Social Realism

Unit 9 SOCIAL REALISM Class Consciousness in American Literature, 1875–1920 Authors and Works I How did Booker T. Washington and Henry Adams transform the genre of the autobiography? Featured in the Video: How did their work change ideas about American Edith Wharton, “Souls Belated” (short story) identity? Anzia Yezierska, “The Lost ‘Beautifulness’ ” (short I How do social realist writings reflect the dis- story) tinct cultures and political concerns of different ethnic groups? Discussed in This Unit: I What kinds of class structures divided Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt, “The Palace-Burner,” American society at the turn of the century? Which “A Pique at Parting,” “Army of Occupation” classes of people are depicted in realist texts? (poetry) I What political and social transformations in Henry James, “Daisy Miller: A Study,” “The Real turn-of-the-century America led to the develop- Thing,” “The Beast in the Jungle,” “The Jolly ment of social realism? What kinds of political Corner” (short stories); “The Art of Fiction” (lit- effects and reforms did social realist writers hope erary criticism) to produce? Booker T. Washington, excerpts from Up from I How did industrialism change the demo- Slavery (autobiography) graphics of urban and rural society in America? Abraham Cahan, “A Sweat-Shop Romance” (short I How did immigrant culture shape life in story) lower-class cityscapes such as the Lower East Side Sui Sin Far (Edith Maud Eaton), “Mrs. Spring of Manhattan? Fragrance” (short story) I How did social realist writers depict the con- W. E. B. Du Bois, excerpts from The Souls of Black trasts between American and European customs Folk (social and political criticism, music and values? Why were so many social realists history) interested in this question? Theodore Dreiser, “Old Rogaum and His Theresa” I How do realist writers describe the material (short story) conditions and physical surfaces of the world in Henry Adams, excerpts from The Education of which their fictional characters live? Why has Henry Adams (autobiography) their descriptive style sometimes been described as “documentary”? I What is “limited third-person narrative”? I How did the “gospel of wealth” build on and Overview Questions transform ideas about opportunity in America? I How did writers who represented immigrant I What different ethnic groups inhabited experiences challenge and broaden the myth of the America’s urban areas around the turn of the cen- American Dream? tury? How did their traditions and cultural values I How did women activists and writers chal- change American culture? lenge ideas about the role of women in American I How do social realist texts represent gender? society? What kinds of issues inform social realist writing by women? 2 UNIT 9, SOCIAL REALISM Learning Objectives American lifestyles: more people lived in cities and worked in factories than ever before. Lured by eco- After students have viewed the video, read the nomic opportunities, millions of immigrants from headnotes and literary selections in The Norton southern and eastern Europe and China flooded Anthology of American Literature, and explored urban centers like New York and San Francisco. related archival materials on the American Multiplying in size and serving as home to both Passages Web site, they should be able to wealthy socialites and impoverished immigrants, these cities reflected the astonishing diversity of 1. explain the distinguishing characteristics of lit- the millions of people who lived and worked in erary realism; them. While this confluence of people from radi- 2. describe the social and economic conditions in cally different economic, social, and ethnic back- turn-of-the-century America that gave rise to grounds created a rich and vibrant urban culture, social realism; it also led to social tensions and brought into relief 3. explain the difference between psychological the discrepancies between the very wealthy and the and social realism; very poor. Socially conscious writers committed 4. discuss the political debates and reforms engen- themselves to exploring and representing the dered by and reflected in social realist literature. impact of social class and ethnicity on American life, developing literary techniques designed to lend their texts an air of objective reality and psychological authenticity in the process. Some Instructor Overview of these social realist authors wrote in order to protest the inequalities and exploitation that char- In 1884, Henry James announced that the acterized American industrialization. Their work “supreme virtue” of fiction, and the quality by contributed to the growing Progressive political which its success should be judged, resides in its movements dedicated to eradicating social prob- ability to produce an “air of reality,” or an “illusion lems, including the oppression of women, preju- of life.” James, like many other American writers dice against immigrants, discrimination against of the late nineteenth century, embraced an aes- racial minorities, unsafe housing conditions, and thetic of realism, which valued unsparing, accu- exploitative labor practices. Other writers, such as rate representations of the psychological and Henry James and Edith Wharton, wrote about the material realities of American life. Some realist experiences of the upper class. writers, known as “social realists,” were interested All of the writers featured in Unit 9, “Social in exploring problems of economic inequality and Realism: Class Consciousness in American Liter- in accurately capturing the experience of urban life ature, 1875–1920,” share an interest in realistically that was transforming the nation at the end of the depicting American life at the close of the nine- nineteenth century. Others, known as “psychologi- teenth century, though they focus on very different cal realists,” were more concerned with delving social classes and ethnic groups and deploy very beneath the surface of social life to probe the com- different literary strategies. This unit surveys plex motivations and unconscious desires that works composed by Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt, shape their characters’ perceptions. In their com- Henry James, Booker T. Washington, Abraham mitment to documenting the realities of everyday Cahan, Edith Wharton, Sui Sin Far (Edith Maud life in America, both social and psychological real- Eaton), W. E. B. Du Bois, Theodore Dreiser, Henry ists offered penetrating insight into the repression, Adams, and Anzia Yezierska. It provides contex- instabilities, and inequalities that structured late- tual background and classroom materials designed nineteenth-century American society. to explore the way these writers represented the Before the Civil War, America had been a nation impact of social class and ethnicity on urban life made up primarily of farms and small towns. Most around the turn of the twentieth century. The video citizens worked in agriculture or in small, family- for Unit 9 focuses on two writers who chronicled owned shops and businesses. By the 1870s, how- life at opposite ends of the social stratum in New ever, the growth of industrialism had transformed York City: Edith Wharton created realistic, psycho- UNIT 7, INSTRUCTORSLAVERY AND OVERVIEW FREEDOM 3 logically nuanced portraits of people enmeshed in creation of a vibrant immigrant community on the urban high society, while Anzia Yezierska explored Lower East Side of Manhattan; and (5) African the tensions inherent in Jewish immigrant life on American activists’ strategies for achieving racial the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Although their equality through education. depictions of New York and its inhabitants are rad- The archive and the curriculum materials sug- ically different, both of these writers exposed the gest how the authors and texts featured in Unit 9 inconsistencies and inequalities of American relate to those covered in other American Passages urban life, with a special emphasis on the difficul- units: How do concerns about social class con- ties faced by women. tinue to inform American literature? What is the In its coverage of Wharton’s and Yezierska’s relationship between social class and ethnicity? contrasting New York experiences, the video intro- How have later American writers drawn from the duces students to the literary categories of social example of social realists to produce fiction and and psychological realism and foregrounds the poetry designed to register social protest? How relationship of these movements to the problems did the movement toward creating psychologi- facing an increasingly industrialized and urban- cally complex characters influence subsequent ized America. The video asks students to consider American writing? Do Americans still believe liter- the connections between the literary aesthetic of ature has the power to effect social change? How realism and the historical circumstances of late- have ideas about “realism” and “accuracy” in fic- nineteenth-century America. How did social class tion changed over time? emerge as a focus for American writers? What role did immigration play in the development of American urban culture? How did literary realists depict the tensions and conflicts inherent in an Student Overview industrialized economy? What effect did social realist writers hope to have on the problems they In 1884, Henry James announced that the exposed? How do issues of gender and ethnicity “supreme virtue” of fiction, and the quality by shape their accounts? How does the work of social which its success should be judged,

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