American Naturalism: a new and harsher realism
Under the influence of European writers such as Emile Zola, Thomas Hardy and George Eliot, American literary naturalism emerged in the 1890s as an outgrowth of American realism.
American Naturalism
Chang Yaoxin： To some young writers just emerging, Howellsian realism was now too restrained and genteel in tone to tell the truth of the harsher realities of American life. …In the 1890s, French naturalism, with its new technique and new way of writing, appealed to the imagination of the younger generation like Stephen Crane, Frank Norris and Theodore Dreiser.
American Naturalism
Historical Background
man is not a creature of God but just a kind of animal which is not too different from “The world of jungle”; “the law of other animals; man’s fate is wholly the jungle,” the determined by survival of the fittest; environment and American Naturalism heredity inside himself
American Naturalism
American Naturalism: a new and harsher realism
the fictional world as a kind of laboratory; determined by heredity and environment; no freedom of choice; action as merely response to the environment according to their own nature;
American Naturalism
American Naturalism: a new and harsher realism
Naturalism vs. Realism
1. Both try to represent reality; views of reality are different: Realists would not regard man as beasts nor the world as the world of jungle, would not think that the weak should be sacrificed for the strong; Naturalists believe the realists are too “genteel” in their portrayal of reality and dare not reveal the real cruel nature, the true reality.
Unit 7 American Naturalism: Stephen Crane, Theodore Dreiser and others American Naturalism
American Naturalism: a new and harsher realism
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Historical Background
American Naturalism: a new and harsher realism
Historical Background
Herbert Spencer: Social Darwinism Freud’s psychology: unconsciousness decides one’s fate, largely from the childhood experience Chang Yaoxin: “Living in a cold, indifferent, and essentially Godless world, man was no longer free in any sense of the word. He was completely thrown upon himself for survival.”
American Naturalism
Chang Yaoxin: Human beings battle hopelessly against overwhelming odds in a cold, harsh, and at best apathetic environment, driven as “a wisp of wind,” with their lives very much determined by forces they have no means whatever of manipulating. The whole picture is sombre and dark; and the general tone one of hopelessness and even despair.
American Naturalism
Chang Yaoxin: They tore the mask of gentility to pieces and wrote about the helplessness of man, his insignificance in a cold world, and his lack of dignity in face of the crushing forces of environment and heredity. They reported truthfully and objectively, with a passion for scientific accuracy and an overwhelming accumulation of factual detail. They painted life as it was lived in the slums, and were accused of telling just the hideous side of it and making “a god of the dull commonplace.”
Financial giants
Industrialism
industrial proletariat (at the mercy of external forces beyond their control);
slums
American Naturalism
city poor (a life of insecurity, suffering, and violence)
Naturalism vs. Realism
4. Strictly speaking, tragedy is not possible in naturalist works for tragedy must involve the protagonist’s own free will and own choice and own action to fight against his fate or else however miserable her/his fate is, it’s not a tragedy. Cf. pathetic vs. tragic. 5. In portraying the events and details, naturalists, having in mind “the world of jungle” and “human beast”, would not hesitate to represent any kind of horrible scenes which the realists would think of as immoral or improper. (Realists may suggest it, hint it but would not present it), e.g. cruel killing, dirty wound.
Naturalism in literature was based upon social Darwinism;
poor people esp. those in the slums most directly reveals the true nature of life/world
American Naturalism
American Naturalism: a new and harsher realism
Historical Background
Westward expansion (frontier; railroad, heavy freight rates)
Science: the 19th century, the century of scientific discovery; the most revolutionary progress concerning people’s beliefs was Charles Darwin’s evolution theory.