Download or read book American Literary Naturalism written by Charles Child Walcutt and published by Praeger. This book was released on 1973 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Walcutt's thesis is that naturalism in American literature is an offspring of transcendentalism. He sees literary Naturalism as a philosophy that partly defies Nature and partly submits to Nature. The works of naturalist writers of the early twentieth century possess a tension not present in works of the nineteenth century.
Download or read book American Literary Naturalism written by Donald Pizer and published by Anthem Press. This book was released on 2020-10-09 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book collects Pizer’s late career essays on various writers and subjects related to American naturalism. Of these, two seek to describe the movement as a whole, six are on specific writers or works (with an emphasis on Theodore Dreiser), and two reprint informative interviews by Pizer on the subject. The essays reflect Pizer’s mature engagement of the subject he has spent a lifetime exploring.
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 2011-03-01 with total page 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 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 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 Form and History in American Literary Naturalism written by June Howard and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2017-03-01 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examining the novels of Frank Norris, Theodore Dreiser, Jack London, and other writers, June Howard presents a study of American literary naturalism as a genre. Naturalism, she states, is a way of imagining the world and the relation of the self to the world, a way of making sense -- and making narrative -- out of the comforts and discomforts of its historical moment. Howard believes that naturalism accomodates the sense of perilousness, uncertainty, and disorder that many Americans felt in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She argues for a redefinition of the form which allows it to be seen as an immanent ideology responding to a specific historical situation. Working both from accepted definitions of naturalism and from close analysis of the literary texts themselves, Howard consructs a new description of the genre in terms of its thematic antinomies, patterns of characterization, and narrative strategies. She defines a range of historical and cultural reference for the ideas and images of American naturalism and suggests that the form has affinities with such contemporary ideologies as political progressivism and criminal anthropology. In the process, she demonstrates that genre criticism and historical analysis can be combined to create a powerful method for writing literary history. Throughout Howard's study, the concept of genre is used not as a prescriptive straitjacket but as a category allowing the perception of significant similarities and differences among literary works and the coordination of textual analysis with the history of literary and social forces. For Howard, naturalism is a dynamic solution to the problem of generating narrative from the particular historical and cultural materials available to the authors. Originally published in 1985. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.
Download or read book A Companion to American Literature written by Susan Belasco and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-04-02 with total page 4743 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive, chronological overview of American literature in three scholarly and authoritative volumes A Companion to American Literature traces the history and development of American literature from its early origins in Native American oral tradition to 21st century digital literature. This comprehensive three-volume set brings together contributions from a diverse international team of accomplished young scholars and established figures in the field. Contributors explore a broad range of topics in historical, cultural, political, geographic, and technological contexts, engaging the work of both well-known and non-canonical writers of every period. Volume One is an inclusive and geographically expansive examination of early American literature, applying a range of cultural and historical approaches and theoretical models to a dramatically expanded canon of texts. Volume Two covers American literature between 1820 and 1914, focusing on the development of print culture and the literary marketplace, the emergence of various literary movements, and the impact of social and historical events on writers and writings of the period. Spanning the 20th and early 21st centuries, Volume Three studies traditional areas of American literature as well as the literature from previously marginalized groups and contemporary writers often overlooked by scholars. This inclusive and comprehensive study of American literature: Examines the influences of race, ethnicity, gender, class, and disability on American literature Discusses the role of technology in book production and circulation, the rise of literacy, and changing reading practices and literary forms Explores a wide range of writings in multiple genres, including novels, short stories, dramas, and a variety of poetic forms, as well as autobiographies, essays, lectures, diaries, journals, letters, sermons, histories, and graphic narratives. Provides a thematic index that groups chapters by contexts and illustrates their links across different traditional chronological boundaries A Companion to American Literature is a valuable resource for students coming to the subject for the first time or preparing for field examinations, instructors in American literature courses, and scholars with more specialized interests in specific authors, genres, movements, or periods.
Download or read book The Cambridge Handbook of American Literature written by Jack Salzman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1986-08-29 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Cambridge Handbook of American Literature offers a compact and accessible guide to the major landmarks of American literature.
Download or read book Confronting the Horror written by James Richard Giles and published by Kent State University Press. This book was released on 1989 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Giles (English, Northern Illinois U.) examines the novels of the American author, Nelson Algren, and places them in the traditions of American literary naturalism, existential modernism, and the American urban novel. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Download or read book Echoes of Emerson written by Diana Hope Polley and published by University of Alabama Press. This book was released on 2017-10-17 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Probes the ways in which two major periods in nineteenth-century American literature--Romanticism and Realism--have come to be understood and defined
Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to Theodore Dreiser written by Leonard Cassuto and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004-02-12 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The specially commissioned essays collected in this volume establish new parameters for both scholarly and classroom discussion of Dreiser. This Companion provides fresh perspectives on the frequently read classics, Sister Carrie and An American Tragedy, as well as on topics of perennial interest, such as Dreiser's representation of the city and his prose style. The volume investigates topics such as his representation of masculinity and femininity, and his treatment of ethnicity. It is the most comprehensive introduction to Dreiser's work available.
