Paradigms of American Literature and Culture: American Realism and Naturalism - Detailseite

Conventional knowledge holds that Anglo-Saxon literature has always leaned closer to realistic styles than to experimental writing. But what is "realistic"? Like most periods, "Realism" and "Naturalism" are self-proclaimed paradigms, which scandalously transformed the dominant forms of literature in the second half of the nineteenth century. In this seminar we will look at examples of American realist and naturalist literature and try to find out, what exactly "Realism" and "Naturalism" mean. In addition to the fictional texts, we will look at definitions and essays on the two terms and debate whether they apply to our examples.

Please sign yourself up for this class in the virtual classroom in Moodle! The key is "RealNat".

Reading:

·         A reader with some theoretical texts will be available at Sprintout (S-Bahn Bögen) by April 1^st.

·         William Dean Howells (1885), The Rise of Silas Lapham

·         Henry James (1878), Daisy Miller

·         Sarah Orne Jewett (1886), "A white heron" (short story)

·         Charles Chesnutt (1899), Stories from the Color Line (selected stories)

·         Kate Chopin (1899), The Awakening

·         Theodore Dreiser (1900), Sister Carrie

Course Requirements:

Short presentation in class (structure of one of the texts) and term paper (15 pages) or oral exam (reading list)—either/or in exchange with Modul 4.