Download or read book The Theory and Practice of American Literary Naturalism written by Donald Pizer and published by SIU Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his first book devoted exclusively to naturalism, Donald Pizer brings together thirteen essays and four reviews written over a thirty-year period that in their entirety constitute a full-scale interpretation of the basic character and historical shape of naturalism in America. The essays fall into three groups. Some deal with the full range of American naturalism, from the 1590s to the late twentieth century, and some are confined either to the 1890s or to the twentieth century. In addition to the essays, an introduction in which Pizer recounts the development of his interest in American naturalism, reviews of recent studies of naturalism, and a selected bibliography contribute to an understanding of Pizer's interpretation of the movement. One of the recurrent themes in the essays is that the interpretation of American naturalism has been hindered by the common view that the movement is characterized by a commitment to Emile Zola's deterministic beliefs and that naturalistic novels are thus inevitably crude and simplistic both in theme and method. Rather than accept this notion, Pizer insists that naturalistic novels be read closely not for their success or failure in rendering obvious deterministic beliefs but rather for what actually does occur within the dynamic play of theme and form within the work. Adopting this method, Pizer finds that naturalistic fiction often reveals a complex and suggestive mix of older humanistic faiths and more recent doubts about human volition, and that it renders this vital thematic ambivalence in increasingly sophisticated forms as the movement matures. In addition, Pizer demonstrates that American naturalism cannot be viewed monolithically as a school with a common body of belief and value. Rather, each generation of American naturalists, as well as major figures within each generation, has responded to threads within the naturalistic impulse in strikingly distinctive ways. And it is indeed this absence of a rigid doctrinal core and the openness of the movement to individual variation that are responsible for the remarkable vitality and longevity of the movement. Because the essays have their origin in efforts to describe the general characteristics of American naturalism rather than in a desire to cover the field fully, some authors and works are discussed several times (though from different angles) and some referred to only briefly or notat all. But the essays as a collection are "complete" in the sense that they comprise an interpretation of American naturalism both in its various phases and as a whole. Those authors whose works receive substantial discussion include Stephen Crane, Frank Norris, Theodore Dreiser, Edith Wharton, James T. Farrell, Norman Mailer, Joyce Carol Oates, and William Kennedy. Of special interest is Pizer's essay on Ironweed, which appears here for the first time.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of American Literary Naturalism written by Keith Newlin and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-05-26 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After its heyday in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, naturalism, a genre that typically depicts human beings as the product of biological and environmental forces over which they have little control, was supplanted by modernism, a genre in which writers experimented with innovations in form and content. In the last decade, the movement is again attracting spirited scholarly debate. The Oxford Handbook of American Literary Naturalism takes stock of the best new research in the field through collecting twenty-eight original essays drawing upon recent scholarship in literary and cultural studies. The contributors offer an authoritative and in-depth reassessment of writers from Stephen Crane, Frank Norris, Theodore Dreiser, and Jack London to Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton, Ernest Hemingway, Richard Wright, John Steinbeck, Joyce Carol Oates, and Cormac McCarthy. One set of essays focus on the genre itself, exploring the historical contexts that gave birth to it, the problem of definition, its interconnections with other genres, the scientific and philosophical ideas that motivate naturalist authors, and the continuing presence of naturalism in twenty-first century fiction. Others examine the tensions within the genre-the role of women and African-American writers, depictions of sexuality, the problem of race, and the critique of commodity culture and class. A final set of essays looks beyond the works to consider the role of the marketplace in the development of naturalism, the popular and critical response to the works, and the influence of naturalism in the other arts.
Download or read book Naturalism written by Lilian R. Furst and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-07-06 with total page 95 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1971, this book examines the literary style of Naturalism. After introducing the reader to the term itself, including its history and its relationship to Realism, it goes on to trace the origins of the Naturalist movement as well as particular groups which adhered to Naturalism and the theories they espoused. It also provides a summary of the key Naturalist literary works and concludes which a brief reflection on the movement as a whole. This book will be of interest to those studying nineteenth and early twentieth-century literature.
Download or read book Twentieth century American Literary Naturalism written by Donald Pizer and published by SIU Press. This book was released on 1982 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pizer explores six novels to define naturalism and explain its tenacious hold throughout the twentieth century on the American creative imagination.
