English III Honors - Age of Realism (Sandt)

Realism

Lit movement that emerged after the Civil war

Reaction against Romanticism

Depicts real life as accurately as possible

Often is objective and pessimistic

Focused on everyday experiences and ordinary people

How did realism start

Cultural divide from the Civil War

The urbanization and industrialization of America

Increase in democracy and literacy

Emergence of the new middle class

Key characteristics of realism

Emphasis on accurate and objective life

Portrayal of lower-class and middle-class characters depicting their lives of poverty and hardship

Characters are more important than the plot

Complex and multi-dimensional characters

Good doesn't always triumph over evil

What are the three branches of realism

Realism, Naturalism, Regionalism

Naturalism

Influenced by Darwin, Freud, and Marx

Humans are shaped by the environment

Characters are in conflict with nature, society, or themselves and are victims of fate

Dark and pessimistic

Themes of naturalism

Survival in harsh conditions

Determinism

Violence and its effects

Social injustice

Man versus nature

Determinism

People can't be held accountable for things that they can't control

Naturalism writers

Stephen Crane, Ambrose Bierce, Jack London

Regionalism

Also known as "local color"

Focuses on specific geographic regions

Captures distinct culture, dialect, customs, and landscapes

Emphasizes setting as a key element

Themes of regionalism

Use of local dialects and speech patterns

Exploration of regional traditions and customs

Nostalgia for the "old ways"

Conflict b/w tradition and modernization

Regionalism writers

Mark Twain, Kate Chopin, Bret Harte, Edwin Arlington, Paul Dunbar

Gettysburg Adress

A military cemetery was established on the battlefield of Gettysburg

15,000 people attended the dedication/funeral

Lincoln delivered a 272 word speech

Federick Douglass

Born on a Maryland plantation

Original name: Frederick Augustus Bailey

Sent to the Auld family (where he learned to read and write), escaped to massachusetts, and changed his name

Lectured against slavery and for civil rights

Became Lincoln's consultant

Wrote My Bondage and My Freedom

Autobiography

An account of a person's life written by that person

Ambrose Bierce

Wrote An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

Payton Farquhar, a confederate, is hanged for attempting to stop Union troops by burning a bridge

The majority of the story focuses on his imagined escape and takes place from the moment he is hanged until he draws his last breath

P1) on the bridge; P2) background on Farquhar; P3) he imagines escaping and dies

Points of View

the perspective from which a story is told

First person - told from the perspective of a character with me/I/my pronouns

Second person - told from your perspective with you/your pronouns

Third person

- Third person limited - the narrator has access to the thoughts, feelings, and knowledge of one character

- Third person omniscient - the narrator has access to the thoughts, feelings, and knowledge of all characters of the story

Stephen Crane

Recognized as a realist and a naturalist

Work is vividly intense, has distinct dialects, uses irony

Themes: spiritual crisis, fear, social isolation

Wrote An Episode of War

An Episode of War

The soldier becomes wounded and needs to have his arm amputated

Naturalism depicted people in real life situations, but they believed that forces larger than the individual (nature, fate, heredity) shaped individual destiny

stream of consciousness

a style of writing that portrays the inner (often chaotic) workings of a character's mind

Jack London

Grew up poor and left school at 11 to work

Was known as a vagrant

Enrolled in HA and completed it in 18 months

Loved to read

When the Berkeley, but left to go to Alaska during the Gold Rush

Wrote to Build a Fire

To build a fire

takes place in Yukon territory in Alaska

2 types of conflict

Internal - man versus himself

external - man versus society, man, nature, fate, etc

Setting

time and/or place of a story

Irony

3 types

- Dramatic Irony - the reader knows more than the character

- Situational Irony - what happens is different than what is expected

- Verbal Irony - what is said is different than what is meant

Regionalism is influenced by

Reconstruction, westward expansion, Homestead Act, etc

Satire

writing that exposes the faults of individuals, groups, institutions, or humanity

Humor

Writing with the intention of amusing

Incongruity

Difference in logic and degree (ex: a serious tone describing ridiculous events)

Hyperbole

extreme exaggeration

Kate Choppin

Captured the local color of Louisiana and explored the role of women in society

Her husband died leaving her with 6 children

Wrote "The Awakening" which was banned because it discussed infidelity

Wrote about Louisiana life, racial themes, the nature of marriage, and women's equality

The Story of an Hour

National change during the time

- Women and African Americans wanted equality

- Life on the frontier and people's lives

Native American voices

Chief Joseph, Fight No More Forever

Chief Joseph

Leader of Nez Perce

His tribe was forced to move to Idaho from their ancestral lands

They resisted as the land was not owned

They had to surrender and Chief Joseph gave a beautiful speech, Fight No More Forever

Primary Sources

Speeches allow readers to view life through a primary source

The speaker

- actually experienced the historical event

- shared their values

When we read primary sources we make inferences about the author's beliefs

Ex: Chief Joseph knows he is defeated and needs to be realistic

Paul Laurence Dunbar

First African American author to obtain national recognition and support himself entirely with his writing

Writing focused on life in the vanished plantations and social problems faced by African Americans

Commanded the English language when capturing African American struggles in a dignified way

From Ohio, elevator operator

Wrote Douglass and We Wear the Mask

Refrain

A line or set of lines repeated several times over the course of a poem.

Meter

A regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry

Edwin Arlington Robinson

Subway inspector

Went to Harvard but had to leave to get work after his dad died

Struggled until Teddy Roosevelt got him a job

His experiences w/ poverty and struggle have shaped his work

- The characters seem pessimistic but his poems are filled with hope and wit

Won 3 pulitzer prizes

Epitaph

A brief statement written on a tomb or gravestone

Narrative poetry

A poem that tells a story and includes the same literary elements as prose

social commentary

the act of using rhetorical means to provide commentary and insight on issues in a society, its values, and its customs

allusion

A reference to another work of literature, person, or event

tone

Attitude/general feel of a piece of writing

allegory

A story in which each aspect of the story has a symbolic meaning outside the tale itself

alliteration

Repetition of initial consonant sounds

Edward Lee Masters

Practiced criminal law by day and wrote poems at night

Read "Selected Epitaphs from the Greek Anthology" which included short, interconnected epitaphs that focused on people's lives

Wrote Spoon River Anthology

Spoon River Anthology

244 epitaphs for characters buried in a fictional cemetery in Rural Southern Illinois

the dead are the speakers in the poems

- They present their stories and together create a vivid picture of life in a small town during the turn of the century

Dramatic Monologue

The subject a speaker talks about isn't always exciting or interesting

The drama lies in what the character reveals about him/herself