American Naturalism

Focus of Study The Rise of

Naturalism Definition Characteristics Summary

Historical Background The rise of Naturalism:1. Industrialism: financial

giants and proletariats. Western expansion: the impact of railroad

2. The theory of evolution of Darwin and Herbert Spencer: Darwin's The Origin of Species and Descent of Man(1870) offered a great challenge to the old idea of man being created by God.

Human beings are subject to the law of natural selection.

man suddenly found himself completely thrown into an amoral world, totally depending upon himself for survival.

This helped form an attitude of gloom and despair.

New trends to answer the theory in literature was the rise of naturalism.

The Origin of Naturalism

French influence: Emile Zola’s biological determinism and Flaubert’s economic determinism

It aims at a detached, scientific objectivity in the treatment of natural man.

Man is presented as an insignificant and helpless creature who acts according to his instincts in response to his environments.

He is like a puppet at the mercy of the physical conditions which surround him. Charles DarwinCharles Darwin

DefinitionsA type of literature that attempts to apply scientific principles

of objectivity and detachment to its study of human beings.What is central to naturalism is the picture of an entrapped

man against an indifferent world. Such gloomy picture of human existence emphasizes the powers of environment, heredity and circumstances. Man is a victim of forces over which he has no control.

Naturalistic texts often describe the futile attempts of human beings to exercise free will in this universe that reveals free will as an illusion.

Characteristics Characters: Often ill-educated or lower-class

characters whose lives are governed by the forces of heredity, instinct and passion.

Setting: Frequently an urban setting.

Surface detail was chosen to present a gloomy and depressing setting.

Techniques and plots:Naturalistic novel offers "clinical,

panoramic, slice-of-life" drama that is often a "chronicle of despair".

Themes1. survival, determinism,

violence, and taboo as key themes.

2. The "brute” within each individual, comprised of strong and often warring emotions; and the fight for survival in an amoral, indifferent universe.

3. Nature as an indifferent force acting on the lives of human beings.

4. The forces of heredity and environment as they affect--and afflict--individual lives.

5. An indifferent, deterministic universe.

Practitioners Theodore Dreiser Stephen Crane Maggie:

A Girl of the Street and The Red Badge of Courage

Frank Norris McTeague and The Octopus

Upton Sinclair The Jungle

Jack London The Call of the Wild and Martin Eden

Summary Naturalism is always objective. It deals frankly with sex and all

man’s inner drives. Its stark realism is often handled

in whatever language a sordid situation demands.

Characters are usually persons with strong animal drives and weak minds.

Literary naturalism, in short, offers a very pessimistic view of life.

Theodore Theodore DreiserDreiser

Study Questions

1. Try to interpret the historic background of the naturalism.

2. How do you understand the characteristics of naturalism?

3. can you name a few practitioners of naturalism? Try to use one work of them to illustrate the features of naturalism.

Reference Spiller, Robert E. The Cycle of American

Literature: An Essay in Historical Criticism. New York: Macmillan, 1955.

Bartholow V. Crawford et al., American literature. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.. 1980.

Dareel Abel, American literature. New York: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc.,1963.

George McMichael et al., ed. Anthology of American Literature. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1980.

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