美国文学史6Naturalist Literature

1、Chapter 7 American NaturalismThe last decade of the 19th century It was in the last decade of the 19th century. 1.emerging of proletariat 2.new ideas about man taking root-Darwinian conception &social Darvinism Darwinisms essential point: evolution, the survival of the fittest,natural selection

2、Based on this biological thesis, Herbert Spencer developed the theory of social Darwinism-the weak & stupid would fall victim to economic forces in the natural course of events. This idea became a metaphor for all existence. The writers found a way to explain human behavior according to Darwins

3、natural selection. So naturalism came into being. Naturalism & realism exist side by side in this age, There are writers who are both realists & naturalists. Naturalism: A more deliberate kind of realism in novels, stories ,and plays, usu involving a view of human beings as passive victims o

4、f natural forces &social environment. As a literary movement, naturalism was initiated in France , but it came to be led by Emile Zola. Other novelists and storytellers associated with naturalism include Theodore Dreiser and Frank Norris in the United States, and George Moore and George Gissing

5、in England. The most significant work of naturalism in English being Dreisers Sister Carrie. Stephen Crane novel: Maggie: A Girl of the Streets -the first Am naturalistic novel The Red Badge of Courage short story: The Open Boat The Blue HotelBook of poems: The black Riders Frank NorrisTrilogy:The O

6、ctopus The Pit The Wolf(never written) novel: McTeague Theodore Dreiser He was termed “the father of American Naturalism” by the contemporary novelists.His writing feature: He seldom made personal judgement on his characteristics. He tried to treat them scientifically. He just described but never cr

7、iticized. He stressed determinism. His characters are pathetic in their inability to escape their fates. They are not responsible for rising or falling in a world fully shaped by environment and heredity.Trilogy of Desire:The Financier The Titan The StoicSister CarrieJannie GerhardtAn American TragedyThe BulwarkThe Genius Jack LondonThe Call of the WildThe Sea WolfMartin EdenComment:Naturalists see human beings no more than a physical object under the control of biologica