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1、The historical and socio-cultural background of American Realism,The American society after the Civil War provided rich soil for the rise and development of Realism. This period is characterized with changes, in relation to every aspect of American life, politically, economically, culturally, and re
2、ligiously.,First of all, politically, the Civil War affected both the social and the value system of the country. America had transformed itself into an industrialized and commercialized society. Wilderness gave way to civilization. The burgeoning economy and industry stepped up urbanization.,Howeve
3、r, economically, the changes were not all for the better. The industrialization and the urbanization were accompanied by the incalculable sufferings of the laboring people. Therefore, polarization of the wellbeing between the poor and the richstarted to show up.,Thirdly, as far as the ideology was c
4、oncerned, people became dubious about the human nature and the benevolence of God, which the Transcendentalists cared most. What Mark Twain referred to as “ the Gilded Age” replaced the frontier and the spirit of the frontiersman, which is the spirit of freedom and human connection.,Fourthly, the li
5、terary scene after the Civil War proved to be quite different a picture. The harsh realities of life as well as the disillusion of heroism resulting from the dark memories of the Civil War had set the nation against the romance. The Americans began to be tired of the sentimental feelings ofRomantici
6、sm. Thus, started a new period in the American literary writings known as the Age of Realism, characterized by a great interest in the realities of life.,The Gilded Age,It refers to the period of gross materialism and blatant political corruption in the U.S. history during the l870s that gave rise t
7、o important novels of social and political criticism. The period takes its name from the earliest of these, The Gilded Age (l873), written by Mark Twain in collaboration with Charles Dudley Warner.,The novel gives a vivid and accurate description of Washington D.C., and is peopled with caricatures o
8、f many leading figures of the day, including greedy industrialists and corrupt politicians.,The political novels of the Gilded Age represent the beginnings of a new strain in the American literature, the novel as a vehicle of social protest, a trend that grew in the late l9th and early 20th centurie
9、s with the works of the muckrakers and culminated in the proletarian novelists.,What is Realism?,In art and literature, Realism refers to an attempt to describe human behavior and surroundings or to represent figures exactly as they act or appear in life. Realism emerged as a literary movement in Eu
10、rope in the l850s. In reaction to Romanticism, realistic writers should set down their observations impartially and objectively.,They insisted on accurate documentation, sociological insight, and avoidance of poetic diction and idealization. The subjects were to be taken from everyday life, preferab
11、ly from lower-class life. Realism entered American literature after the Civil War. William Dean Howells, Mark Twain, and Henry James were the pioneers of realism in the U.S.,The literary characteristics of the Realistic Period in American literature,Guided by the principle of adhering to the truthfu
12、l treatment of life, the realists touched upon various contemporary social and political issues. In their works, instead of writing about the polite, well-dressed, grammatically correct middle-class young people who moved in exotic places and remote times,they introduced industrial workers and farme
13、rs, ambitious businessmen and vagrants, prostitutes and unheroic soldiers as major characters in fiction. They approached the harsh realities and pressures in the post-Civil War society either by a comprehensive picture of modern life in its various occupations, class stratifications and manners, or
14、 by a psychological exploration of manssubconsciousness.,The three dominant figures of the period are William Dean Howells, Mark Twain, and Henry James. Together they brought to fulfillment native trends in the realistic portrayal of the landscape and social surfaces, brought to perfection the verna
15、cular style, and explored and exploited the literary possibilities of the interior life.,The three dominant figures of the Realistic period differed in their understanding of the “truth ”,(l) While Mark Twain and Howells paid more attention to the “life“ of the Americans, Henry James laid a greater
16、emphasis on the“ inner world“ of man. He came to believe that the literary artist should not simply hold a mirror to the surface of social life in particular times and places.,In addition, the writer should use language to probe the deepest reaches of the psychological and moral nature of human bein
17、gs. He is a realist of the inner life.,(2) Though Twain and Howells both shared the same concern in presenting the truth of the American society, they had each of them different emphasis. Howells focused his discussion on the rising middle class and the way they lived, while Twain preferred to have his own region and people at the forefront of his stories, which is known as “ local colorism”, a unique variation of American literary realism.,
