21. Критический реализм второй половины XIX века: э.Диккенсон, г.Б. Стоу.

Critical Realism  (1865-1915) is the presentation in art of the details of actual life.  The Realists tried to write truthfully and objectively about ordinary characters in ordinary situations.  They reacted against Romanticism, rejecting heroic, adventurous, unusual, or unfamiliar subjects. 

The highly critical realistic literature that came into being differed greatly from that of the previous generation represented by Irving, Cooper and Longfellow. Critical Realism embraced all aspects of American life. Many of the old themes were the same but they were treated in a new light including that of love, and of the role of art and the artist in society. The romantic school had treated love as a refuge from the commonplace in practical life; the realists used the theme to show up the immorality of bourgeois society which made love and marriage a matter of business. The American realists rejected sentimentality and the "genteel tradition” in the style of writing. Their portrayal of life, as they found it, may sometimes have been rude and unpolished but it was always original and truthful. American realism enriched world realism by advancing the problems of social injustice, the Negro and Indian questions, the fate of the young generation and the problem of emancipation of women. American authors armed with the methods of Critical Realism created great works of art which served to unmask the truth about the reactionary foundations of modern imperialism, and served to greatly influence the struggle for social justice.

Писатели-реалисты отказывались принимать действительность как закономерный результат развития. Критика складывавшегося империалистического общества, изображение его отрицательных сторон становится отличительными признаками американского критического реализма. Появляются новые темы, выдвинутые на первый план изменившимися условиями жизни (разорение и обнищание фермерства; капиталистический город и маленький человек в нем; обличение монополистического капитала).

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

introspection

Since most of her writing falls in-between defined literary movements, Realism and Modernism, there has been much confusion on which period Emily Dickinson fits into.  It is difficult to tell which movement she fits into, because she has qualities from both literary movements.  Her unconventional methods could place her with the Modernists, though, because Modernism was basically a rebellion against traditional writing.  The most common characteristic of Modernism writing was an unpredictable style, which Emily Dickinson definitely has.   Even though her writing does have a few traits of the literary movement that would take place after her, Modernism, she has more features of Realism.  Dickinson uses imagery in many of her poems, as well as personification. Realists highlighted morality, as Dickinson did.  In fact, one of her most popular themes was death.  Realists often focused on things familiar to them, which was, for Dickinson, loneliness and religion.  Like Realists, Dickinson develops her characters fully, even if her character is something nontraditional, like the sun or death.  For example, in "The Sun Just Touched the Morning," she describes the sun in detail, saying that it is a happy thing, and if it stayed out all the time, more people would be happy.  Emily Dickinson could be a Realist because of her development of characters and themes, but could also be a Modernist because of her nontraditional style.  

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811 – 1896)

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), not only raised a nation’s consciousness about the wrongs and harms of slavery, but it actually helped evoke the necessary change. President Lincoln was so impressed with the power of her words that he asked to meet her. Those who supported reform and abolition were thrilled with the attention their cause received because of the book. They praised the sympathetic way she presented her slave characters. But critics felt that she had exaggerated the plight of the slaves and had created an unrealistic picture of slavery. Uncle Tom’s Cabin accomplished what nothing else was able to do at the time: it provided a compelling story of the effects slavery has on individuals and on families. President Lincoln, when she met him in 1862, said she “made” the war. It brought slavery down to the most basic human level and forced readers to identify with its characters as human beings rather than slaves.

Stowe was an early realist, describing her scenes with accuracy and great detail. She brought even her minor characters to life with care, showing them in their native setting and culture in such a way that we understand their time better. She was among the first to use native dialect, doing so some 30 years before her more famous Hartford neighbor, Mark Twain.