American Literary Naturalism

(1890-1910)

Def: An addition of pessimistic determinism to Realism.

• Humans are animals in their instinctual reaction to life.
• Adoption of Darwinian theory to nature and society (biological and social evolution).
• Seeks truth in the spirit of the scientist.
• Harsh and Dark Realists.

Themes/Beliefs About Life

• the world is amoral. There is a sheer arbitrariness of life.
• Pessimistic about humans ability to act freely. We are controlled by heredity and environment. A reaction against the sensationalism of early romanticism.
• Frankness: Reject Victorian reticence. The total human must be studied including our deeper, darker, basic, basal instincts. The three strongest are hunger, fear, and sex.

· ***Deterministic**** Vital principle of Naturalism distinguishing it from Realism. Determinism may result from:

1. A sociological emphasis (study of heredity and environment). Seldom a biological emphasis.

2. A broader mechanistic philosophy (combination of biology, sociology, and psychology)

3. Fatalism: a world of malignant chance.

· Pessimistic bias in selecting detail: a Naturalist sees “truth” as the human being helpless because:

1. Life is a trap.

2. Life is mean.

Characters

· Emile Zola. People and characters are "human beasts."

· “presenting characters of low social and economic classes who were dominated by their environment and heredity” (6).

· Narrator is an amoral/objective toward the subject/subjects; he holds no ethical standards.