Social and cultural movements during the literary realism period

¶ … social and cultural movements that prevailed during the time of literary Realism

Realism began as a reaction to early 20th century Romanticism. Realism' origins are usually traced back to 19th century France, to the works of authors such as Stendhal, the author of the Red and the Black and Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. These works show careful attention to detail and characterization, often at the expense of plot. For example, Flaubert's Madame Bovary is about a relatively ordinary woman with aspirations of being a Romantic heroine. Through the use of detailed observations, methodical descriptions of the character's interior as well as exterior lives, and a stylistic emphasis on 'showing' rather than telling the reader what to think, Flaubert created a realist masterwork. The influence of French Realism spread to England, as manifest in the works of authors such as George Eliot and her detailed scenes from provincial life in Middlemarch. Realism later spread to the United States in the latter half of the 19th century (Literary realism, Art and Popular Culture, 2010).

Many Realist authors viewed their work as an extension of the newly invigorated belief in rationalism and the popularization of science in contemporary culture. Empirical observation was necessary to render things as they 'really' were: for example, Flaubert's novel contained an extended analysis of the various displays at a fair that was just as detailed as the courtship of Emma and her lover taking place at the carnival. The book carefully details the excesses of Emma's wedding cake and her husband Charles' conducting a botched operation, as well as notes the different characters' clothing and appearance. In contrast to Romanticism, the Realist author's emphasis was on the everyday and the newly empowered middle class rather than the exotic, and character's social environments. In realistic novels "characters appear in their real complexity of temperament and motive; they are in explicable relation to nature, to each other, to their social class, to their own past" (Campbell 2008). Although Realistic characters are psychologically complex, and there are few pure villains and heroines in Realist novels, characters are ordinary and imperfect, rather than removed from the rest of human life, unlike Romantic heroes.

The rise of the middle class and the Industrial Revolution brought forth a demand to render this emerging class in fiction, and not simply relegate it to the sidelines of prose narratives in the United States. Realism in the United States is often said to stretch from the Civil War to the end of the 19th century. The interest in Realism was also spawned by the crisis of national confidence that occurred after that bloody battle. Mark Twain, Stephen Crane, and later Henry James are all classified as Realistic writers who "wrote fiction devoted to accurate representation and an exploration of American lives in various contexts" (Campbell 2008). Also as the United States grew rapidly after the Civil War, "the increasing rates of democracy and literacy, the rapid growth in industrialism and urbanization, an expanding population base due to immigration, and a relative rise in middle-class affluence provided a fertile literary environment for readers interested in understanding these rapid shifts in culture" (Campbell 2008). More Americans had money to buy books, more Americans could read, and more Americans were interested in talking about and debating the new, national purpose of the nation.