The Rise of Realism The Civil War to 1914

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The Rise of RealismThe Civil War to
1914
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The Civil War
Multiple Causes

• War resulted from decades of sectional conflict.

• South produced cash crops for the North.

• South depended on North for financial,
  manufacturing, commercial services.

• South relied on nearly 4 million slaves as its
  labor force.

• North valued power of federal government South
  believed in states rights.

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New Forms of Warfare

• Infantry carried new, more accurate rifles.

• Cavalry riders faced certain death attacking
  infantry.

• Toll of frontal and cavalry assaults led to use
  of trench warfare.

• More than 600,000 soldiers died.

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The Civil War
End of Slavery

• Emancipation Proclamation declared that slaves in
  Confederate states were free.

• Thirteenth Amendment freed all slaves in the U.S.

• Even though slaves had been freed, fight for
  equality was just beginning.

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The Civil War
Literature

• The primary forms of war literature were journals
  and letters.

• None of the prominent writers of the time served
  in the war.

• The horror of war required a new literary
  formrealism.

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The Civil War
Prominent Writers

• Ralph Waldo Emerson was in Concord,
  Massachusetts, knitting for soldiers and writing
  patriotic lectures.

• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was raising his
  children after his wifes death.

• Oliver Wendell Holmes was working as a professor
  at Harvard.

• William Cullen Bryant was working as editor of
  the New York Evening Post.

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The Rise of Realism
Realists New View of the World

• Rejected larger-than-life hero of Romantic
  literature
• Depicted ordinary characters and
  realistic events
• Emphasized characters from
  cities and lower classes
• Avoidance of the exotic,
  sensational, and overly
  dramatic
• Use of everyday speech patterns
  to reveal class
  distinction.
• Sought to explain WHY people
  behave as they do

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The Rise of Realism
Regionalism
Kate Chopin

• Emphasized a specific geographic setting

• Often sentimental in depictions of characters and
  locations

• Prominent authors Sarah Orne Jewett, Kate
  Chopin, Bret Harte, Mark Twain

Mark Twain
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The Rise of Realism
Naturalism
Frank Norris

• Attempted to analyze human behavior objectively,
  as a scientist would
• Sense that human beings cannot control their own
  destinies

• Believed human behavior determined by heredity
  and environment

• Viewed life as a losing battle against the
  universe

• Prominent authors William Dean Howells, Frank
  Norris

William Dean Howells
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The Rise of Realism
Psychological Realism
Henry James

• Focused on character motivation and characters at
  moments of stress

• Studied complex social and psychological
  situations

• Prominent authors Henry James, Stephen Crane

Stephen Crane
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Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?)

• As a Realist, Bierce infused his writing with an
  attitude of scorn for all the sentimental
  illusions human beings cling to. In other words,
  his fiction conforms to the truth as it is
  experienced rather than as we would like it to
  be.
• He was fascinated with the psychology of warfare
  and the cruel joke it plays on humanity.
• His obsession grew out of his own traumatic
  experiences with the Civil War.
• Once a Confederate sentinel shot him unexpectedly
  during the night. Bierce recalls feeling shock
  and dread. A similar sense of terror and
  disorientation in evident in An Occurrence at
  Owl Creek Bridge.
• In 1913, Bierce left his home for Mexico to
  report on or join in its revolution. He was never
  heard from again.