Regionalism and Naturalism

1. Rachel, Bryan, Jake, Nate and Ben B Period Regionalism and Naturalism

2. The Regionalism and Naturalism Movement • The American government instituted Reconstruction in the South after the Civil War  • African Americans gained citizenship and equal protection along with the right to vote  • Confederate states rejoined the Union • The many changes in America influenced writers to capture customs, character, and landscapes of the nation's regions (Regionalism)

3. The Regionalism and Naturalism Movement Continued • The transcontinental railroad brought settlers west • Western expansion was expressed by Mark Twain and Bret Harte • Railroad expanded industry, allowing cities to grow • America became properous through new technologies and industrial modernization

4. Cultural Influences • Because of the stratification of American society at the turn of the century, groups such as the Native Americans, African Americans, and immigrant groups faced hard times trying to eke out a living as they fueled the rapid industrialization of our nation's economy. 

5. Cultural Influences cont'd •  These groups became sources of cheap labor for captains of industry and robber barons, who built massive industrial empires on the backs of their laborers • This time period is known as "The Gilded Age" because of the wealth and extravagance of the upper class • The Populist Party grew rapidly in the lower class • Naturalism was the        literary movement that        voiced this feeling that        life was a constant        struggle in an uncaring        world

6. Regionalism and its many colors • Sought to capture for future generations the character of their (the artist's) areas. • Honest portrayals of people and their daily lives. • Recorded how people spoke, dressed, acted, thought, and looked. • Grew from Realism on the basis of everyday expirience and accuracy. • Always without romance or sentimentality • Local color writing is a      form of Regionalism. •  R ealistic E veryday A spects of L ife

7. Ideas of the Age: Laissez Faire • Naturalism incorporated two opposing views: laissez faire and progressivism • Laissez faire applied new scientific, political and economic theories • Supported the idea of survival of the fittest • Survival of the fittest stated that the law of nature would take care of itself • Resisted government regulation

8. Ideas of the Age: Progressivism • Progressive movement attempted to restore economic equality • Supported eliminating the large gap between the rich and the poor • Believed government control was necessary to correct social injustices and protect the people

9. The individual seems helpless We are at the mercy of forces beyond our understanding or control  Life is a constant struggle The world is harsh and uncaring Concerned with the impact of social and natural forces on the individual Qualities of Naturalism Theodore Dreiser was a naturalist writer who thought of the way of the world as one creature lives off another

10. Jack London's naturalist tale The Call of the Wild subjected readers to the naturalist idea of unhappy endings Qualities of Naturalism Continued • Characters are victimized by brutal forces and cannot control their lives • Survival of the fittest • Laissez faire • Progressive movements to restore economic opportunites and correct injustices • Nature is indifferent

11. The New Role for Women • Women  in the late 1800s and early 1900s broke barriers as their roles shifted • Women writers tended to be realists, whether regionalists or nationalists • The women's suffrage movement reemerged • University education became more widely available to women (despite newspapers and other modes of commuication denouncing the development)

12. Women's Works • Women's writing reflected society's limitations - on women, on the poor, and on African Americans • Some breakthrough writers include Charlotte Perkins Gilman (The Yellow Wallpaper"), Kate Chopin (The Awakening), and Edith Wharton (The Age of Innocence) • Works tended to end tragically, opften in madness, ruin, scandal, or death - a reflection of natrualist leanings • Mary Cassat was one of the few women whose art was exhibited in Paris - an impressionist, Cassat painted women with purpose in their every day lives