美国现实主义.AmericanRealism.ppt
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1、American Realism (1860-1914),I. The Definition of Realism but as a dominant literary trend it is associated chiefly with the 19th century novel of middle-or-lower-class life, in which the problems of ordinary people in unremarkable circumstances are rendered with close attention to the details of ph
2、ysical setting and to the complexities of social life.,I. The Rise of Realism: Historical Background,“The industrial North had triumphed over the agrarian South, and from that victory came a society based on mass labor and mass consumption.”,“an age of extremes”-“of decline and progress, of poverty
3、and dazzling wealth, of gloom and buoyant hope”,A. The Civil War,B. The Gilded Age,C. Immigrant Booming,The new intercontinental rail system, inaugurated in 1869, and the transcontinental telegraph, which began operating in 1861, gave industry access to materials, markets, and communications. The co
4、nstant influx of immigrants provided a seemingly endless supply of inexpensive labor as well.,D. Social Problems,Problems of urbanization and industrialization appeared: poor and overcrowded housing, unsanitary conditions, low pay (called wage slavery), difficult working conditions, and inadequate r
5、estraints on business.,American Realism 1. American Realism The American Civil War brought the Romantic Period in American literature to its end, and realism, as a literary movement, came in the latter half of the nineteenth century and became a major trend in the 1870s and 1880s.,16,The three major
6、 realistic writers Mark Twain William Dean Howells Henry James,II. American Realism (1860-1914),Broadly defined as the faithful representation of reality or verisimilitude, realism is a literary technique practiced by many schools of writing. Although strictly speaking, realism is a technique, it al
7、so denotes a particular kind of subject matter, especially the representation of middle-class life.,A. Realism,B. American Realism,In American literature, the term realism encompasses the period of time from the Civil War to the turn of the century during which William Dean Howells, Rebecca Harding
8、Davis, Henry James, Mark Twain, and others wrote fiction devoted to accurate representation and an exploration of American lives in various contexts.,C. The Characteristics of American Realism,American realists renders reality closely and in comprehensive detail. b. American realists selectively pre
9、sent the reality with an emphasis on verisimilitude, even at the expense of a well-made plot. c. Character is more important than action and plot; his/her complex ethical choices are often the subject. Characters appear in their real complexity of temperament and motive. They are in explicable relat
10、ion to nature, to each other, to their social class, and to their own past.,d. Class is important. The novel has traditionally served the interests and aspirations of middle class. (characters from all social levels are examined in depth). e. Events are usually plausible. Realistic novels avoid the
11、sensational, dramatic elements of naturalistic novels and romances. f. Diction is natural vernacular, not heightened or poetic; tone being comic, satiric, or matter-of-fact. g. Objectivity in presentation becomes increasingly important: overt authorial comments or intrusions diminish as the century
12、progresses.,D. Regional and Local Color Writings: the Early Stage of Literary Realism,Similarity,A. They are instances of realism insofar as they depict contemporary life, use the speech of the common people, and avoid, in general, fantastic plotlines.,B. There are also often a romantic flavor in re
13、gional and local color writings as they receive influences from Washington Irving and the frontier tradition of tall tales.,Differentiation,A. A regional work relies on the cultural, social and historical settings. If the setting is removed, the work is destroyed.,B. Local color writings are just as
14、 dependent upon a specific geographical location, but they give more emphasis to the local details by tapping into its folklore, history, customs, beliefs and speech. Dialect peculiarities are the defining characteristic of local color writing.,E. Representative Writers,a. Henry James (18431916), Da
15、isy Miller (1878), The Ambassadors (1903), The Wings of the Dove (1902) and The Art of Fiction,b. William Dean Howells (18371920), The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885) and Criticism and Fiction,c. Mark Twain (18351910), The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), Life
16、on the Mississippi (1883),III. Mark Twain (1835-1910),A. Mark Twains Life,- born in Hannibal, Missouri - apprenticed to a printer - a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi - fought in the Civil War -went to the silver fields of Nevada - joined the staff of Territorial Enterprise - began his career as a
17、 frontier humorist,B. Mark Twains Main Works,Innocents Abroad (1869); Roughing it (1872); The Gilded Age (1873); The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876); The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884); Life on the Mississippi (1883) .,C. Characteristics of Mark Twain,a. His works sum up the tradition of West
18、ern humor and frontier realism. b. He writes about his people and his own life. c. His greatest achievement on literature is his use of the dialect and his portrayal of the locale.,D. The differences between Howells, James and Mark Twain,In thematic terms, James wrote mostly of the upper reaches of
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