美国现实主义

B. Mark Twain’s Main Works Innocents Abroad (1869); Roughing it (1872); The Gilded Age (1873); The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876); The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884); Life on the Mississippi (1883) .
C. Characteristics of Mark Twain a. His works sum up the tradition of Western humor and frontier realism. b. He writes about his people and his own life. c. His greatest achievement on literature is his use of the dialect and his portrayal of the locale.
C. Immigrant Booming The new intercontinental rail system, inaugurated in 1869, and the transcontinental telegraph, which began operating in 1861, gave industry access to materials, markets, and communications. The constant influx of immigrants provided a seemingly endless supply of inexpensive labor as well. D. Social Problems Problems of urbanization and industrialization appeared: poor and overcrowded housing, unsanitary conditions, low pay (called "wage slavery"), difficult working conditions, and inadequate restraints on business.
D. The differences between Howells, James and Mark Twain
In thematic terms, James wrote mostly of the upper reaches of American society, and Howells concerned himself chiefly with middle class life, whereas Mark Twain dealt largely with the lower strata of society. Technically, Howells wrote in the vein of genteel realism, James pursued an “imaginative” treatment of reality or psychological realism, but Mark Twain’s contribution to the development of realism and to American literature as a whole was partly through his theories of localism in American fiction, and partly through his colloquial style.
D. Regional and Local Color Writings: the Early Stage of Literary Realism A. They are instances of realism insofar as they depict contemporary life, use the speech of the common people, and avoid, in general, fantastic plotlines. B. There are also often a romantic flavor in regional and local color writings as they receive influences from Washington Irving and the frontier tradition of tall tales.
II. American Realism (1860-1914)
Broadly defined as "the faithful representation of A. reality" or "verisimilitude," realism is a literary Realism technique practiced by many schools of writing. Although strictly speaking, realism is a technique, it also denotes a particular kind of subject matter, especially the representation of middle-class life.
III. Mark Twain (1835-1910)
Aห้องสมุดไป่ตู้ Mark Twain’s Life
--- born in Hannibal, Missouri --- apprenticed to a printer --- a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi --- fought in the Civil War ---went to the silver fields of Nevada --- joined the staff of Territorial Enterprise --- began his career as a frontier humorist
B. American Realism
In American literature, the term "realism" encompasses the period of time from the Civil War to the turn of the century during which William Dean Howells, Rebecca Harding Davis, Henry James, Mark Twain, and others wrote fiction devoted to accurate representation and an exploration of American lives in various contexts.
American Realism (1860-1914)
I. The Rise of Realism: Historical Background II. American Realism III. Mark Twain IV. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)
E. Representative Writers a. Henry James (1843—1916), Daisy Miller (1878), The Ambassadors (1903), The Wings of the Dove (1902) and The Art of Fiction b. William Dean Howells (1837—1920), The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885) and Criticism and Fiction c. Mark Twain (1835—1910), The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), Life on the Mississippi (1883)
A. A regional work relies on the cultural, social and historical settings. If the setting is removed, the work is destroyed. B. Local color writings are just as dependent upon a specific geographical location, but they give more emphasis to the local details by tapping into its folklore, history, customs, beliefs and speech. Dialect peculiarities are the defining characteristic of local color writing.
d. Class is important. The novel has traditionally served the interests and aspirations of middle class. (characters from all social levels are examined in depth). e. Events are usually plausible. Realistic novels avoid the sensational, dramatic elements of naturalistic novels and romances. f. Diction is natural vernacular, not heightened or poetic; tone being comic, satiric, or matter-of-fact. g. Objectivity in presentation becomes increasingly important: overt authorial comments or intrusions diminish as the century progresses.
C. The Characteristics of American Realism a. American realists renders reality closely and in comprehensive detail. b. American realists selectively present the reality with an emphasis on verisimilitude, even at the expense of a well-made plot. c. Character is more important than action and plot; his/her complex ethical choices are often the subject. Characters appear in their real complexity of temperament and motive. They are in explicable relation to nature, to each other, to their social class, and to their own past.
I. The Rise of Realism: Historical Background “The industrial North had triumphed over the agrarian South, and from that victory came a society based on mass labor and mass consumption.” “an age of extremes”--“of decline and progress, of poverty and dazzling wealth, of gloom and buoyant hope”