( 1 5 ) R e g i o n a l i s m , L o c a l C o l o r , R e a l i s m
(S. O. Jewett, B. Harte, W. D. Howells, J. C. Harris)
R e a l i sm ( 1 8 4 0 s – 9 0 s )
-attempted from the oldest time
-orig. in Fr. (Flaubert, Balzac, & oth.), prominent in the 1840s – 90s
-portrays life with fidelity: no idealisation, no rendering things as beautiful when they are not, or in any way presenting them in any guise as they are not
-aims at the interpretation of the actualities of any aspect of life, free from subjective prejudice, idealism, or romantic colour
-the realist should be conc. with the here and now, everyday events, his own environment, and the political and social movements of his time
L o c a l C o l o u r ( c a 1 8 6 0 s + )
-the 1st local colour story: B. Harte’s “The Luck of the Roaring Camp”
-prominent after the Civil War (1865 +)
-emphasises the setting
-concentrates upon a detail peculiar to a particular region and environment to add interest and authenticity to a narrative: the landscape, habits, customs, costumes, dialect, music, etc.
-puts more stress on capturing the atmosphere than on the psychological features
-for the most part decorative: when it becomes an essential and intrinsic part of the work > regionalism
R e g i o n a l i sm ( c a 18 6 0 + )
-emphasises the setting
-concentrates upon the history, manners, and folkways shaping the lives and behaviour of the characters
-puts more stress on the psychological features (philos. or sociological distinctions) than on the peculiarities of landscape, habits, customs, costumes, dialect, music, etc.
Sa r a h O r n e J e w e t t ( 1 8 4 9 – 1 9 0 9 )
L i f e :
-b. and died in a ME coastal town > a deeply rooted local colour realism and regionalism
-educated by reading in her father’s library and by ‘reading’ the lives of people on the buggy rounds to rural patients of her father-physician
-connected with W. D. Howells and the Atlantic Monthly he ed.
-publ. in the country’s best magazines, wrote more than 20 vol. of short stories, and enjoyed a large audience in her day
W o r k :
-< H. B. Stowe’s New En. local colour novel The Pearl of Orr’s Island
-< G. Flaubert and E. Zola’s realism and naturalism
-wrote short stories, sketches, and poetry
-realistic / naturalistic portrayals of the New En. country life
-a realistic use of settings, people, speech patterns, and modes of life
-her own experience of the shift from a maritime economic system to the industrial Am.: lives of people shaped both by natural and social conditions
-no rustic idylls about a perfect place and time x but: a celebration of the modest pleasures and virtues of the rural life
Deephaven (1877):
-her 1st coll. of stories
A Country Doctor (1884):
-an expression of love to her father
-a celebration of the competence and independence of the F protagonist
The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896):
-a loosely structured series of sketches x but: unified by setting and theme
-develops character rather than plot
-preserves a disappearing way of life and offers a study of the effects of isolation and hardship of the life in the decaying fishing villages along the ME coast
B r e t H a r t e ( 1 8 3 6 – 1 9 0 2 )
L i f e :
-b. in Albany (NY)
-> San Francisco (CA): for 2 y. the chief ed. of the Overland Monthly = a platform for new writers – M. Twain & oth.
-> Boston: a contrib. for the Atlantic Monthly
-> Germany > Scotland > En.: a US consul
-died in En.
W o r k :
-wrote regionalist and local colour tall tales, short stories, and poems
-combined realism and sentiment
-introd. fresh topics and settings: esp. the Wild West mining town in CA (experienced himself)
-used dialect in the passages involving dialogue
-establ. new types of characters:
(a)J. F. Cooper’s stock types: femme fatale (Cora), blond angel (Alice), noble Ind. (Unkas), savage Ind. (Magua), greenhorn (Duncan), and comedian (Gamut)
(b)B.’s new types: a cool gambler and gunman in black, a prostitute with the heart of gold, a bad character turning good, a genteel Easterner seeking an escape in West (drunken doctors, lawyers, etc.) = roughs from outside x but: sentimentally with sth good inside
P o e t r y :
The Lost Galeon (1867):
-an early coll. of poems
“The Heathen Chinee”:
-his most famous poem
P r o se :
Condensed Novels (1867):
-a prose satire parodying esp. the contemp. E lit. forms
The Luck of the Roaring Camp and Other Sketches (1870):
-a coll. of short stories
“The Outcasts of Poker Flat”:
-a fore-grounding effect
-a sense of detail: the 1st paragraph a brief characterisation as if in a newsp, incl. an exact date, etc.