Download or read book American Literary Naturalism a Divided Stream written by Charles Child Walcutt and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 1956 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American Literary Naturalism, a Divided Stream was first published in 1956. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. The literary concept of naturalism perpetually contradicts itself, oscillating between the transcendental affirmation of human freedom and the demonstration of its nonexistence. In this tension it gropes for forms that will satisfy both demands. These contradictions, and this divided stream, Mr. Walcutt shows, represent the central intellectual and social problem of the modern world, where the confusions between materialism and religion are ubiquitous. In tracing the development of naturalism in the novel, the author provides a background with chapters on naturalistic theory and the theory and practice of Emile Zola. He then traces the shifts in form through the worlds of Harold Frederic, Hamlin Garland, Stephen Crane, Jack London, Frank Norris, Winston Churchill, Theodore Dreiser, Sherwood Anderson, James T. Farrell, John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, and John Dos Passes. College English commented: "This is a book that will clarify some of the confusion that teachers and students face when they discover that naturalistic novels do not always follow naturalistic theory." Writing in Prairie Schooner, Ihab Hassan pointed out: "In speculating on the origins of naturalism, in perceiving the inner contradictions of its spirit and the tensions of its form, and in following its full and vital sweep as it allies itself now with impressionism, now with expressionism, Professor Walcutt manages to throw new light on a major movement in American letters."
Download or read book The Cambridge History of French Literature written by William Burgwinkle and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-02-24 with total page 823 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most comprehensive history of literature written in French ever produced in English.
Download or read book Form and History in American Literary Naturalism written by June Howard and published by Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 1985 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Form and History in American Literary Naturalism
Download or read book The Urban Sublime in American Literary Naturalism written by Christophe Den Tandt and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this dynamic reappraisal of American literary naturalism, Christophe Den Tandt connects late nineteenth-century fiction to its romantic, urban gothic roots and to recent discussions of the sublime in postmodern theory. Den Tandt focuses on aspects of naturalist novels -- their use of hyperbole and hysteria, of the grotesque and the abject, of uncanniness and mesmerism -- that have often been left in the periphery of naturalist discourse. He argues that realistic strategies of literary representation can never succeed in depicting the urban environment since the logic of the city rests on a network of hidden relations. Naturalist texts try to resolve this dilemma by opposing sublime components and realistic documentary elements.
Download or read book mile Zola written by 50Minutes, and published by 50Minutes.com. This book was released on 2018-01-04 with total page 39 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Keen to learn but short on time? Find out everything you need to know about the life and work of Émile Zola in just 50 minutes with this straightforward and engaging guide! Émile Zola was the leading figure of the 19th-century literary movement of naturalism and remains one of France’s best-known and most celebrated authors. With his sweeping 20-novel cycle Les Rougon-Macquart and other novels such as Thérèse Raquin, he provided a meticulous depiction of the society of his time and aimed to study the impact of a range of social, environmental and biological factors on individuals. He also believed in writers’ responsibility to effect social change and bring about a better world, and took stances on a range of contemporary issues, notably the Dreyfus affair with his famous open letter J’accuse...! In this book, you will learn about: • The major historical, social and economic developments that influenced Zola’s work • The main ideas and principles behind the literary movement of naturalism • Zola’s most important works, the reception they met with and their impact on later authors ABOUT 50MINUTES.COM | Art & Literature The Art & Literature series from the 50Minutes collection aims to introduce readers to the figures and movements that have shaped our culture over the centuries. Our guides are written by experts in their field and each feature a full biography, an introduction to the relevant social, political and historical context, and a thorough discussion and analysis of the key works of each artist, writer or movement, making them the ideal starting point for busy readers looking for a quick way to broaden their cultural horizons.
Download or read book Realism and Naturalism written by Richard Daniel Lehan and published by Univ of Wisconsin Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this intellectual and literary history of American, British, and Continental novels of realism and naturalism from 1850 to 1950, Richard Lehan argues that literary naturalism is a narrative mode that creates its own reality. Employing this strategy allows and encourages intertextuality - one novel talking or responding to another.
Download or read book To Build a Fire written by Jack London and published by The Creative Company. This book was released on 2008 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes the experiences of a newcomer to the Yukon when he attempts to hike through the snow to reach a mining claim.
