LITERARY STUDIES

American Realism began in the late nineteenth century and continued through the earl twentieth century and came as a reaction against Romanticism. It sought to depict he real life in its smallest details, with particular emphasis on the common man and idle class society with their struggles and experiences.

            Just like the British novel, the American novel includes the same aspects, with particular focus on the individual's thoughts and reflections. This has led to the rise of a type of novel in America known as the psychological novel, which concerns itself with the exploration of the psychology and thoughts of the character. Henry James, author of Daisy Miller, is known as the father of the psychological novel as he pioneered in this form of writing. By the advent of the modernist movement in the twentieth century, the psychological novel became the most famous.

            One of the characteristics of realism that is specific to America is the depiction of regionalism and local colour. American realism deals merely with two main cultures in America, the first is known as the genteel tradition, the second is the Local Colour movement, each represented by authors like Henry James from the east and Mark Twain in the west respectively.

            The genteel tradition was a term coined by George Santayana, to refer to a literature that shows a side of America that lives by the same traditions and culture of Europe. It reflects an elitist culture that criticizes popular culture and refers to a social class of poets and intellectuals who claim to be the only intellectual elite of America (Encyclopedia.com).

In American literature, the genteel tradition came to refer to the unconditional championing of idealism over realism. Reproducing a more or less platonic version. The Good and the Beautiful was to be the goal of the literary artist, faithful representations of the realities of life were to be avoided (Cox 214)

The representatives of such literature considered the Victorian Tradition as the most accurate reference to turn to, and considered that literature should be written to serve only two purposes, the first is to represent an ideal world (that does not necessarily exist, which is why the culture depicted in the realist text does not tell all the truth), the second purpose is to teach proper manners to the middle class individual (Encyclopedia;com).

            Realism in America preserved some of the common characteristics between east and west despite the differences of perspective, including rationalism and rejection of the romantic and the sensitive. The most important characteristic of realism is its rationality and emphasis on truthfulness (as opposed to sensitivity and the fantasy of romanticism which are linked to irrationality), thus the Faithful representation of life becomes one basic aspect of this movement. The most important characteristic of realism is the faithful rendering of the real life with al its experiences, details, and a particular focus on the social tensions in society. By doing so, realism fulfills its second characteristic, which is the centrality of the common and the ordinary. This genre centers the common man and ordinary individual, by emphasizing their struggles and conflicts. It depicts the psychology and thoughts of the common individual, thus ensuring Character and psychological depth.

This features leads to social critique as one more aspect of the movement. Realism reflects social injustices and class struggle in its representation of the common individual. Most of the nineteenth century novels are considered as novels of manners because their goals are didactic, based on criticism of one social problem or another.

            Reference to regionalism and local colour  is also one important characteristic. Realism tends to represent social and cultural environments with their differences and particularities in its faithful rendering of life. His emphasis includes language, dialects, landscape, cultural icons, among other.

American Realist Leading Figures

Mark Twain 1835-1910 (Samuel Langhorne Clemens): Mark Twain is a literary figure created by Samuel Langhorne Clemens by which the author separated his private life and life as a man of letters. He was a journalist, a humorist, and a satirist, known for works like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and The Prince and the Pauper (Robinson 14-15). He criticizes the romantics writing style for its sentimentality and "sloppiness", and even some realist authors who engage in deep psychological analysis of their characters, which he considered "labored and tedious" (Twain qtd. in Bell 44). He pioneered in Local Colour writing as he represented the American West during the civil war in Huckleberry Finn, slavery, and social dishonesty, which were the subject of his criticism.

Henry James (1843- 1916): Famous for novels such as The Portrait of a Lady, Daisy iller, and his literary criticism "The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man". He was a representative of the genteel tradition in writing and explored a psychological approach in writing. He was the father of the psychological novel which later became specific to the Modernist novel. He was an expat, he grew up in a rich family which allowed him to receive a European education, who  thus became representative of the international theme which he depicted in his The American and in Daisy Miller. In 1915 he became legally British citizen which triggered anger towards his representations of the American individual and woman (as in Daisy Miler), and became criticized as anti-American. His artistic influence was stronger on Modernist writing which came after realism than on realism itself. His international theme depicts the common individual facing hardships and difficulties coping with European society in general and struggling in conflicts against society (Baghli 2-3).