ENG 209:
AMERICAN LIT AFTER 1865
SPRING 2014
UT
LIT REVIEW
/ John Conder: "American Literary Naturalism: From Hobbes to Bergson"
Pizer, Donald. "American Naturalism in its 'Perfected' State." The Theory and Practice of American Literary Naturalism. Southern Illinois UP, 1993. 153-66.
Conder, John J. "American Literary Naturalism: From Hobbes to Bergson." Naturalism in American Fiction. Lexington: UP of Kentucky, 1984. 1 - 21.
'84
'93
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Responding to 3 major beliefs about Naturalism:
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Naturalism derives from "hard times."
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Naturalism is the purveyance of male authors
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Men "lack the fine tuning of the imaginative temperament that women authors presumably have from birth."
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Naturalism is "photography in verbal form."
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Has been assumed to be only novels that "failed"
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​Argues it is more complex than people realize/involves "great fictional artistry"
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Concerns, not just class consciousness, but horizontal/vertical power struggles
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Some naturalistic novels sold well: Age of Innocence
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May be "ungainly" and "awkward" as an art form but so was pre-Shakespearean Elizabethan tragedy
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/ Donald Pizer: "American Naturalism in its 'Perfected' State"
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No Critical Consensus
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Crane, Norris, Dreiser: Main Naturalist Authors
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Term is problematic
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Compares people to animals
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Monism/Dualism
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