What are the elements of American Literary Realism?

Question

What are some elements of American Literary Realism?

Answer 1

Elements of American Literary/Realism

Realism was a style of art, music and writing in the US during the 20th century (especially in New York).

The elements of American Realism included statism, survival and self-help, colloquial language, focus on everyday life, and willingness to depict darker and less than ideal situations.

Realism was meant to show what was REAL about American life (daily living).

Authors like Mark Twain wanted to show the REAL world as it actually was...

Twain used colloquial language (daily way of speaking) to show more specifically the reality of the character's life.

Authors of American Realism wanted to depict realistic telling in the stories and poems with clear portrayals and clarity.

In Art, Realism was expressed in paintings that reflected everyday American life. (the lower class, the working class man, immigrants, children, women)

Art scenes captured the REAL world as it really was during the 20th century.

Realism showed REALITY, not fiction.

The Civil War was one of the reasons that American authors began writing, painting and creating music realistically.

REALISM included REAL dialects, true depictions of social class, believable story plots, realistic settings and characters.

REALISM tried to tell a story as truthfully as possible rather than romanticizing/dramatizing it.

REALISM was a literary genre that presented familiar persons in ordinary everyday experiences making moral/ethical decisions.

In music, songs were without any exaggeration, full of true meanings. These were songs which showed REALISM in tone and seriousness; showed the REAL feelings and emotions.

Answer 2

American Literary Realism, a literary, artistic, philosophical, and social movement occupying roughly a century of American history from the 1830's to the 1930's, is characterized by its portrayal of reality and its tribulations through philosophical and scientific developments of the time, such as Darwinism, Marxism, Nihilism, and Psychoanalysis. Literary Realist authors are often criticized by their ability to convey: 1. realistic settings and 'everyday' actions, 2. realistic characters that struggle navigating through societal or the natural realms, and 3. the extent of determination that a character succumbs to. Determination is a quality of being that imposes limitations on being. For example, a character belonging to a lower socio-economic class will be economically determined. Authors such as Frank Norris, Stephen Crane, Jack London, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman often explored different deterministic ideologies through conceptions of the natural, divine, or mental life-world.