1、American Literature,AmericanRealism,Literary Term: Realism,It is, in literature, an approach that attempts to describe life without idealization or romantic subjectivity. In part. Realism was a reaction against the Romantic emphasis on the strange, idealistic, and long-ago and far-away. Although rea
2、lism is not limited to any one century or group of writers, it is most often associated with the literary movement in 19th-century France, specifically with the French novelists Flaubert and Balzac. George Eliot introduced realism into England, and William Dean Howells introduced it into the United
3、States. Realism has been chiefly concerned with the commonplaces of everyday life among the middle and lower classes, where character is a product of social factors and environment is the integral element in the dramatic complications.latter writers felt that realism laid too much emphasis on extern
4、al reality. Many, notably Henry James, turned to a psychological realism that closely examined the complex workings of the mind.,The Age of Realism: Background From Romanticism to Realism,1.The three conflicts that reached breaking point in this period （1）industrialism vs. agrarian （2）culturally-mea
5、sured east vs. newly-developed west （3）plantation gentility vs. commercial gentility 2.1880s urbanization: from free competition to monopoly capitalism 3.the closing of American frontier,Characteristics of Realism,1.truthful description of life 2.typical character under typical circumstance 3.object
6、ive rather than idealized, close observation and investigation of life, Realistic writers are like scientists. 4.open-ending: Life is complex and cannot be fully understood. It leaves much room for readers to think by themselves. 5.concerned with social and psychological problems, revealing the frus
7、trations of characters in an environment of sordidness and depravity,Three Giants in Realistic Period,1.William Dean Howells: Dean of American Realism 2.Henry James 3.Mark Twain,Comparison of the Three Giants of American Realism,1.ThemeHowells : middle classJames : upper classTwain : lower class 2.T
8、echniqueHowells : smiling/genteel realismJames : psychological realismTwain : local colorism and colloquialism,Other Realistic Writer,Edith Wharton (1862-1937) The House of Mirth (1905)The Age of Innocence (1920),1.William Dean Howells,William Dean Howells,William Dean Howells (March 1, 1837 May 11,
9、 1920) was an American realist author and literary critic.,Life of William Dean Howells,Born in Martins Ferry, Ohio, originally Martinsville, to William Cooper and Mary Dean Howells, Howells was the second of eight children. His father was a newspaper editor and printer, and moved frequently around
10、Ohio. Howells began to help his father with typesetting and printing work at an early age. In 1852, his father arranged to have one of Howells poems published in the Ohio State Journal without telling him. In 1856, Howells was elected as a Clerk in the State House of Representatives. In 1858, he beg
11、an to work at the Ohio State Journal where he wrote poetry, short stories, and also translated pieces from French, Spanish, and German. He avidly studied German and other languages and was greatly interested in Heinrich Heine. In 1860, he visited Boston and met with American writers James Thomas Fie
12、lds, James Russell Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.,His Literary theory,Howells also wrote plays, criticism, and essays about contemporary literary figures such as Henrik Ibsen, mile Zola, Giovanni Verga, Benito Prez Galds, and, especi
13、ally, Leo Tolstoy, which helped establish their reputations in the United States. He also wrote critically in support of American writers Hamlin Garland, Stephen Crane, Emily Dickinson, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Sarah Orne Jewett, Charles W. Chesnutt, Abraham Cahan, and Frank No
14、rris. It is perhaps in this role that he had his greatest influence. In his “Editors Study“ column at the Atlantic Monthly and, later, at Harpers, he formulated and disseminated his theories of “realism“ in literature. In defense of the real, as opposed to the ideal, Howells is quoted as saying, “I
15、hope the time is coming when not only the artist, but the common, average man, who always has the standard of the arts in his power, will have also the courage to apply it, and will reject the ideal grasshopper wherever he finds it, in science, in literature, in art, because it is not simple, natura
16、l, and honest, because it is not like a real grasshopper. But I will own that I think the time is yet far off, and that the people who have been brought up on the ideal grasshopper, the heroic grasshopper, the impassioned grasshopper, the self-devoted, adventureful, good old romantic card-board gras
17、shopper, must die out before the simple, honest, and natural grasshopper can have a fair field.“,His Realistic principles (1),a. Realism is fidelity to experience and probability of motive. b. The aim is talk of some ordinary traits of American life. c. Man in his natural and unaffected dullness was
