regionalism and local color realism and naturalism

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THE AGE OF REALISM (1880-1914) Regionalism and Local Color Realism and Naturalism

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Page 1: Regionalism and Local Color Realism and Naturalism

THE AGE OF REALISM (1880-1914)

Regionalism and Local ColorRealism and Naturalism

Page 2: Regionalism and Local Color Realism and Naturalism

HENRY JAMES ONCE WROTE…

“What is character but the determination of incident? What is incident but the illustration of character?”

Page 3: Regionalism and Local Color Realism and Naturalism
Page 4: Regionalism and Local Color Realism and Naturalism

POLITICAL AND SOCIAL EVENTS

1883: The Brooklyn Bridge opens 1885: The first skyscraper opens in

Chicago 1893: The World’s Columbian

Exposition showcases American technology and industry

1898: Spanish-American War 1903: Wright Brothers make first

airplane flight 1913: Henry Ford announces the

assembly line

Page 5: Regionalism and Local Color Realism and Naturalism

WORLD EVENTS

1881: Pasteur develops vaccine for rabies 1885: Benz produces first gasoline-operated car 1895: X-Rays discovered 1899: Aspirin is patented 1905: Einstein formulates theory of relativity 1910: Sigmund Freud publishes Psychoanalytic

book 1912: The Titanic sinks 1914: World War I begins

Page 6: Regionalism and Local Color Realism and Naturalism

EFFECTS OF EXPANSION

Population grows by 50% Endless supply of workers and

resources Westward expansion

Land, farms, ranches, mines Frontier declared “closed” by consensus

(1890) Where to expand now?

Building cities, forging industrial empires, finding distant international outposts to plant the US flag

Page 7: Regionalism and Local Color Realism and Naturalism

NATIVE AMERICANS

US Army soldiers kill more than 200 Sioux men, women, and children

Native Americans confined on reservations

Page 8: Regionalism and Local Color Realism and Naturalism

LITERATURE

Romanticism wilted after Civil War “Realists” were a reaction to this

disillusionment Focused on everyday life Ordinary human behavior

“Local Color” writing reflected true-to-life… Customs Speech Character…of people in different regions of the country.

Page 9: Regionalism and Local Color Realism and Naturalism

PROSPERITY

New inventions Airplanes, skyscrapers, motion pictures

Corporations grew into monopolies Controlled wages Fixed prices Lack of competition

Concentrated power in the hands of the few

Gap between rich and poor became a canyon

Page 10: Regionalism and Local Color Realism and Naturalism

REALISTIC NOVELS

Relied on emerging sciences of biology, psychology, and sociology

Showed an interest in human motivation/ psychology– interior issues

Realistic settings presenting adversity Battlefields, lifeboats, slums, cityscapes

Realistic Authors Henry James Stephen Crane Kate Chopin

Page 11: Regionalism and Local Color Realism and Naturalism

REFORMS

Overcrowded cities, social inequalities led to reform

Roosevelt became a “trustbuster” (monopoly regulator)

Labor movement Hours, working conditions, working conditions

Niagara movement (W.E.B. DuBois) Female suffrage (Susan B. Anthony) Landscape and wildlife protection (John Muir)

Page 12: Regionalism and Local Color Realism and Naturalism

NATURALIST WRITING

Relied on scientific understandings to dissect human behavior Inspired by Darwin and Freud’s recent

theories Focus on environmental forces that

determine human fate Jack London (Call of the Wild) Theodore Dreiser (Sister Carrie)

Page 13: Regionalism and Local Color Realism and Naturalism

REGIONALISM AND LOCAL COLOR

Credit: Artist, Gary R. Lucy.

Page 14: Regionalism and Local Color Realism and Naturalism

CHARACTERISTICS OF REGIONALISM

Desire to record, celebrate, and mythologize the many different and unique geographical regions

Attention to recording accurately the speech, mannerisms, behavior, and beliefs of people in specific locales

Local color writing “painted” the local scenes and tends toward humorous or sentimental tones

Page 15: Regionalism and Local Color Realism and Naturalism

MAJOR REGIONALIST AUTHORS

Mark Twain Mississippi River Small river towns

Bret Harte Gold-mining camps of the West Western pulp fiction Gamblers, gunfighters, gold

Page 16: Regionalism and Local Color Realism and Naturalism

MARK TWAIN: AUTHOR FOCUS

You will understand…tall talesvernacularwriter’s purposecomic devices