American Literary Realism - Essay Example

American Literary Realism Literature provides a way in which an individual, an artist for a fact, can express the society in which they live. A study of American literature evolution is one such aspect that shows the transformation of the American society way of life, thinking and changes that took place in an attempt to be versed with the what was socially affecting or impacting on the society. America, being one of the most diverse countries in the world, provides a platform for which literary evolution is based. The transformation of literature from its basic romantic form displayed during the earlier periods to its transition into realism as per the social influences of the happenings of the society. Romantic literature is attributed to have had its origins from Germany, to England and had quickly spread to France and beyond before reaching America in the early nineteenth century (VanSpackeren para. 1). The European influence on the American society spurred the great thinkers and intellectual minds of the time who started expressing the themselves through romantic poetry. However, one notable fact about the time when America was embracing romantic literature, is its firm coincided with the American search for its identity and nationalism. VanSpeckeren explains that the period of American such for its own distinctive voice and characterized by national expansion (para. 3). It was thus evident it is the merging of literary romanticism and natioal idealism that spearheaded to the establishment of the American renaissance (VanSpeckeren para. 5). Romanticism literature covered the general fictious love stories like a common person who later becomes a hero or a rewarded for his or her heroic actions by a ruler, stories of from rugs to riches, good versus evil. Basically, the stories revolved around a visionalized characters in the society who were either rewarded for their good deeds and those were punished for their wrong doing. It is however, interesting to note that romantic stories apart from just basing their stories on popular themes, they embodied a sense of hope and potential that marked and reflected the time frame of the American growth (Godin para.2). It brought about changes in industry and a desire to do better in the American society as a direct motivation of the good deeds-rewards literary endings common in romantic literature. Godin explains that romantic literature had a more formal approach in its focus on larger themes which elevated to higher work and purpose which often asked for a redears response to questions or lessons learnt (Godin para. 3). Some critics argue that the romantic literature of the time which mostly included poetry, plays and short stories portrayed the sociey at the time and demonstrated an evident attempt of the American authors show that they could write coherently and well like their British counterparts (Godin para.3). Romantism was characterized by the promise of expansion that was brought about by the frontier adventure (Gudin para. 3). Although the stories had a straight forward plot and the vigour surrounding it, and demonstrated the spirit of the time, it could be easily figured out that they lacked aunthenticity due to the heavy apparent literary influence that could be easily traced to British prolific and accomplished writers. The period that followed, the late nineteeth century to early twentienth century was characterized by social changes. Their was mass immigrant populations of people coming to america including the slaves. Industial revolution was just taking off and urbanization was taking place as people begun participating in trade activities and towns grew as a result. There was distinct urban and rural population with rural-urban migration taking place as people left their rural homes in search for jobs in the manufacturing industries located in the cities as a result of the changes in industrial revolution that were taking place. It is this industrial revolution that led to the the economic growth and social changes (Godin para.4). The new social changes brought with it the American social stratification. With the emergence of economically empowered population, the working class and the slaves at the lower end (Godin para.4). There was a wider gap between the poor and the rich for the first time in the history of America (Godin para.4). This demonstrated the dawning of the harsh reality of the society. There was alienation, vices and social problems that needed to be addressed. It is also a period that marked the boring nature of lack of reality and the alienation they derived from romantic literature. A new generation emerged that was more bored with fairy-tales and stories with similar endings that were not realilstic in the kind of socity characterized by the everyday struggles Americans were facing. It is the point in the history of America that realism literature was born. There was need by the people at that time to read what they could relate to in their day to day life occurences in the society and this spurred the minds of the authors of the time to deviate from the traditional romantic literature to the newly-found realism literature genre (Godin para.5). It is vital to note that the a well educated population was emerging with the thirst to for literacy and hence the demand for literature. The central characteristic of realism literature was based on real time characters at real places tied to exact locations, very normal characters who did not portray exaggerated superhuman qualities and had real problems faced by real people as opposed to ideal characters in romantism (Godan para.1). It can be noted that the influx of realism literature into the American society as a reaction and rejection to the romantism literature that was previously deeply rooted in the society. The American wanted stories that they could relate to and feel that they exhaustively dealt with the social issues that were affecting them rather than far-fetched romantic fairy tales. It is argued that at this point in the American history, there was no romance given the issues that were taking place in the society at that time (Godan para. 4). To be able to understand what spurred the divert of literature from the romantic perspective to the reality perspective, a glimpse at the society at that time is important. Godan narrates that at that time, the idea of the frontier westward expansion and adventure was no more, fantasies had no place in peoples’ lives, people in the society were more interested in finding a stable job, fending for the family and dealing with real time issues affecting them (para. 5). So great writers of the time like Mark Twain, William Dean Howells, Rebecca Harding Davis, and Henry James must have taken note of the literery deficiencies of the time and had been inspired to author stories that had real characters whose opinions and ideas were real in life and tended to express where they were resided (Godan para. 6). The literary works characteristic of the realism period had clear and straight forward language where characters were presented as real as possible whether fictious or real. Godan argues that, Mark Twain in his literary classics is known to use dialect which focused on the American middle class at the time (para. 6). Another factor that promoted realism literature was the fact that the authors focused on real characters that cut across all social classes of people. They revealed the location of the characters, their religion, race or ethnicity and a form of the American life which had not previously been portrayed (Godan para.6). The widespread of the literary realism stories fo the time was a clear indication of the Americans need