美国现实主义.ppt

American Realism (1865-1914)
I. The Rise of Realism: Historical Background
II. American Realism
III. Mark Twain
IV. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)
I. The Rise of Realism: Historical Background
“The industrial North had triumphed over the agrarian South, and from that victory came a society based on mass labor and mass consumption.”
“an age of extremes”---“of decline and progress, of poverty and dazzling wealth, of gloom and buoyant hope”
A. The Civil War
B. The Gilded Age
C. Immigrant Booming
The new intercontinental rail system, inaugurated in 1869, and the transcontinental telegraph, which began operating in 1861, gave industry access to materials, markets, munications. The constant influx of immigrants provided a seemingly endless supply of inexpensive labor as well.
D. Social Problems
Problems of urbanization and industrialization appeared: poor and overcrowded housing, unsanitary conditions, low pay (called "wage slavery"), difficult working conditions, and inadequate restraints on business.
II. American Realism (1860-1914)
Broadly defined as "the faithful representation of reality" or "verisimilitude," realism is a literary technique practiced by many schools of writing. Although strictly speaking, realism is a technique, it also denotes a particular kind of subject matter, especially the representation of middle-class life.
A. Realism
B. American Realism
In American literature, the term "realism" passes the period of time from the Civil War to the turn of the century during which William Dean Howells, a Harding Davis, Henry James, Mark Twain, and others wrote fiction devoted to accurate representation and an exploration of American lives in various contexts.
C. The Characteristics of American Realism
American realists renders reality closely and prehensive detail.
b. American realists selectively present the reality with an emphasis on verisimilitude, even at the expense of a well-made plot.
c. Character is more important than