-Poker Flat = a frontier town undergoing a process of transformation, trying to be a civilised place in the moral sense of the word, and looking for sb to make him a scapegoat and drive him away
-a group of outcasts moves to the Western mining camp to escape the order and rules x a young couple moves to the East to marry
-Mr Oakhurst, the gambler: the reader would expect him to be nasty x but: simply professional
-Innocence, the man of the young couple: his innocence impacts the ‘evil’ characters
-the process of revelation: a moral transformation in the wilderness, the bad turns out to be the good
-the romantic concept of one’s nature being capable to transform – the strong image of the women frozen to death
“Tennessee’s Partner”
W i l l i a m D e a n H o w e l l s ( 1 8 3 7 – 1 9 2 0 )
L i f e :
-b. in OH x but: lived in Boston (MA)
-his life resembles a Bildungsroman: a climber from a province makes his way upward to a social and professional acclaim M. Twain
-apprenticed in a printing shop, worked for regional newsps
-became a campaign biographer for A. Lincoln > an Am. consul in Venice during the Civil War
-acquainted with the Boston-Concord lit. circle incl. O. W. Holmes, J. R. Lowell, R. W. Emerson, H. D. Thoreau, and N. Hawthorne
-befriended with M. Twain and H. James
-later in life converted to a socialist (H.: socialism = the solution to the widening margin btw the rich x poor), anti-imperialist, and supporter of the suffragist movement
W o r k :
-a novelist, playwright, poet, author of travel books, and the ‘arbiter’ of Am. letters
-the foremost Am. critic and ed. from 1886 into early the 20th c.
-the chief ed. of The Atlantic Monthly
-supported the naturalists F. Norris and S. Crane
-recognised and declared the central importance of M. Twain and H. James
-the ‘Dean’ of Am. realism:
(a)claims the novel the most important instrument of realism
(b)consid. realism democratic, that is why potentially Am.
(c)demands the Am. realism optimistic and portraying the changing world
(d)rejects romanticised plots in favour of the details of everyday life of ordinary people
F i c t i o n :
-author of a number of realistic and moralistic novels
-records the details of everyday life with a photography-like fidelity
Their Wedding Journey (1878)
A Modern Instance (1882):
-the lawyer protagonist urges not to sneer at the common, ordinary, and everyday
The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885):
-the protagonist’s social and professional rise = his moral fall
-his bankrupt = his moral victory
C r i t i c i sm :
Criticism and Fiction (1891)
My Literary Passions (1895)
My Mark Twain (1910)
J o e l C h a n d l e r H a r r i s ( 1 8 4 8 – 1 9 0 8 )
L i f e :
-b. in GA
-apprenticed in a printing shop, worked from 14 for regional newsps, then for the Atlanta Constitution
-largely self-taught M. Twain
W o r k :
-< dialect tales heard in childhood by slaves: the oral tradition of gospels, spirituals, fables, and tales
-Uncle Remus = an old slave of age-old wisdom outwitting that of his masters, and a ‘best friend’ creating a relationship with the wide-eyed audience, likened to a little white boy from the plantation household
-introd. a new lit. tradition and a memorable new character
W o r k :
-author of ed. writing, early humorous pieces for newsps, and dialect tales
-an excellent ear for dialect
-an ability to emphasise the universal nature of the tales
Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings (1881):
-a coll. of folk poems and proverbs
Nights with Uncle Remus (1883)
Uncle Remus and His Friends (1892)
Uncle Remus and the Little Boy (1905)
Free Joe and Other Georgian Sketches (1887):
-a sense of the tragic dislocation of the South Af.-Am. after 1865