American Literature

Unit 3: Reconstructing the American Dream

American Realism, Naturalism, and Modernism

Unit Essential Questions

  1. How do writers of Realism and Naturalism reflect the harsh realities of a post-war society?
  2. How and why do 20th century writers uphold Romantic characteristics in their writing?
  3. How do Modern writers reflect the themes of alienation and experimentation found in the 20th century?
  4. How has the role of the individual evolved from the Colonial to Modern period?

Unit Anchor Quotes

  1. “Illusions commend themselves to us because they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead. We must therefore accept it without complaint when they sometimes collide with a bit of reality against which they are dashed to pieces.” – Sigmund Freud
  2. “If there is anybody in this land who thoroughly believes that the meek shall inherit the earth they have not often let their presence be known.” – W.E.B. Du Bois
  3. “My idea is always to reach my generation. The wise writer writes for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmasters of ever afterward.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

Unit 3 Goals

Understand characteristics of Realism, Naturalism, and Modernism

Compare and contrast characteristics of the above literary periods to the Colonial and Romantic ages

Acquire new language and literary terms: irony, satire, juxtaposition, etc.

View and analyze characteristics and elements of literary periods in various mediums: art, music, film

Track universal themes of American Literature in all texts

Track the evolution of the role and importance of the individual

Analyze and compare classic texts to modern supplements

Avoid passive voice and past tense verbs in writing

Improve “active” voice in writing to further improve formal tone in writing

Vary use of evidence and quotations in writing

Conduct research and incorporate findings into writing; master understanding of MLA conventions

Write in a variety of genres: research paper, narrative, literary analysis, synthesis writing

Unit 3 Key Texts and Authors

  • Emily Dickinson poetry – “Success is counted sweetest,” “This is my letter to the world,” “Softened by Time’s consummate plush,” and “I’m nobody! Who are you?”
  • Carl Sandburg poetry – “Grass”
  • Jack London texts – “He Never Tried Again” (poem) and “To Build a Fire” (short story excerpt)
  • Kate Chopin – “The Story of an Hour” (short story)
  • Judy Brady – “I Want a Wife” (essay)
  • Mark Twain – “Genius” (poem)
  • John Steinbeck – “The Chrysanthemums” (short story)
  • Zora Neale Hurston – “How it Feels to be Colored Me” (essay)
  • Langston Hughes poetry – “A Dream Deferred,” and “I, Too, Sing America”
  • T.S. Eliot poetry – Excerpts from “The Wasteland”
  • Robert Frost poetry – “The Road Not Taken,” “Birches,” “Mending Wall,” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”
  • Theodore Roethke – “My Papa’s Waltz” (poem)
  • F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel The Great Gatsby

Unit 3 Key Background Information

REALISM

Realism is defined as “the faithful representation of reality” or “verisimilitude.”

Realism is a technique and signifies a particular kind of subject matter, especially that of middle-class life. It encompasses life from the Civil War through the turn of century of 1900.

It’s areaction against Romanticism and is influenced by the systematizing of the study of documentary history, and the influence of rational over the ideal.

Whereas Romantics urged to transcend the immediate to find the ideal, realists center their attention to a remarkable degree on the immediate, the here and now, the specific action, and the verifiable consequence.

NATURALISM

  • The term “naturalism” derives from the attempt to apply scientific principles of objectivity and detachment to its study of human beings.
  • Unlike Realism, Naturalism implies a philosophical position: naturalistic writers see humans as beasts who can be studied through their relationships with their surroundings. Humans should be studied impartially as “products” without moralizing about their natures.
  • Naturalist writers believe that the laws behind the forces that govern human lives might be studied and understood. Thus, these 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 the forces of heredity and environment.
  • Although they used the techniques of accumulating details created by Realists, it is the Naturalist’s focus on championing a deterministic philosophy and focusing on the lower classes that separate the groups.
  • Whereas Realists center on the attention to a remarkable degree on the immediate, Naturalists plumb the actual or superficial to find the scientific laws that control its actions. Many see Naturalism’s philosophical framework as “pessimistic materialistic determinism.”

