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Realism and Naturalism, Howell (why now? (post war experience (they lost…
Realism and Naturalism, Howell
Realism 1860s-1910s (literary period): ! it can also be a mode of writing (realistic way of writing). Different from Romance (the world as it should be).
Naturalism: 1890s-1910s (subform of realism). Detailed oriented writing supported by a philosophical convinction: pessimistic determinism. Pessimism (it's not gonna get better) determinism (and you can't do anything about it). Man: animal, no spiritual salvation (there is no God), human beings are driven by instinct and heredity, life ends in a miserable death, no heroism possible (there are no heros)
why now?
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Scientific developments: less time to read. They read newspapers, periodicals.
Darwin, Freud, .. start to be popular: modern age is beginning
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before: Idealism, Romanticism. US destiny managed by bigger forces, male writers with larger visions, ...
Howells
Biography
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As editor supports many realists, regionalists and naturalists writers (from all over the world)
Editha
Editha experiences this crisis of her engagement as if it was. novel --> she is a victim of the propaganda of her time. She lives in her world, only when she visits George's mother it seems that she is back to realism. But then --> painter: back to her idealistic life. (the story also ends with this world: ideal). The writer criticizes her
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Setting: The Spanish-American War (1898) --> Spain ended to be a world power. Short war. US begins to be a political influence in the Pacific.
Realism: political setting, middle-class experience (conversation appropriate), outcome for George is realistic (death), Editha animated by false idealism (romanticism), Mrs Gearson's life lesson in irony and truth
the Country is represented by Editha --> failed to mature: she has undergone the experience but has not learned anything
"Novel-Writing and Novel Reading", what a novel ought to do
truth and falsehood: tell the truth cause truth things cannot be ugly, it might be indecent but not ugly
Imagination: it cannot create stuff, it can only COMPOSE.
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Things that are not novels: romance --> why? because they use types rather than characters (stereotypes), because they deal with life allegorically, they deal with things that are impossible!
Readership: women have a connection with the realistic world. Men: the feminism part of your personality makes you like realistic fiction.
Role of the novelist: to help you be kinder to your fellows, juster to yourself, truer to all.