18、 the object of Howellss fictional representation. d. Realism is by no means mere photographic pictures of externals but includes a central concern with motives and psychological conflicts. e. He condemns novels of sentimentality and morbid self-sacrifice, and avoids such themes as illicit love. f. A
19、uthors should minimize plot and the artificial ordering of the sense of something desultory, unfinished, imperfect.,His Realistic principles (2),g. Characters should have solidity of specification and be real. h. Interpreting sympathetically the common feelings of commonplace people was best suited
20、as a technique to express the spirit of America. i. He urged writers to winnow tradition and write in keeping with current humanitarian ideals. j. Truth is the highest beauty, but it includes the view that morality penetrates all things. k. With regard to literary criticism, Howells felt that the li
21、terary critic should not try to impose arbitrary or subjective evaluations on books but should follow the detached scientist in accurate description, interpretation, and classification.,（2）His Works,a. The Rise of Silas Laphamb. A Chance Acquaintancec. A Modern Instance,（3）The Features of His Works,
22、a. Optimistic toneb. Moral development/ethicsc. Lacking of psychological depth,Henry James,Life of Henry James （1）,Henry James, O.M. (April 15, 1843) February 28, 1916) was a U.S.-born British author. James is one of the key figures of 19th century literary realism. The son of theologian Henry James
23、, Sr., brother of the philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James, he spent much of his life in England and became a British subject shortly before his death. He is primarily known for a series of major novels in which he portrayed the encounter of America with Europe. His plo
24、ts centered on personal relationships, the proper exercise of power in such relationships, and other moral questions. His method of writing from the point of view of a character within a tale allowed him to explore the phenomena of consciousness and perception, and his style in later works has been
25、compared to impressionist painting.,Life of Henry James （2）,James insisted that writers in Great Britain and America should be allowed the greatest freedom possible in presenting their view of the world, as French authors were. His imaginative use of point of view, interior monologue and unreliable
26、narrators in his own novels and tales brought a new depth and interest to realistic fiction, and foreshadowed the modernist work of the twentieth century. An extraordinarily productive writer, in addition to his voluminous works of fiction he published articles and books of travel writing, biography
27、, autobiography, and criticism, and wrote plays, some of which were performed during his lifetime with moderate success. His theatrical work is thought to have profoundly influenced his later novels and tales.,（2）Literary Career of Henry James: Three Stages,a. 18651882: international themeThe Americ
28、anDaisy MillerThe Portrait of a Lady b. 18821895: inter-personal relationships and some playsDaisy Miller （play） c. 18951900: novellas and tales dealing with childhood and adolescence, then back to international themeThe Turn of the ScrewWhat Maisie KnewThe AmbassadorsThe Wings of the DoveThe Golden
29、 Bowl,Aesthetic Ideas of Henry James,a. The aim of novel: represent life b. Common, even ugly side of life c. Social function of art d. Avoiding omniscient point of view,Point of view of Henry James,a. Psychological analysis, forefather of stream of consciousness b. Psychological realism c. Highly-r
30、efined language,Style; Stylist: Henry James,a. Language: highly-refined, polished, insightful, accurate b. Vocabulary: large c. Construction: complicated, intricate,Literary term: Stream of consciousness,Stream of consciousness is the continuous flow of sense- perception, thoughts, feelings and memo
31、ries in the human mind; or a literary method of representing such a blending of mental process in fictional characters, usually in an unpunctuated or disjointed form of interior monologue. It is an important device of modernist fiction and its later imitators, the technique was pioneered by Dorothy
32、Richardson in Pilgrimage (1915-35) and by James Joyce in Ulysses(1922) and further developed by Virginia Woof in Mrs Dalloway (1925) and William Faukner in The Sound and the Fury(1928).,Novels of Henry Jamess,Watch and Ward (1871) Roderick Hudson (1875) The American (1877) The Europeans (1878) Confi
33、dence (1879) Washington Square (1880) The Portrait of a Lady (1881) The Bostonians (1886) The Princess Casamassima (1886) The Reverberator (1888) The Tragic Muse (1890) The Other House (1896) The Spoils of Poynton (1897) What Maisie Knew (1897) The Awkward Age (1899) The Sacred Fount (1901) The Wing
34、s of the Dove (1902) The Ambassadors (1903) The Golden Bowl (1904),The Whole Family (collaborative novel with eleven other authors, 1908) The Outcry (1911) The Ivory Tower (unfinished, published posthumously 1917) The Sense of the Past (unfinished, published posthumously 1917) The Other House (1896)
