranormal causes
-emphasises the social environment
-concentrates on the deficiencies of society, and on the shortcomings of human beings: puts excessive stress on the impoverished, underprivileged, ugly, and diseased
-introd. scandalous taboo subjects: violence, the lower working class, the uneducated, the unemployed, etc.
(a)< C. Darwin’s biological theories of the evolution and the survival of the fittest both in nature and society > the plight of an individual x nature = a force indifferent to the individual’s struggle both in a natural (J. London) or urban setting (S. Crane’s slums in Maggie)
(b)< K. Marx’s theories of classless society > the class struggle and the exploitation of workers (U. Sinclair’s The Jungle)
(c)< F. Nietzsche’s loss of faith in God (‘God is dead’) and of the satisfaction with the old traditional believes > pessimism
(d)< S. Freud, the psychoanalysis father > an examination of the unconscious motives of human behaviour
(e)< E. Zola’s determinism = man’s lives and actions pre-determined by environment and heredity > the writers’ detachment from the object of study
(f)< A. Einstein
-incl. the 1st generation: J. London, S. Crane, F. Norris, T. Dreiser, U. Sinclair
-the later generation: N. Mailer (The Naked and the Dead), W. Styron (Sophia’s Choice), & oth.
J a c k L o n d o n ( 1 8 7 6 – 1 91 6 )
L i f e :
-an illegitimate child, took the name of his stepfather, an unsuccessful rancher
-received little formal education, quit school at 14
-underwent a period of heavy drinking, daring adventures, and odd jobs: an oyster pirate, cannery worker, and seaman
-interested in hoboism: a father figure for ‘on the road characters’ = the ‘vags’
-embraced socialism and tramped halfway across the country with a group of unemployed staging a protest march on Washington
-arrested for vagrancy > began a ‘frantic pursuit of knowledge’
-enrolled at uni x but: left after a semester prospecting for gold in the Klondike > experiences and material for his writing
-enjoyed a pop. and financial success x but: his strenuous life, failing health, and shrinking fortune resulted in committing suicide
W o r k :
-(a) Am. writer
-(b) Naturalist writer
-< C. Darwin > admired ruthless fight, power, strength, and adaptation x but: sympathised with the underdog
-< K. Marx > embraced the ideas of utopian socialism x but: believed in an individual and racial superiority
-< F. Nietzsche > worshipped the superman
-< occultism, mysticism, and a search for the life force > interested in astrology, spiritualism, metempsychosis, and élan vital
-< romanticism > preocc. with nature, individualism, and titanism
-a lifelong tension btw the Marxian desire for social justice x the Darwinian belief in the survival of the powerful
-the concept of nature as an elemental force to be reckoned with: the same for ideas
-a blunt style of thinking x but: a natural storyteller ( R. Kipling whom he admired), narrative energiser, and powerful reviver of ancient myth
The Son of Wolf (1900):
-his 1st coll. of short stories
“The Law of Life”:
-the tribal patriarch’s death:
(a)an illustr. of the law of life
(b)an examination of the psychological state of a dying individual
“To Build a Fire”:
-a plight of an individual x wilderness
-extremely reduced states of consciousness to reveal the ecstasy lying beyond the summit of life
People of the Abyss (1903):
-a novel based on his journalistic stay in London slums to gather material for a book on hoboism
-an indictment of capitalism and the class system x an embrace of socialism
The Sea-Wolf (1904):
-a ruthless and amoral captain = a superman of body and soul ( H. Melville’s captain Ahab)
-the physically rough and psychologically independent heroes of R. Kipling adapted to the Am. experience
The Call of the Wild (1903):
-a best-seller, an attempt to enter the consciousness of a dog
White Fang (1906)
-autobiog.
Martin Eden (1909):
-largely autobiog., a central document for the London scholar
John Barleycorn (1913)
S t e p h e n C r a n e ( 1 8 7 1 – 1 9 0 0 )
L i f e :
-a rebel against conventions:
(a)his bohemian life
(b)his life partner (mistress of one ‘of the better houses of ill fame’)
(c)his ‘muckraker’ work
-a newsp reporter in NY slums, a correspondent on often violent events in Mexico, the Am. West, Cuba, and Gr. > endowed his work with pessimism
-died of TBC in Ger.
W o r k :
-(a) a realist x but: does he judge conventional society?
-(b) a naturalist x but: does he analyse in a cool and matter-of-fact tone?
-(c) an impressionist x but: does he imprint images on the readers’ minds for their own sake?
-his ironic tone makes difficult to determine his motives
-conc.: war and oth. forms of physical and psychic violence
-an acute observer of psychological and social reality
F i c t i o n :
Maggie, A Girl of the Streets (1890):
-conc. with the plight of an individual in society = environmental determinism
-set in the Lower Manhattan Bowery tenement houses full of alcohol, fights, and violence
-Ir. immigrant characters:
(a)the lower class naive Maggie, her hypocritical mother and brother, and Pete: dialect E
(b)‘sophisticated’ Nellie: marked by a different language
-the characters’ attempts to escape their environment, experience an upward mobility, and change their lives: M. gets the factory job, gets attached to Pete x P. gets attached to Nellie
-the characters’ failure due to social determination: M. given very little models to follow, fails to adapt, and dies x Jim follows the violent models of behaviour, succeeds to adapt, and survives
-criticism of society’s problems of slums and tenement houses
-publ. on his own expense
-received little attention x but: W. D. Howells recognised his talent and became his mentor
The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War (1895):
-conc. with the education of a young man in the context of a struggle
-a story-type dominant from B. Franklin, through H. Melville, and E. Hemingway x but: a modernist approach to personal identity as complex and ambiguous
-a characteristically troublesome concl.: the young soldier’s certainty of having recognised the value of heroic action x the narrator’s doubts thereof
-a masterpiece of impressionist lit.
-won him international reputation, success both in US and Eur., and a deep appreciation of H. James
George’s Mother (1896):
-a psychological account of the death-grip solicitude of a mother for her son
Active Service (1899):
-a furious attempt to earn money under worsening health conditions rather weak
The O’Ruddy:
-unfinished
“The Open Boat” (1898):
-his own experience of surviving the sinking of a ship
-conc. with the physical, emotional, and intellectual responses of men under extreme pressure
-accompanies nature’s indifference to humanity’s fate with a tough-minded irony
“The Blue Hotel”
P o e t r y :
-original, spare, and unflinchingly honest
-experimental in form: poems without titles = ‘lines’
-unconventional in philos. outlook: the dark mood of his vision
-characteristic by irony (“Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind”) and cosmic irony (“A Man said to the universe” and “I walked in a desert”)
The Black Riders, and Other Lines (1895):
-his 1st coll., received unfavourably
War is Kind, and Other Poems (1899):
-his 2nd coll.