MODERNISM

  • American Modernism is noted for its sudden and unexpected breaks with the traditional ways of viewing and interacting with the world. Experimentation and innovation became virtues, where in the past they were disregarded.
  • This literary period was set in motion by a number of cultural shocks – WWI caused people to question what ghastly horror the word may be plunging to in the very present future. The machinery of modern society is perceived as impersonal, capitalist, and antagonistic to the artistic impulse.
  • A central focus of Modernism is the preoccupation with the inner self and consciousness.
  • In contrast with the Romantic view, the Modernist cares little to nothing about nature, “being,” or the overarching structures of history. Instead of progress and growth, the Modernist sees decay and a growing alienation of the individual.
  • The 20th century witnessed the beginnings of a new paradigm first between the sexes, and later between different cultural groups. Gone were the 19th century dominant ways of the white male and oppressed females and minorities. Thanks to this, a new diverse voice was able to rise from American writing that spanned gender, race, and cultures.
  • In Modernist literature, poets took the fullest advantage of the new spirit of the times and stretched the possibilities of their craft to new, unexplored lengths. Fresh looks at symbolism, rhythm, and word usage arose. “The Lost Generation” is a group of Modernist writers and thinkers who chose to live abroad during WWI to pursue their creative impulses. The term comes from the spiritual and existential hangover left by four years of war as these artists struggled to find some meaning in a world full of chaos. To achieve this – like other Modernist literature – they turned their mind’s eye inward to record the workings of consciousness.

Characteristics of Unit 3’s Key Literary Periods
American Realism
(1860-1890) / American Naturalism
(1890-1940) / American Modernism
(1920-1960)
Renders reality closely and in comprehensive detail. / Characters are frequently lower-class and/or uneducated. / New kind of narration as the narrator is unreliable which forces the readers to question even the most basic assumptions of the text
Character is more important than action or plot; complex ethical choices are often the subject. / Characters’ lives are governed by the forces of heredity, instinct, and passion. / Characters have a sense of alienation from society and a sense of loneliness
Characters appear in their real complexity of temperament and motive; they are in explicable relation to nature, to each other, to their social classes, and to their own pasts. / The attempts of exercising free will or choice are hamstrung by forces out of their control. / Procrastination and an inability to act appears in many protagonists/characters
Class is important / Social Darwinism and other theories help to explain characters’ fates to the readers. / Characters agonize over their recollection of the past that is meant to reflect the gloom and doom of two world wars and holistic chaos; this is seen in texts with frequent flashbacks to the past
Events will usually be plausible. Realistic novels avoid the sensational, dramatic elements of naturalistic novels and romances. / Nature acts as an indifferent force acting on the lives of individuals / Fear of death and acceptance of death makes its way into many Modern texts as does the inability to feel love or express love in the conflicts of characters
Diction is natural vernacular, not heightened or poetic; tone may be comical, satirical, or matter-of-fact / The Naturalistic novel offers “clinical, slice-of-life” drama that is often a “chronicle of despair”; urbanized settings / Writers often depict man as creating his own myths in his mind that he can fall back upon
Objectivity is presentation becomes increasingly important; overt authorial comments or intrusions diminish as the century progresses. / Writing focuses on “the brute within” characters – strong and warring emotions, passions such as lust and greed dictate a character fighting against an indifferent universe. / Modernist writers portray the environment as a wasteland
KEY THEMES: unidealized and unsentimental depictions, importance of place, ordinary speech and ordinary people, pragmatism / KEY THEMES: survival, determinism, violence, and taboo. / KEY THEMES: violence and alienation, historical discontinuity, decadence and decay, loss and despair, rejection of history, race relations, unavoidable change, sense of place/local color
KEY AUTHORS: Mark Twain, Henry James / KEY AUTHORS: Richard Wright, Jack London, Edith Wharton, Kate Chopin, William Faulkner, Upton Sinclair, Ernest Hemingway / KEY AUTHORS: T.S. Eliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Langston Hughes, Robert Frost, Zora Neale Hurston