Second Semester, English II-H Lecture Notes Realism Recap: Romanticism Romanticized version of war emphasized common people,

e, spirit, emotion, and glory. Some Romantic Authors Edgar Allen Poe Ralph Emerson Nathaniel Hawthorne Herman Melville Henry Thoreau William Blake Mary W. Shelley Samuel Taylor Coleridge WHEN DID REALISM BEGIN? April 12, 1861 Confederate forces open fire on Union Forces at Fort Sumter in South Carolina This event, combined with building political tension, was the beginning of the Civil War This began one of the bloodiest chapters in American history In 1863, President Lincoln beautifully illustrated tone for the nationand our literary voices with one speech The Gettysburg Address July 1863: Union and Confederates fight for 3 days straight at Gettysburg This was one of the bloodiest battles during the Civil War November 19, 1863: Lincoln reads the Gettysburg Address during the dedication ceremony at the Gettysburg cemetery Keep in mind: Lincoln was reading this in front of many friends and families of the perished soldiers Why is this speech considered realistic literature? It focuses on real people: soldiers, distressed families, etc. Lincolns ideas are realistic: the realization that the union may lose the war; the need for patriotism; the blood, tears, sweat, and sacrifice involved in war; etc The Civil War (1861-1865) The American people held opposing viewpoints on the war: IDEALISM vs PESSIMISM IDEALISM Personified by Walt Whitman His work in the field hospitals and visiting wounded soldiers gave him a sense of optimism and patriotism But, he was one of the only ROMANTIC writers to bridge his writing to REALISM Normally known as a romantic poet who wrote such HOPEFUL and IDEALISTIC poems as I Hear America Singing and A Psalm of Life YET, his poem entitled O Captain! My Captain! has many realistic elements This may be caused by Whitmans experience living during the Civil War era A metaphor and elegy poem

Lincoln was just assassinated People are sad because Lincoln did not get to see the end of the war The voyage= the war The captain= Lincoln The ship= the United States The prize= victory It focuses on a real person (Lincoln) and real events (the war and Lincolns assassination) It is an elegy: a poem that highlights a person who has died PESSIMISM Personified by Herman Melville His visits to the battlefields exposed the futility and horrors of war-saw humanitys basic evil Literature of the Civil War Era No true literature of this period was produced Most of the accounts of the war came from newspaper articles and soldiers accounts Americas greatest writers either chose not to write, died, were otherwise occupied or were abroad The introduction and advancement of photography aided in the END of any romantic notions of war and death. Photographers such as Matthew Brady and Alexander Gardner brought the horrors of war to many people through the images they captured The Rise of Realism Out of the horrors of the Civil War came a negative reaction to the atrocities of war People became disillusioned with the exploits of larger than life heroes and happy endings that had been popular during the era of Romanticism Realists focused more on the common course of ordinary life Subjects were drawn from the slums, factories, and lives of far from idealized characters: factory workers corrupt politicians even prostitutes Characteristics of Realism Realists wanted to portray why ordinary people behave the way they do (PSYCHOLOGY) Character exploration often came at the expense of plot. They wanted to portray life without filtering it through personal feelings, romanticism, or idealism (SOCIOLOGY) Class is important; generally tend to focus on the insurgent middle class Events will be plausible and will avoid the sensational

 Diction is natural vernacular and the tone may be comic, satiric or matter-of-fact (REGIONALISM) Objectivity in presentation is critically important Realism had its roots in REGIONALISM literature that emphasizes a specific geographic setting and makes use of the speech and manners of the people who live in that region Although regional novelists were loyal to the speech and manners of the people they wrote about, they tended to be unrealistic about their depiction of the characters or the social environment Realistic novelists often relied on the emerging sciences of human and animal behavior (BIOLOGY/NATURALISM) Authors Mark Twain became one of the first regional writers to embrace the aspects of Realism In Huckleberry Finn, we see the world from Hucks point of view Huck attempts to decipher the world around him Twain uses Huck to explode social conventions and the hypocrisy of civilized society Stephen Crane was a profound psychologist, but he chose to focus on his character at moments of stress chose the battlefield, the slums, and even a lifeboat lost at sea as the place to test human behavior under pressure was also considered an Ironist by juxtaposing human pretensions with the indifference of the universe This helped pave the way for modern writers such as Ernest Hemingway Kurt Vonnegut Others William Dean Howells Rebecca Harding Davis John W. Deforest Joseph Kirkland E. W. Howe Hamlin Garland Henry James