THE RISE OF AMERICAN REALISM

1. THE RISE OF AMERICAN REALISM

2. Where did the Romance go??? • This painting, entitled “Liberty Leading the People” by Eugene Delacroix (1830) is a romantic glorification of the idea of war and liberty. This painting confirmed the position of Romantic art; which emphasized common people, spirit, emotion, and glory. • Romantic literature focuses on these same ideas also.

3. Edgar Allen Poe Ralph Emerson Nathaniel Hawthorne Herman Melville Henry Thoreau William Blake Mary W. Shelley Samuel Taylor Coleridge Some Romantic Authors

4. WHEN DID REALISM BEGIN? April 12, 1861 Confederate forces open fire on Union Forces at Fort Sumter in South Carolina This event, combined with building political tension, was the beginning of the Civil War This began one of the bloodiest chapters in American history In 1863, President Lincoln beautifully illustrated tone for the nation…and our literary voices with one speech

5. The Gettysburg Address July 1863: Union and Confederates fight for 3 days straight at Gettysburg This was one of the bloodiest battles during the Civil War November 19, 1863: Lincoln reads the Gettysburg Address during the dedication ceremony at the Gettysburg cemetery Keep in mind: Lincoln was reading this in front of many friends and families of the perished soldiers

6. Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

7. The Gettysburg Address: As Realistic Literature Why is this speech considered realistic literature? • It focuses on real people: soldiers, distressed families, etc. • Lincoln’s ideas are realistic: the realization that the union may lose the war; the need for patriotism; the blood, tears, sweat, and sacrifice involved in war; etc.

8. THE CIVIL WAR 1861-1865 The American people held opposing viewpoints on the war: IDEALISM vs PESSIMISM IDEALISM Personified by Walt Whitman His work in the field hospitals and visiting wounded soldiers gave him a sense of optimism and patriotism But, he was one of the only ROMANTIC writers to bridge his writing to REALISM…

9. Walt Whitman • Normally known as a romantic poet who wrote such HOPEFUL and IDEALISTIC poems as “I Hear America Singing” and “A Psalm of Life” • YET, his poem entitled “O Captain! My Captain!” has many realistic elements • This may be caused by Whitman’s experience living during the Civil War era

10. O Captain! My Captain! Realistic Literature A metaphor and elegy poem Lincoln was just assassinated People are sad because Lincoln did not get to see the end of the war • The voyage= the war • The captain= Lincoln • The ship= the United States • The prize= victory

11. My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;Exult O shores, and ring O bells!But I, with mournful tread,Walk the deck my Captain lies,Fallen cold and dead. O Captain my Captain! our fearful trip is done,The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won,The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;But O heart! heart! heart!O the bleeding drops of red,Where on the deck my Captain lies,Fallen cold and dead. O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;Rise up--for you the flag is flung for you the bugle trills,For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths for you the shores a-crowding,For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;Here Captain! dear father!This arm beneath your head!It is some dream that on the deck,You've fallen cold and dead.

12. O Captain! My Captain!: As Realistic Literature Why is this piece considered realistic literature? • It focuses on a real person (Lincoln) and real events (the war and Lincoln’s assassination) • It is an elegy: a poem that highlights a person who has died

13. THE CIVIL WAR1861-1865 • PESSIMISM • Personified by Herman Melville • His visits to the battlefields exposed the futility and horrors of war-saw humanity’s basic evil

14. Romanticism sinks…literally ". . . from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee."

15. The “Captain Ahab” metaphor is often used in contemporary society…

16. During the Bush Administration…

17. And now the Obama administration…

18. What will be YOUR generation’s “White Whale”??

19. Subtle representations of the “white whale”

20. LITERATURE OF THE CIVIL WAR ERA • No true literature of this period was produced • Most of the accounts of the war came from newspaper articles and soldiers accounts

21. LITERATURE OF THE CIVIL WAR ERA • America’s greatest writers either chose not to write (Emerson) • Or died (Thoreau)

22. LITERATURE OF THE CIVIL WAR ERA • were occupied with other endeavors (Holmes and Bryant) • The younger generation of writers was abroad (Howells and James)

23. LITERATURE OF THE CIVIL WAR ERA • The introduction and advancement of photography aided in the END of any romantic notions of war and death. • Photographers such as Matthew Brady and Alexander Gardner brought the horrors of war to many people through the images they captured

24. THE RISE OF REALISM • Out of the horrors of the Civil War came a negative reaction to the atrocities of war • People became disillusioned with the exploits of larger than life heroes and happy endings that had been popular during the era of Romanticism • Realists focused more on the common course of ordinary life

25. CHARACTERISTICS OF REALISM • Subjects were drawn from the slums, factories, and lives of far from idealized characters: factory workers corrupt politicians even prostitutes

26. CHARACTERISTICS OF REALISM • Realists wanted to portray why ordinary people behave the way they do (PSYCHOLOGY) • Character exploration often came at the expense of plot. • They wanted to portray life without filtering it through personal feelings, romanticism, or idealism (SOCIOLOGY) • Class is important; generally tend to focus on the insurgent middle class • Events will be plausible and will avoid the sensational • Diction is natural vernacular and the tone may be comic, satiric or matter-of-fact (REGIONALISM) • Objectivity in presentation is critically important • Realistic novelists often relied on the emerging sciences of human and animal behavior (BIOLOGY/NATURALISM)

27. THE ROOTS OF AMERICAN REALISM • Realism had its roots in REGIONALISM • literature that emphasizes a specific geographic setting and makes use of the speech and manners of the people who live in that region  • Although regional novelists were loyal to the speech and manners of the people they wrote about, they tended to be unrealistic about their depiction of the characters or the social environment

28. THE ROOTS OF AMERICAN REALISM • Mark Twain became one of the first regional writers to embrace the aspects of Realism • In Huckleberry Finn, we see the world from Huck’s point of view • Huck attempts to decipher the world around him • Twain uses Huck to explode social conventions and the hypocrisy of “civilized” society

29. THE PSYCHOLOGICAL NOVEL • Stephen Crane was a profound psychologist, but he chose to focus on his character at moments of stress • Crane chose the battlefield, the slums, and even a lifeboat lost at sea as the place to test human behavior under pressure • Crane was also considered an Ironist by juxtaposing human pretensions with the indifference of the universe • This helped pave the way for modern writers such as Ernest Hemingway and Kurt Vonnegut

30. Romanticism or Realism? NOW: It’s time for you to depict: Pick the picture that portrays REALISM

31. Romanticism or Realism? Pick the picture that portrays ROMANTICISM

32. Mark Twain William Dean Howells Rebecca Harding Davis John W. Deforest Joseph Kirkland E. W. Howe Hamlin Garland Henry James Some Realistic Authors