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Lecture № 6
American fiction after Civil War. Regionalism, realism, naturalism.
Plan
1.
The results of the Civil War.
2.
The development of American literature after the war.
3.
Walt Whitman.
4.
Mark Twain.
5.
O. Henry.
6.
William
Dean Howells
Key Words and Expressions
Realism
Apologetic literature
Tender realists
“Red-blood” literature
Pseudonym Satire
Text of the Lecture
The Civil War brought the abolition of slavery. After the war various
branches of industry
began to develop by leaps and bounds. The incessant flow of emigrants is typical of that time,
the extensive building of railroads and abolition of slavery. All these factors combined led to the
rapid growth of the USA, American capitalism. At the end of the 18
th
century the USA became a
highly developed industrial country. Negroes were granted the right to vote but all the same they
were under certain oppression and deprived of many rights. The slave-owners continued to
persecute Negroes in every possible way. In 1866, the organization
of Ku-Klux-Klan was
established to terrorize Negro population. But not only Negroes found themselves in a hard state.
The rapid development of industry, the progress of technique led to a still more terrible
exploitation of all the workers. At the end of the 19
th
century the
American capitalism entered
upon a stage of imperialism. Big monopolies and trusts were formed, which played a great role
in the economy of the country. In the international arena America behaved as a militarist
country. New territories were annexed and some smaller peoples were subjugated. Such policy
led to the discontent of the toiling people class struggle. In 1866, on the 1
st
of May in Chicago
there was a general strike.
The literature of that period reflects both the class struggle and the sharp ideological struggle
within American society. That period and ideas of the American democracy found the reflection
in the poetry of the greatest American poet Walt Whitman. His poetry is imbued with profound
optimism and belief in better future. At the same time some new trends of literature appeared in
the country. The purpose of one literary trend was to amuse readers. The writers did their best to
paint in bright colors the social life. They tried to create an illusion in the minds of people that
every man in America stood his fair chance. It was so-called “apologetic” literature.
Its motto
was “Every shoeblack may become the President of the USA”.
There was another trend in American literature called “red-blood” literature. It justified the
militarist expansion. They named the whites the superior race. Another group of writers called
themselves “tender realists”. They did not reflect the sharp political issues and gave a softened
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picture of reality. Finally, there existed in literature the group of “Muckrackers”. They attacked
various institutions representing
publicist literature, not fiction. Most of them were journalists,
and they exposed the ulcers of capitalism.
All those trends were opposed by the American critical realists such as Mark Twain,
Frank
Norris, O. Henry, Jack London, and Theodore Dreiser.
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