Naturalism (radicalization of Realism)

Question 1

Naturalism
Characteristics (6)

Answer 1

• Focused on bleak, squalid realities (poverty, addiction, prostitution, “degeneration”)
• “Poetic”, “dramatic” character + mixture of fascination and disgust.
  - Broke thematic taboos
  - Deterministic
  - Reaction against the evasive, nostalgic nature of realism.
  - Attempt to portray an environment in rapid change.
• Reflects end-of-the-century pessimism.
• Feeling of decline
• Era of social conflict= economic crisis
• Generalized political corruption exposed by the “muckrakers”
  - Upton Sinclair “The Jungle”
  - Robert Hunter ” The Children who Tail”
  - Lincoln Steffens “The Shame of Cities”
  - David Graham Phillips “The Treason of the Senate”

Question 2

Naturalism
General ethos (5)

Answer 2

• Lost of faith in the centrality of individuals
• Dominant forces are no longer human but supra-human
• Charles Darwin+Karl Marx
• Mechanistic view of nature.
• Overwhelming city environment.

Question 3

Naturalism literature
- Origins
- Settings
- Conflicts
- Interests, views
- Style

Answer 3

European origins: Emile Zola’s “Le Roman expérimental” + phisiology and positivism +novel as a experiment

Interests and views
- Studies influence of milieu and heredity on human action.
- Deterministic view of humans
- Interest in decay and generation.
- Literature should derive from “brute fact”

Settings: urban and contemporary (low dephts of cities, factories, working class milieu

Conflicts: idealism vs material circumstances/ individual will vs social and natural sources.

Style: direct, simple, descriptive, journalistic.

Question 4

Naturalism
Authors (5) and works

Answer 4

• Upton Sinclair
  “The Jungle”
  “Oil!”
• Theodor Dreiser
  “Sister Carrie”
  “Jeannie Gerhardt”
  “An American Tragedy”
• Stephen Crane
  “Red Bage of Courage”
  “Maggie”
• Frank Norris
  “The Octopus”
  “The Pit”
  “McTeague”
• Jack London
  “White Fang”
  “Call of the Wild”