安徽三联学院外语学院美国文学课件Chapter 8 American Realism.ppt

American Realism Howells Henry James Mark Twain Contents Ⅰ. The Reasons for the Coming of  American RealismⅡ. Definition and Characters of  American RealismⅢ. The schools of American Realism Ⅰ. The Reasons for the Coming of American Realism The Civil War：(1861-1865) marked a change American moral values: Doubt natural goodness, the optimistic view of nature and man, benevolent God. The quality of American life: deterioration 2. Economic Development: industrialization and mechanization caused the larger gap of the poor and the rich( “captains of industry” or “robber barons”; struggle for survival) 3. The frontier was about to close, and a reexamination of life began. Disillusionment and frustration were widely felt. 4. The age of Romanticism and Transcendentalism was by and large over. Meanwhile younger writers appeared on the scene. Ⅰ. The Reasons for the Coming of American Realism Ⅱ. Definition and Characters of  American Realism ——a literary movement occurring in the latter half of the nineteenth century; reaction against “the lie” of romanticism and sentimentalism; concern for the world of experience, of the commonplace, and for the familiar and the low. 1. Definition 2. Characters Ⅱ. Definition and Characters of  American Realism 1) Truthful description of life; truthful treatment of material 2) Typical character under typical circumstance Character is more important than action and plot 3) Open-ending Life is complex and cannot be fully understood. It leaves much room for readers to think by themselves. 4) The subject matter of Realism is drawn from “our experience”. It focuses on common characters and the everyday events. It treated the common the average the non-extreme the representative the probable Ⅱ. Definition and Characters of  American Realism 2. Characters 5) concerned with social and psychological problems, revealing the frustrations of characters in an environment o