Regional Realism

Unit 8 REGIONAL REALISM Depicting the Local in American Literature 1865–1900 Authors and Works I What kinds of narrative conventions structure oral and visual autobiographies? Featured in the Video: I What regional and ethnic dialects were repre- Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), Adventures of sented in late-nineteenth-century literature? Why Huckleberry Finn (novel), “Fenimore Cooper’s were dialect stories so popular in late-nineteenth- Literary Offenses” (satire, literary criticism) century America? Charles W. Chesnutt, “The Goophered Grapevine” I What are the distinguishing characteristics of and “The Wife of His Youth” (stories) realism? What cultural values does realism reflect Kate Chopin, The Awakening (novel), “At the ’Cadian and promote? Ball” and “The Storm” (stories) I What is regionalist writing? What historical events and cultural anxieties fueled regionalism’s Discussed in This Unit: popularity in the late nineteenth century? Bret Harte, “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” (story) I In the popular imagination of the late nine- Joel Chandler Harris, “The Wonderful Tar-Baby teenth century, what distinguished certain regions Story,” “Mr. Rabbit Grossly Deceives Mr. Fox” of the country from one another? (stories) I In what ways can regionalist texts be represen- Sarah Orne Jewett, “The White Heron,” “The For- tative of the general “American” experience? eigner” (stories) I How did technology bind together the United Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, “A New England Nun,” States in the late nineteenth century? “The Revolt of ‘Mother’” (stories) I What is dialect? How did different authors rep- Charles Alexander Eastman (Ohiyesa), excerpts resent dialect? from From the Deep Woods to Civilization I How do narrators affect the tone of a fictional (autobiography) text? What kinds of narrators emerge in realist writ- Alexander Posey, letters of Fus Fixico (stories, polit- ing of the late nineteenth century? ical satire), poems I What is a trickster figure? What cultural work Zitkala-Sˇ a (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin), “Im- do trickster figures perform? pressions of an Indian Childhood,” “The School I How do regionalist texts participate in or chal- Days of an Indian Girl,” “An Indian Teacher lenge racial stereotypes? among Indians” (autobiographical essays) I How does class-consciousness inflect realist representations of American life? What classes of people are depicted in realist texts? Overview Questions Learning Objectives I How do regionalist writings reflect the dis- tinct cultures and experiences of different ethnic After students have viewed the video, read the groups? headnotes and literary selections in The Norton I How do realist texts represent gender? Are Anthology of American Literature, and explored women authors’ interpretations of realism different related archival materials on the American Passages from male authors’ interpretations? How? Web site, they should be able to 2 UNIT 8, REGIONAL REALISM 1. understand the basic tenets of realism; about unrefined and even ugly subjects in the inter- 2. discuss the impact on American literature and est of gaining authentic accounts of the world culture of regionalist writers’ emphasis on geo- around them. graphical settings and distinctive customs; Many writers expressed their realist aesthetic by 3. discuss the impact of race and gender on repre- emphasizing the particularities of geographic set- sentations of regional cultures; tings, evoking the distinctive customs, speech, and 4. discuss the cultural values and assumptions that culture of specific regions of the United States in inform phonetic representations of racial and their work. This attention to the peculiarities of regional dialects in late-nineteenth-century place flourished after the Civil War, as Americans American literature. began to conceive of themselves as part of a single, unified nation and as curiosity grew about regions of the country that had once seemed too far off and strange to matter. Regional realism may also have Instructor Overview developed as an act of nostalgia and conservation in response to the rapid postwar industrialization and Midway through his adventures, Huck Finn comes homogenization that was threatening older, tradi- to the “strange and unregular” conclusion that tional ways of life. By chronicling the specific details telling the truth might be the best way both to nar- of regional culture, regional realism preserved a rate his experiences and to accomplish his own record of ways of life and habits of speech that were ends. In a speech that is characteristically simulta- suddenly in danger of disappearing as a result of the neously humorous and profound, Mark Twain has newspapers, railroads, and mass-produced con- Huck meditate on the nature of truth: