Download ISM`s Unit Test Study Guide

This ISM’s unit discusses the last three eras of American literature, Realism, Naturalism, and Modernism. You
will need an understanding of these eras to be able to understand all the changes in worldview experienced by
Equality 7-2521, protagonist of Anthem.
ISM’s Unit Test Study Guide
Works Covered:
“A Wagner Matinee” Cather Realism/Naturalism in your text book
“In a Far Country” London Naturalism attached to the e-mail
“Wandering” Wilson Modernism drama I’ll get you a copy on Tues. when I see you.
Realism:
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an attempt to present life realistically—all the good AND bad; realism is present in practically
all the literary movements, but it was especially prevalent after the Civil War
o Depiction of the everyday (the middle/lower class/the everyday, as opposed to the
heroic, the outstanding, the extreme, the ideal) as worthy of high art
o DOCUMENTATION of life: Depiction of characters/places/situations as they actually
appear in life—not perfect, not completely flawed, but a natural combination of the
two [prior to realism, the norm was to make characters less like real people and
more like symbolic characters (e. g. the hero, the villain, the damsel in distress, etc.)]
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Local Color or Regionalism—one aspect of realism; it’s realistic in that it portrays real people
who sound and act like they come from real places; settings are places that you could
actually find on a map
 Detailed descriptions of place
 Vernacular speech (regional dialect or a minority voice—female, racial minority,
etc.)
 Southern Gothic—a movement resulting from a combination of the realist desire to portray
the good and BAD in life and the appreciation of local color AND they threw in some of the
Gothic tradition in that they portrayed decay in the form of chronicling the decay of the
antebellum way of life
Naturalism:
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Life is a vicious trap (we’re doomed to struggle futilely against the environment—the struggle
driven by our fundamental urges: fear, hunger, and the instinct to procreate); presents
existence as a futile struggle between the individual and the environment; although you are
the only creature in Nature with the faculty for reason, you are the weakest physically and it’s
only a matter of time before Nature destroys you; London describes man’s fate in this
manner: “to be a thinking creature of flesh in a supremely indifferent universe.” Depiction of
man as an animal struggling to survive in the elements of his environment; Depiction of the
ravages of the elements on our bodies and psyches
SCIENTIFIC DETERMINISM is paramount Our actions are determined by the environment
we inhabit; suggests that anyone placed in the same situation will react exactly the same
way; we simply react to forces that we can neither understand nor control, which suggests
that individuality is an illusion, as are all our other appearances of civilization (reason,
technological power, scientific understanding). The world can be understood by scientific
observation.
Continues realism’s appreciation of middle/lower class everyday experience and the realist’s
desire to document life rather than to create a picture of it
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Modernism:
BUT it does choose subjects that REPRESENT mankind in general instead of a specific
character—because any character, placed in the same environment, would behave in
exactly the same way
This “representation” is not to be confused with symbolism, which it is not.
Sees existence as amoral (morality is a man-made thing, so it doesn’t really matter) since
man should not be judged for actions that are beyond their control; they are beyond
personal control, because they are determined by the environment in which man is placed
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agrees with realism that life isn’t always rosy, but stresses the universal rather than the
regional and breaks with tradition whenever it can
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agrees with Naturalism in that man’s fate is destruction, but disagrees that there is any order
to it—randomness and ambiguity are the banners of Modernism
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FEAR is the primary motivating factor in modern existence—fear that we cannot make an
impact on the universe; SO, we attempt to make an impact, fail, experience despair, which
leads to more fear, then the cycle repeats Our existence in a meaningless universe is a
source of fear for us, which we try to alleviate by taking action to impart meaning on the
universe. However, our efforts are doomed to fail, because if the universe is meaningless,
nothing we can do will make it otherwise.
Reality is determined by perception rather than empirical fact
The internal mind is more important than reality
Since external, empirical reality is not important, it is meaningless (nihilism).
It rejects the realist idea that reality can be observed and documented because reality can
only be perceived and that perception is different for everyone.
It rejects the naturalist idea that our behaviors are scientifically determined. That would give
the universe order, which would imply purpose, which the modernist asserts that the universe
does not have.
Modernist writers value ambiguity, leaving readers to fill in the blanks without definitive
textual evidence that what they fill in is “right”
Marked by despair and alienation
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4 aspects of modernism:
 Alienation: no one can connect with anyone or anything—everyone is lonely and feels unable to
impact their universe
 Subjective reality: reality is based upon perception instead of objective reality, so it can be different
for each person, therefore meaningless
 Ambiguous morality: there is no one standard for morality, so in some circumstances, an action
might be moral, and in others, immoral
 Fear as the motivating factor in modern life—we’re afraid that life is meaningless, so we try to
impact our universe or connect with others, our attempts are doomed to fail, when they fail, we
perceive that life is meaningless, and that terrifies us, and we start the cycle of fear all over again.
HERE IS WHERE WE APPLY THE TENETS OF THE ERAS
“A Wagner Matinee” 688
 This story reflects realism in that it depicts real settings (east coast city and frontier country)
 This story reflects realism in that the young woman’s ideals of love and adventure play out far
differently than she expected
 This story reflects elements of Naturalism in that the environment takes a physical and mental toll on
the woman
 This story reflects elements of both Realism and Naturalism in that the woman reacts predictably to the
change in her environment from harsh to luxurious—she doesn’t want to go back
 This story reflects REALISM in that the nephew doesn’t think about what a culture shock it will be for
her to come for a day and return, nor does he think about her inability to adjust to a new environment
so quickly
“In a Far Country” (handout—you can easily find an e-text on the internet)
 This story reflects Naturalism in that the characters are reduced to sub-human creatures, losing all
vestiges of humanity before their inevitable destruction
 This story reflects Naturalism in that the characters simply react to forces that they can neither control
nor understand
“Wandering” 1151
 This is a one-act, one scene play or drama
 This play depicts Modernism in that is experimental in form—usually we have individual characters
and separate scenes; the characters in this play are interchangeable and changes in setting are not
clearly denoted
 That the characters and settings in this play are so interchangeable illustrates the Modern belief that
all experience is universal—we are all doomed to alienated, fragmented, purposeless existences—the
specific identity of individuals is irrelevant because this type of existence will occur over and over
again through countless ages—this is evidenced by the recap between pause 1 and 2 in which “HIM”
is deleted—it’s just going to happen to the next “HIM”
 This play illustrates the Modern idea of alienation
 This play illustrates Modernism in that no one actually connects with anyone else—not parents and
children, not lovers, not husbands and wives, and the cycle begins to be repeated, evidenced by
HIM’s wife’s unwillingness to bear another child (yet another parent emotionally estranged from his/her
child)