Download or read book The Gold Standard and the Logic of Naturalism written by Walter Benn Michaels and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1987 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Michaels has written a book that will be essential reading for all those interested in American fiction and American culture. . . . This is a daring, brash work of the best kind—it will be much discussed."—Philip Fisher, Brandeis University "Like Michel Foucault, Michaels locates the 'political' in the relations between individuals, in consciousness, and in language. His work represents a far more subtle, internalized, and unschematic conception of the convergence of literature and power than we have had in American studies. He is one of the most gifted practitioners of cultural criticism today."—Leo Marx, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to European Novelists written by Michael Bell and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-06-14 with total page 475 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A survey of 25 major European novelists from Cervantes to Kundera, highlighting their contributions to the genre.
Download or read book American Naturalism and the Jews written by Donald Pizer and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2010-10-01 with total page 111 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American Naturalism and the Jews examines the unabashed anti-Semitism of five notable American naturalist novelists otherwise known for their progressive social values. Hamlin Garland, Frank Norris, and Theodore Dreiser all pushed for social improvements for the poor and oppressed, while Edith Wharton and Willa Cather both advanced the public status of women. But they all also expressed strong prejudices against the Jewish race and faith throughout their fiction, essays, letters, and other writings, producing a contradiction in American literary history that has stymied scholars and, until now, gone largely unexamined. In this breakthrough study, Donald Pizer confronts this disconcerting strain of anti-Semitism pervading American letters and culture, illustrating how easily prejudice can coexist with even the most progressive ideals. Pizer shows how these writers' racist impulses represented more than just personal biases, but resonated with larger social and ideological movements within American culture. Anti-Semitic sentiment motivated such various movements as the western farmers' populist revolt and the East Coast patricians' revulsion against immigration, both of which Pizer discusses here. This antagonism toward Jews and other non-Anglo-Saxon ethnicities intersected not only with these authors' social reform agendas but also with their literary method of representing the overpowering forces of heredity, social or natural environment, and savage instinct.
Download or read book Imagining the Primitive in Naturalist and Modernist Literature written by Gina M. Rossetti and published by University of Missouri Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Examines the depiction of primitive characters in naturalist and modernist texts, focusing on works by Jack London, Frank Norris, Eugene O'Neill, Theodore Dreiser, Willa Cather, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, and Nella Larsen"--Provided by publisher.
Download or read book Fighting Words written by Ira Wells and published by University of Alabama Press. This book was released on 2013-06-25 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An entirely new understanding of what literary naturalism is and why it matters Ira Wells, countering the standard narrative of literary naturalism’s much-touted concern with environmental and philosophical determinism, draws attention to the polemical essence of the genre and demonstrates how literary naturalists engaged instead with explosive political and cultural issues that remain fervently debated today. Naturalist writers, Wells argues in Fighting Words, are united less by a coherent philosophy than by an attitude, a posture of aggressive controversy, which happens to cluster loosely around particular social issues. To an extent not yet appreciated, literary naturalists took controversial—and frequently contrarian—positions on a wide range of literary, political, and social issues. Frank Norris, for instance, famously declared the innate inferiority of female novelists and frequently wrote about literature in tones suggestive of racial warfare. Theodore Dreiser once advocated, with deadly earnestness, a program of state-run infanticide for disabled or unwanted children. Richard Wright praised the Stalin-Hitler agreement of 1939 as “a great step toward peace.” While many of their arguments were irascible, attention-seeking, and self-consciously inflammatory, the combative spirit that fueled these outbursts remains central to the canonical texts of the movement. Wells considers Frank Norris’s The Octopus in light of the emerging discourses of environmentalism and ecological despoliation, and examines the issue of abortion in Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy. A chapter on Richard Wright’s Native Son takes issue with traditional humanistic readings of its protagonist by analyzing the disturbing relationship between terrorism and lynching as a crime and punishment that resists formal incorporation into the law. By highlighting the contentious rhetoric that infuses the canonical texts of literary naturalism, Fighting Words opens up a wide-ranging and interdisciplinary interrogation of racial, sexual, and environmental polemics in American culture.
Download or read book McTeague written by Frank Norris and published by BoD - Books on Demand. This book was released on 2023-06-09 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: McTeague is an enormously strong but dim-witted former miner now working as a dentist in San Francisco towards the end of the nineteenth century. He falls in love with Trina, one of his patients, and shortly after their engagement she wins a large sum in a lottery. All is well until McTeague is betrayed and they fall into a life of increasing poverty and degradation. This novel is often presented as an example of American naturalism where the behavior and experience of characters are constrained by “nature”—both their own heredity nature, and the broader social environment. McTeague was published in 1899 as the first of Norris’s major novels.