sumer goods that were standardizing American culture. Many regionalist writers became accomplished I says to myself, I reckon a body that ups and tells at transcribing the authentic rhythms and idioms of the truth when he is in a tight place, is taking con- local dialect in their efforts to make their charac- siderable many resks, though I ain’t had no experi- ters’ dialogue mimic the way people really talked. ence, and can’t say for certain; but it looks so to Literalized, phonetic spellings forced readers to pro- me, anyway; and yet here’s a case where I’m blest nounce words as speakers of a regional dialect if it don’t look to me like the truth is better, and would pronounce them. actuly safer, than a lie. I must lay it by in my mind, A commitment to capturing accurately the reali- and think it over some time or other, it’s so kind of ties and peculiarities of regional culture distin- strange and unregular. guishes all of the authors featured in Unit 8, “Regional Realism: Depicting the Local in American Huck’s radical decision to “up and tell the truth” Literature, 1865–1900.” As they recorded and com- despite the “resks” epitomizes the stylistic and the- mented on the distinctive speech and customs that matic transformations shaping American literature distinguished specific geographical areas, these during the second half of the nineteenth century. A writers also struggled with the role of class and gen- new commitment to the accurate representation of der in local life and in the construction of American American life as it was experienced by ordinary identity. This unit explores the regional representa- Americans infused literature with a new “realist” tions of a wide variety of late-nineteenth-century aesthetic. Realism was characterized by its uncom- texts, including works composed by Mark Twain promising literal representations of daily life, and (Samuel Clemens), Bret Harte, Joel Chandler by its resistance to the emotional extravagance and Harris, Sarah Orne Jewett, Kate Chopin, Mary E. fanciful settings that had characterized Romantic Wilkins Freeman, Charles W. Chesnutt, Charles and sentimental fiction. This passion for finding and Alexander Eastman (Ohiyesa), Alexander Posey, and presenting the truth led many American practition- Zitkala-Sˇ a (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin). The unit ers of realism to explore characters, places, and provides contextual background and classroom events that had never before seemed appropriate materials designed to explore the way these writers subject matter for literature. American audiences, represented the distinguishing characteristics of for their part, evinced a new willingness to read American life in the South, in the West, in New UNIT 11, INSTRUCTORMODERNIST PORTRAITSOVERVIEW 3 England, and on the Great Plains. The video for rials situate these writers within several of the his- Unit 8 focuses on three influential practitioners of torical contexts and artistic movements that shaped regional realism in the South: Mark Twain, Charles their texts: (1) the development of “parlor culture” W. Chesnutt, and Kate Chopin. Twain used realism and ideals of domestic gentility; (2) Native Amer- and regional dialect in his masterpiece, Adventures ican oral and visual autobiographical expressions; of Huckleberry Finn, to challenge readers to come to (3) the role of journalistic ideals in the development new conclusions about the role of race and class in of the realist aesthetic; (4) the centrality of the America. His complex portrait of race relations in “trickster” figure to expressions of ethnic identity; the 1840s continues to inspire controversy. Charles (5) the importance of developments in the study of W. Chesnutt adopted the regional realist style to anatomy and photography in visual expressions of explore the contradictions of life on the “color line” realism. between black and white society and to challenge The archive and the curriculum materials sug- racial stereotypes. Kate Chopin depicted the exotic gest how these authors and texts relate to those cov- culture of Creole and Cajun Louisiana, offering a ered in other American Passages units: How have controversial exploration of the constraints placed American ideas about realistic representation and on women’s individuality and sexuality in the the possibility of recording “truth” changed over process. All of these writers were committed to pro- time? How have realist ideals shaped contemporary viding realistic representations of their local cul- aesthetics? How did the use of dialect impact later tures and to constructing complicated, believable authors’ dialogue and poetry? How have American characters who faced complex moral dilemmas ideas about the relationship between specific re- about the nature of their American identities. gions

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