RNA - Realism and Naturalism Module Overview

Realism and Naturalism Module Overview

The time period known as Realism occurred in America from about 1850-1900. A reaction to Romanticism, Realism is writing that presents the details of actual life. While not all writing from this time period is nonfiction, Realism does attempt to show characters and events in an honest and authentic way, even when they are fictional. As you have already learned, the Civil War had a large impact on the literature written during this time period, and so did the Industrial Revolution.

Naturalism is a sub-genre of Realism and represents a belief that forces larger than the individual, such as the natural world, economics, and heredity shape us as individuals and control our lives despite our illusions of free will.

In this module, you will read several short stories that all represent the characteristics of Realism or Naturalism, and you will compose your own pieces that incorporate these characteristics.

 

Essential Questions

1. What are the characteristics of Realism and Naturalism in literature?
2. How does literature of this time period represent the changes taking place in American life?
3. What important historical events contributed to the literature during this time period?
4. How can I join clauses properly to show coordination and subordination?

 

Key Terms

1. Realistic Writing: writing that attempts to depict the behaviors, actions, speech, situations, and lives of characters as accurately and authentically as possible
2. Naturalistic Writing: writing that illustrates a belief that the forces of nature, economics, and our environment are beyond our control and determine our fate despite our illusion of free will
3. Dialect: a particular form of a language that is spoken in one region
4. Stream Of Consciousness: writing that tries to capture the way thoughts enter and leave a person's head in a jumbled stream with frequent leaps and distractions and little censorship
5. Exposition: the part of a story (almost always in the opening) that established the characters and setting
6. Rising Action: all events that happen leading up the climax; this should be the majority of the story's plot
7. Climax: the moment of decision for the protagonist that is either the most intense or represents a turning point; it should take place closer to the end of the story than to the beginning
8. Falling Action: all the events that happen after the climax as the story starts to wind down
9. Resolution: how the problem is solved and the story is ended
10. Flashback: when an event that happened earlier in time is inserted into the present narrative
11. Flash-Forward: when an event that will happen in the future is inserted into the present narrative even though it hasn't yet happened
12. First Person Point Of View: the story is told by a character involved in the action sharing his or her own experience; look for the narrator to use the pronouns "I" and "we"
13. Third-Person Objective Point Of View: the narrator is not a character in the story and is able to provide the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of most characters in the story without showing a preference for any
14. Third-Person Limited Point Of View: the narrator is not a character in the story, but shares the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of only a few characters in the story so that their perspectives are the focus
15. Foreshadowing: hints about what will happen later in a story
16. Verbal Irony: when a character states one thing and means another
17. Dramatic Irony: when the reader knows more about a situation or character than the characters in the story do
18. Situational Irony: a contrast between what the reader expects to happen and what actually happens

IMAGES CREATED BY GAVS