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AMERICAN LITERARY CONTEXT - Coggle Diagram
AMERICAN LITERARY CONTEXT
REALISM (1850-1900)
CHARACTERISTICS
closely and comprehensively detailed reality, characters more important than action
focus on class - readership was largely insurgent middle-class
events = plausible, diction = vernacular
objectively presenting events
'the redemption of the individual lies within the social world'
WRITERS
William Dean Howells
Henry James
Mark Twain
Rebecca Harding Davis
BOOKS
A Hazard of New Fortunes, William Dean Howells - uncertainty of Basil March (Westerner) moving to New York to start a newspaper
NATURALISM (1890s-1930s)
CHARACTERISTICS
detailed realism with little focus on literary technique, more on scientific objectivity
suggested that social conditions, heredity and environment had an inescapable force in shaping human character
usually focused on middle/lower class, mundane daily life
man's ability to determine his own destiny vs nature's ability to control him
focus on character in relation to circumstance, not in isolation
WRITERS
Edith Wharton
John Steinbeck
Upton Sinclair
Frank Norris
BOOKS
The House of Mirth - Lily Bart attempts to marry into New York high society as an impoverished socialite - Gilded Age social mobility
THEMES
taboo
nature as an indifferent force
the 'brute within'
illness
TECHNIQUES
objective/detached tone
3rd person omniscient
MODERNISM (1900-1950)
CHARACTERISTICS
was a collection of movements - Roaring 20s, Harlem Renaissance, The Great Depression etc
art for the sake of art (not a deity)
innovative form and language
psychological and spiritual scars of WW1 - need for self-definition in metropolitan societies
increasing populations leading to immigration fears, eroding traditions and racism
'The Lost Generation' - coined by Gertrude Stein
rejection/wariness of modern society
studies of inequality for women/African Americans
TECHNIQUES
alienation
fragmented/non-linear storylines
stream of consciousness
interior dialogue
WRITERS
T.S. Eliot
William Faulkner
Virginia Woolf
Ezra Pound
BOOKS
ROMANTICISM (1800-1865)
CHARACTERISTICS
heavy stress on intuition and self-reliance
sublime
Transcendentalists believed that man's nature is inherently good, and that man and society are perfectible
Industrial revolution made 'old Puritan ways' irrelevant, paving the way for the 'Gilded Age'
THEMES
American individualism
nature
imagination
creativity and emotions
TECHNIQUES
fantastical
good triumphing over evil, imagination over reason etc
the supernatural
REACTIONS TO GILDED AGE
Jack London focus on nature's indomitability
development of philosophical Romantic outlook on life, but related to the need to re-establish the relationship with nature in response to the excess of the Gilded Age
Feeling that the wealth and tranquility of the Gilded Age has weakened humanity
Relative youth of the American continent meant that it was unexplored and indomitable