The Age of Realism and Naturalism
The three strong advocates of 19th century American realism • William Dean Howells (critic)豪威尔斯 • Henry James 詹姆斯 • Mark Twain 马克• 吐温

Background • The Civil War marked a deterioration of American moral values. • Increasing industrialization and mechanization produced extremes of wealth and poverty. • The romantic view of man in the New World began to lose its hold on the imagination of the people. • By the 1870s New England Renaissance had waned. The age of Romanticism and Transcendentalism was by and large over. • Meanwhile, younger writers appeared on the scene. William Dean Howells, Henry James, Mark Twain began to publish. The age of realism had arrived.

American Realism(1870-1890) • Realism --- A literary doctrine that called for “reality and truth” in the depiction of ordinary life. • It offer an objective rather than an idealized view of human nature and experience. • It expresses the concern for the world of the commonplace, and for the familiar and the low. • American realism, different from European realism, is more varied and individualistic. e.g. local color: Mark Twain

William Dean Howells (1837-1920)豪威尔斯 • American writer and editor in chief (1871-1881) of the Atlantic Monthly 大西洋月刊, who encouraged a number of writers, including Mark Twain and Henry James. • He wrote many novels, e.g. The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885) 《西拉斯·拉帕姆的崛起,and books of literary criticism, e.g. Criticism and Fiction.

Howell’s Literary Viewpoints: • Realism interprets sympathetically the “common feelings of commonplace people”. • Realism includes a central concern with “motives” and psychological conflicts. • He stresses the need for sympathy and moral integrity.

Henry James(1843-1916) 亨利•詹姆斯
☆ His life Born into a wealthy cultured family of New England; one of the few authors in American literary history who did not have to worry about