to know and understand their fellow citizens background and way of life in the real world. Therefore it realism can be defined as the literary description of characters without any idealization or romantic subjectivity. An online article Realism in American Literature, describes according to Campbell, the characteristic features of realism (as cited in The American Novel and its Tradition; para. 5) as follows; Renders reality closely and in comprehensive detail. Selective presentation of reality with an emphasis on verisimilitude, even at the expense of a well-made plot. Character is more important than action and plot; complex ethical choices are often the subject. Characters appear in their real complexity of temperament and motive; they are in explicable relation to nature, to each other, to their social class, to their own past. Class is important; the novel has traditionally served the interests and aspirations of an insurgent middle class. (See Ian Watt, The Rise of the Novel) Events will usually be plausible. Realistic novels avoid the sensational, dramatic elements of naturalistic novels and romances. Diction is natural vernacular, not heightened or poetic; tone may be comic, satiric, or matter-of-fact. Objectivity in presentation becomes increasingly important: overt authorial comments or intrusions diminish as the century progresses. Interior or psychological realism a variant form. In Black and White Strangers, Kenneth Warren suggests that a basic difference between realism and sentimentalism is that in realism, "the redemption of the individual lay within the social world," but in sentimental fiction, "the redemption of the social world lay with the individual" (75-76). A good example and most reknown American author whose works were dominated by literary realism was Henry James. According to Rahn (para.8), Henry James works are a direct manifestation of the fascinations of characters from his native country, American and their encounter with the people from Europe. One of his literary classics explores the lifestyle of the people his characters interact with to be characterized of naivety, virility and virtues with the Americans while on the other hand, he ascribed characteristics associated with vices to the characters of European origin (Rahn para.8). Though his works were based on reality, they demonstrate the shortcomings of the literary realisms with its prejudice portrayal of different races. Rahn points out that what Henry James displayed in his literary works diferred from what his actions in real life given the fact that he denounced his American citizenship in favour of a Britain one (para. 8). This is further demonstrate by the positive influence he gained when through interacting with from both racial background that motivated him to build a cottage industry (Rahn para. 8). His groundbraking classical literary realism was a novel entitle Daisy Miller which narrates the life of a young innocent American girl from a wealthy family, who on her tour to Europe encounters schemers who victimize and take everything and leave her helpless (Rahn para.8). Henry James in his literary works represented the society in his own authentic way that made him unique in his era. He might have represented literary realism in the bad light of prejudice but his works are an example of the groundbreaking opening acts of the realism – a characteristic so defining of the American literature according to him as he saw suitable and defining of the society he interacted with back then. Realism literature would be incomplete without the mention of Samuel Clemens, who to many, is regarded as the pioneer of realism in America. His groundbreaking works are characterized by localization use of language thereby making his strories more authentic to a confined real region (Rahn para.7). Publishing his works under the name Mark Twain, his enourmous contribution to literature later resulted into what came to be known as a sub-genre of literature – local colour (Rahn para.7). He is attributed by a many as a very keen and observant author who was able to master accents of the speakers and replicating them to his literary work, an aspect that required a great deal of time. His stories, a characteristic of literary realism, focused on social stratification. Clemens works mainly centred on day to day events of the elite middle class and upper class characters (Rahn para.7). In his works, he ensured that all sococial classes were well represented and had something to relate to. The people from the poor background had an opportunity to enjoy the stories that directly identified with them and the social elite had relevant stories about their daily struggles with business and finance to enjoy reading (Rahn para.7). One of his prolific classical masterpiece is the famous The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn which is officially banned in many libraries across America due to its subject matter considered by many to be offensive (Rahn para.7). The book describes the speech of a freed slave Tom and Finn’s speech are described in a manner that is considered appropriate. some critiques however argue that Clemens was being true to his literary style of localization by demonstrating the pronounciation of words as exhibited by different races (Rahn para. 7). William Dean Howells, a magazine editor who happened to be a great friend of Mark Twain’s, (Rahn para.9), had his own way of describing realism that set him apart from authors of his time. On of his famous realism classics dating back to 1885, The Rise of Silas Lapham, tells a story of a young ambitious businessman who out of poor judgement gravely decisions, risks and loses all of his fortune (Rahn para. 9). The story many critiques have considered a masterpiece of realism at its best. According to Rahn (para.9), it domonstrates the harsh reality of life as opposed to the feel-good themes in stories that dominated romantism literature. However, some critiques have considered realism stories to be full of grimnes to reality that readers find discouraging to read (Rahn para. 9). It can therefore be concluded that realism was mainly inspired by the social changes that took place in America during the renaissance period and secondly by the desire of the American people to be versed through reading with events that they could relate to. The rise of many writers versed with the needs of the diverse American society literary needs is proof enough that the American society was more interested with its thirst for a more difinitive literature that everyone regardless of the social class one belonged to would find relevant. Though the realism in its attempts to be ‘real’ has often illicited negative response and criticism that maybe intentional or misunderstood. The influence of realism has extended to many parts of the world and what is left is for readers to be the judge of literary realism piece of work they encounter. Works cited Donna M. Campbell. ‘Realism in american literature, 1860-1890.’ Public.wsu. Web 2014. Accessed at < http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/realism.htm> Godin, Catherine. ‘The literary realism movement: a response to romantism.’ Education portal. Web 2014. Accessed at < http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/the-literary-realism-movement-a-response-to-romanticism.html#lesson> Rahn, Josh. ‘Realism’. The literature network. Web 2014. Accessed at < http://www.online-literature.com/periods/realism.php> VanSpackeren, Kathryn. ‘The romantic period: 1820-1860, essayists and poets’. IIP Digital. Web 2014. Accessed at < http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/publication/2008/05/20080512215714eaifas0.1850855.html#axzz30oQplHZ4> Read More