Download or read book Rebecca Harding Davis and American Realism written by Sharon M. Harris and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 1991-06 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the late 1860s until her death in 1910, Rebecca Harding Davis was one of the best-known writers in America. She broke into print as a young woman in the 1860s with "Life in the Iron Mills," which established her as one of the pioneers of American realism. She developed a literary theory of the "commonplace" nearly two decades before William Dean Howels shaped his own version of the concept. Yet, in spite of her importance to the literary and popular culture of her time, she has been, for the most part, ignored by scholars. Rebecca Harding Davis and American Realism helps to change that.
Download or read book American Fiction 1865 1940 written by Brian Lee and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-29 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brian Lee's study of American fiction from 1865 to 1940 draws on a wealth of material by, amongst others, Twain, James, Dreiser, Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Faulkner. Though the works of these writers have been closely scrutinised by postwar critics in Europe and America, few attempts have yet been made to utilise the new critical approaches and theories in the service of literary history. Brian Lee does so in this book, relating the writers of the period - both major and minor - to its patterns of immense economic, social and intellectual change.
Download or read book Theodore Dreiser written by Miriam Gogol and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 1995-09 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Theodore Dreiser is indisputably one of America's most important twentieth-century novelists. An American Tragedy, Sister Carrie, and Jennie Gerhardt have all made an indelible mark on the American literary landscape. And yet, remarkably few critical books and no recent collections of critical essays have been published that attempt to answer current theoretical questions about Dreiser's entire canon. This collection is the first to appear in twenty-four years. The ten contributing essayists offer original interpretations of Dreiser's works from such disparate points of view as new historicism, poststructuralism, psychoanalysis, feminism, film studies, and canon formation. A vital reassessment, Theodore Dreiser: Beyond Naturalism brings this influential modern writer into the 1990s by viewing him through the lens of the latest literary theory and cultural criticism.
Download or read book The Manufacture of Consent written by Stephen M. Underhill and published by MSU Press. This book was released on 2020-02-01 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second Red Scare was a charade orchestrated by a tyrant with the express goal of undermining the New Deal—so argues Stephen M. Underhill in this hard-hitting analysis of J. Edgar Hoover’s rhetorical agency. Drawing on Classification 94, a vast trove of recently declassified records that documents the longtime FBI director’s domestic propaganda campaigns in the mid-twentieth century, Underhill shows that Hoover used the growing power of his office to subvert the presidencies of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman and redirect the trajectory of U.S. culture away from social democracy toward a toxic brand of neoliberalism. He did so with help from Republicans who opposed organized labor and Southern Democrats who supported Jim Crow in what is arguably the most culturally significant documented political conspiracy in U.S. history, a wholesale domestic propaganda program that brainwashed Americans and remade their politics. Hoover also forged ties with the powerful fascist leaders of the period to promote his own political ambitions. All the while, as a love letter to Clyde Tolson still preserved in Hoover’s papers attests, he strove to pass for straight while promoting a culture that demonized same-sex love. The erosion of democratic traditions Hoover fostered continues to haunt Americans today.
Download or read book Transition Phase of the American Society in An American Tragedy A Naturalistic Approach written by Guneshwor Ojha and published by Anchor Academic Publishing (aap_verlag). This book was released on 2015-05-29 with total page 85 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his masterpiece An American Tragedy, the naturalist writer Theodore Dreiser depicts different pains of American society as it was stepping into the modern age. The youths from the lower rung of the society detested the traditional norms and values and sought ways of transformation in the job market and opportunities brought about by industrialization. However, their dreams, ambitions and efforts to ascend the social ladder ended up in a tragedy. Dreiser, the pioneer of naturalism in the American literary arena effectively depicts such phenomena through the life of his protagonist, Clyde. Brought up in a strict religious family characterized by abject poverty, Clyde struggles to overcome the life of deprivation. However, he does not possess the mental ability and skills to overcome the difficulties of life and succumbs to vicious circle of circumstances. Whereas realism portrays events and incidents of a society in a realistic manner naturalists go beyond realism to come up with the causes and explanations behind a real event. By relying on psychology, chemism, mechanism and social forces, Dreiser portrays how human life is devoid of free will. Dreiser effectively shows that lack of education, religiously stringent home environment and pangs of poverty throughout his childhood had charted out a gloomy fate for Clyde, who heads towards the death bed and is executed at the prime of youth. In his works, Dreiser often uses animal metaphors and similes to effect his point that human beings are no different from animals for their lack of free will and, are prey to circumstances. Though at the face value the school of naturalism seems gloomy, dark and negative it does offer optimism and hope. Naturalists believe on evolution and hence, human beings can improve themselves and can learn to overcome beastly nature. In the due process of evolution they can learn to live by reason instead of being ruled by instincts. Thus, human beings have the potential to achieve a similar ideal world as envisioned by spiritualism. Works inspired by naturalism also impart a guiding lesson to the society that the society and its stake holders are responsible for existing social ills/evils. In the case of the tragic hero, it was the social structure that denied access to education and better opportunities for poor youths to embrace a good life.
