Spirituals

American Heritage Dictionary

1.  A religious folk song of African-American origin.

2. A work composed in imitation of such a song.

Oxford Grove Music Encyclopedia

A type of folksong that originated in American revivalist activity between 1740 and the end of the 19th century. The term is derived from ‘spiritual songs’, a designation used in early publications to distinguish the texts from the metrical psalms and hymns in traditional church use.

African-American spirituals constitute one of the largest surviving bodies of American folksong and are probably the best known. They are principally associated with the African-American churches of the Deep South. Mid-19th-century reports indicate that the tunes were sung in unison and abounded in ‘slides from one note to another, and turns and cadences not in articulated notes’. There is disagreement as to whether there are significant African elements in the songs and whether they were the innovation of black slaves or adaptations of white sources. African-American spirituals were first brought to an international audience from 1871 by the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee; interest was awakened in the form as a concert item. However, as they grew in popularity with a general audience, their appeal waned in black churches and they lost ground to GOSPEL music.

The white spiritual is a less well-known, but important category. It embraces the subtypes of religious ballad, folk hymn (associated with the 18th-century Separatist Baptist movement) and camp-meeting spiritual (associated with 19th-century revivalism): all have close associations with secular folksong.

Realism vs Naturalism

Period in American Literature

1865 - 1914: Realistic Period - Naturalistic Period

Mark Twain - (Samuel L. Clemens): 1835 - 1910

• Journalist & Humorist - Realist & Regional writer

• Tom Sawyer (1876)

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)

• Novels, Short Stories & Essays

William Dean Howells - 1837 - 1920

• Most vocal advocate of anti-Romantic realism

• The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885)

• Editha (1905)

Henry James - 1843 - 1916

• Most influential Realist in British & American Lit.

• International themes

• The Americans (1877)

• Portrait of a Lady (1881)

• Short stories, including "The Turn of the Screw" and "Daisy Miller"

Bret Harte Sarah Orne Jewett Stephen Crane - 1871 - 1900

• Realism & Naturalism

• Like Twain, a journalist

• Maggie, Girl of the Streets (1893)

• The Red Badge of Courage (1895)

• Short stories, including "The Open Boat" and "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky"

Ezra Pound Emily Dickinson Frank Norris - 1870 - 1902

• Mixture of Naturalism & Romanticism

• McTeague (1899)

• The Octopus (1901)

• Short stories

Jack London - 1876 - 1916

• Naturalism, mostly from personal experience

• The Call of the Wild (1903)

• The Sea Wolf (1904)

• White Fang (1906)

• Many short stories, including "To Build a Fire," etc.

Theodore Dreiser

The dominant literary style of prose fiction from 1865 to 1900 departs from the nostalgic and idealized life of the Romantics.

The major themes of American Realism are:

• setting is generally the here-and-now

• much of the writing stems from a journalistic documentary style (period of "Yellow Journalism")

• often Regional with local dialect

• characters contend with ethical problems

• psychological overtones (Henry James)

• plausible and everyday experiences

• characters are rooted in social classes

Regionalism is often included within Realism and Naturalism to indicate literature that is regional in narration and/or dialect. Regional writing is not necessarily associated with a historical period, and extends to present day as a style of fiction.

Characteristics of Regionalism:

• characters speak in the local dialect

• often associated with southern writers like Twain, Chopin, and William Faulkner, et. al.

• setting is a particular "region" of the country where local customs and traditions are an integral part of the story

• present day - not futuristic or historical

An offshoot of Realism, Naturalism shares some of its principles.

Principles of Naturalism:

• Nature dwarfs the individual who has no control over it

• characterized by a pessimistic world-view

• people are less individual than a part of a "class"

• Our fate is not in our hands so everything depends on how we cope (everything is a test of character)

• Nature is "indifferent" and we have only each other (God is not a factor)

• the lessons of life are hard and whining is not allowed * Dr. Paul Douglass, professor, English 68B handout, San Jose State University

(SEE ADDITIONAL FILE – Periods of American Literature)