35、 The Spoils of Poynton (1897) What Maisie Knew (1897) The Awkward Age (1899) The Sacred Fount (1901) The Wings of the Dove (1902) The Ambassadors (1903) The Golden Bowl (1904) The Whole Family (collaborative novel with eleven other authors, 1908) The Outcry (1911) The Ivory Tower (unfinished, publis
36、hed posthumously 1917) The Sense of the Past (unfinished, published posthumously 1917),The Portrait of a Lady,The Portrait of a Lady is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly and Macmillans Magazine in 18801881 and then as a book in 1881. It is one of James most
37、popular long novels, and is regarded by critics as one of his finest. The Portrait of a Lady is the story of a spirited young American woman, Isabel Archer, who “affronts her destiny“ and finds it overwhelming. She inherits a large amount of money and subsequently becomes the victim of Machiavellian
38、 scheming by two American expatriates. Like many of James novels, it is set mostly in Europe, notably England and Italy. Generally regarded as the masterpiece of his early phase of writing, this novel reflects Jamess continuing interest in the differences between the New World and the Old, often to
39、the detriment of the former. It also treats in a profound way the themes of personal freedom, responsibility, betrayal, and sexuality.,The Ambassadors,The Ambassadors is a 1903 novel by Henry James, originally published as a serial in the North American Review (NAR). This dark comedy, one of the mas
40、terpieces of James final period, follows the trip of protagonist Lewis Lambert Strether to Europe in pursuit of his widowed fiances supposedly wayward son. Strether is to bring the young man back to the family business, but he encounters unexpected complications. The third-person narrative is told e
41、xclusively from Strethers point of view.,Plot of The Ambassadors,Lambert Strether, a middle-aged yet not broadly-experienced man from Wollett, Massachusetts, agrees to take on a mission for his wealthy fiancee: to go to Paris and rescue her son Chad Newsome from the clutches of a presumably wicked w
42、oman. On his journey, Strether stops in England and meets Maria Gostrey, an American woman who has lived in Paris for many years. Her cynical wit and worldly-wise opinions start to rattle Strethers preconceived view of the situation. In Paris, Strether meets Chad and is impressed by the much greater
43、 sophistication he seems to have gained during his years in Europe. Chad takes him to a garden party where Strether meets Marie de Vionnet, a lovely woman of impeccable manners, separated from her reportedly obnoxious husband, and her exquisite daughter Jeanne. Strether is confused as to whether Cha
44、d is more attracted to the mother or the daughter. At the same time, Strether himself feels an overwhelming attraction to Marie de Vionnet, which he suspects she may return, and begins to question his commitment to return to Wollett and marry Chads mother, despite his admiration for her. Strether ta
45、kes a small tour in the French countryside to escape these troubles, and accidentally meets Chad and Marie at a rural inn. Strether now realizes the full extent of the pairs romantic involvement. After he returns to Paris he counsels Chad not to leave Marie. But Strether finds that he is no longer c
46、omfortable in Europe. He declines what amounts to a marriage proposal from Maria Gostrey and returns to America.,Major themes of The Ambassadors,James got the central idea for The Ambassadors from an anecdote about his friend and fellow-novelist William Dean Howells. While visiting his son in Paris
47、Howells was so impressed with the amenities of European culture that he wondered aloud if life hadnt passed him by. This intriguing suggestion grew into Strethers long speech to Little Bilham about living “all you can.“ The theme of liberation from a cramped, almost starved emotional life into a far
48、 more generous and gracious existence plays throughout The Ambassadors. But its important to note that James does not naively make Paris into a faultless paradise for stinted Americans. Strether learns about the reverse side of the European coin when he sees how Marie desperately fears losing Chad a
49、fter all she has done for him. As one critic put it, Strether does not shed his American strait- jacket only to be fitted with a more elegant European model. Instead, Strether learns to evaluate every situation on its merits, without prejudices of any kind. The final lesson of his European experienc
50、e is not to trust preconceived notions from anybody or anywhere but rather to rely on his own observation and judgment.,Harriet Beecher Stowe,Harriet Beecher Stowe,Harriet Beecher Stowe (June 14, 1811 July 1, 1896) was an American abolitionist and author. Stowes novel Uncle Toms Cabin (1852) depicte
51、d life for African-Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the U.S. and Britain and made the political issues of the 1850s regarding slavery tangible to millions, energizing anti-slavery forces in the American North, while provoking widespread anger in the South. Upon meeting Stowe, Abraham Lincoln allegedly remarked, “So this is the little old lady who started this new great war!“,
