Variations in Realism in Art and Literature
I. Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”
A. Kate Chopin—not initially read too much
1. Her most important novel is The Awakening
2. She was influenced by French writers like Flaubert
3. Her writing was important to early feminists, with her emphasis on awakening in women; realizing don’t just have to take whatever role they’re put in
B. “The Story of an Hour”
1. Since you’re all experts now on Realism, how does this story fit in with what we’d expect from a Realist story?
[average characters; very much here and now—nothing supernatural; close descriptions of her reactions]
2. What do we learn about Mrs. Mallard’s husband in the course of this story?
[Somewhat complicated because it wasn’t that he was terrible; p. 1153—“And she had loved him—sometimes. Often she had not.”; he wasn’t a bad man—she talks of his “kind, tender hands” and says he always looked with love at her]
3. Nevertheless, What is the important discovery that Mrs. Mallard makes in the course of the story?
[That she didn’t deeply love her husband; is pretty much glad to be free; the coming years “would belong to her absolutely” (1153); new sense of self-assertion]
4. As you think about this story, what seems to be the main focus; what really is described in here?
[What seems to me realistic about this story is that it doesn’t allow for common extremes in emotion—not crashing grief or desired death of husband because of some affair or something; see progression of her thoughts]
5. Rather have a kind almost of psychological realism—as see her discovery of her own feelings—didn’t hate husband; just didn’t love him too deeply and now loves feeling of freedom
6. Psychological realism
a. Already made mention of it with Chopin
b. Great example is Henry James who was American but then living in Europe much of his life
c. Very subtle stories showing development, shifts in characters thinking
d. Trying to suggest the way mind works—over time, slowly, subtly, returning to ideas/emotions time and again; not instant way seems often in stories
7. We’ve talked about ways that this story is realistic; are there any ways that it verges from realism?
[Then of course surprise ending (which may verge from realism somewhat
(see way that it’s hard, I think, to have good story that’s strictly realistic because they can be a little dull]
II. Daumier’s images
B. The Third Class Carriage (info from Web Museum)
1. Daumier very interested in underprivileged
2. See his work here with considerable compassion—esp. one family: mother holding her child, weary grandmother lost in her thoughts, and young boy asleep
1. Soldiers shot at from building on this street; they went and killed everyone in apartments
2.
Daumier made it look not composed; think how different
from David’s Death of Marat
3. trying to represent scene kind of like police photo—but also has some social commentary in his presenting it this way
Series of lithographs that are not realistic in style but rather use everyday subject matter and message
1. Remember story from Greek mythology; here, Thetis is dipping him in, but he and she neither one look very heroic!
2. Daumier poking fun at these great stories; suggesting realistic urge
1. saying, “Eh, very clever! What do you think of that!”
“Yes, yes, . . . but finally”
“Yes, yes, yes”
2. Poking fun at the kind of pomposity he saw in upper class life
F. Nymphs on the Banks of the Marne River
1. hardly beautiful nymphs!
G. “This is less amusing than one would think, watching the sea from morning to night”`
III. Other variations in literature
A. Local Color/Regionalist
1. Especially in U.S., people began to be interested in different regions
2. Best example is Mark Twain, and his writings about life along the Mississippi
3. As with best of writers, he also transcended this label—like all great writers, much of his stuff seems universal (Huck Finn: issues of race relations, exploration, boy growing up, mob mentality, etc.)
B. Naturalism—really a move in a new direction, although an off-shoot
1. Connections to realism
a. possible to see connections to realism—to see authors saying we’re still just trying to realistically show what we see—just bleaker than others thought
2. Biggest shift, I suppose, is that authors seem to have philosophic agenda that they’re trying to impose on their writing
C. Some characteristics
1. Sense of fatedness/determinism
2. No difference between humans and animals (can see influence of Darwin)
3. Basic cycle of life—no sentimentality; just each person has his/her own role and then die (“The Circle of Life”)
4. Indifferent nature (certainly not sense that go to commune with nature like Romantics)
5. Basic drives for food, shelter, sex, life—can see influence of Freud
6. Economic survival (struggle to survive in city rather than in nature)
D. Example: Jack London’s “To Build a Fire”
-Man walking in freezing cold; happens to fall through ice and gets his pants wet
-knows has to build fire to thaw out
-gets little batch of dry branches together under tree
-tries to strike match, but fingers freeze and can’t get match going
-finally takes whole book of matches and uses force of hand to strike—and gets
fire going
-Feeling that going to survive; just then, tree that he built fire under, warmed by
fire and snow drops off of branches, kills fire—and clear implication is he will die, too
E. Connections to Naturalism:
1. see his basic urge for life;
2. nature doesn’t care about him
3. just like any animal would be if froze
4. no hope at end—just fated to be this way