100% satisfaction guarantee Immediately available after payment Both online and in PDF No strings attached
logo-home
Module 1 notes of Thea 120 $7.99
Add to cart

Class notes

Module 1 notes of Thea 120

 0 purchase

This lecture explores the development of realism and naturalism in theater, focusing on how they reflect societal changes in the 19th century, such as technological innovations and industrialization. Naturalism, as articulated by figures like Emile Zola, emphasizes the role of environment and socie...

[Show more]

Preview 2 out of 5  pages

  • January 26, 2025
  • 5
  • 2022/2023
  • Class notes
  • Hopkins
  • All classes
All documents for this subject (1)
avatar-seller
nelsonpaige18
‭ HEA-120‬
T
‭Hopkins‬
‭Unit 2 THEA-120 Lecture Notes‬
‭Pre-History of Realism‬
‭●‬ ‭Plays like Susan Glaspell's Trifles played an important role in the development of‬
‭realism.‬
‭●‬ ‭Realism is a storytelling form that is widely used but not the only way to tell a story.‬
‭●‬ ‭Naturalism is the immediate predecessor of realism.‬
‭●‬ ‭The class will examine the cultural context of naturalism as a storytelling form.‬
‭●‬ ‭A photograph of a city street in Paris from 1838 is used to illustrate naturalism.‬
‭●‬ ‭The street is not fancy and does not belong to the very rich.‬
‭●‬ ‭Apartment buildings were where the working class lived in Paris, and streetlamps and‬
‭trees were a new innovation to beautify the rundown neighborhoods.‬
‭●‬ ‭The photo by Daguerre depicts the back end of a street, taken to document the city's‬
‭appearance from his perspective.‬
‭●‬ ‭Photography was a new and exciting phenomenon in the middle of the 19th century, and‬
‭it challenged painting and other forms of art.‬
‭●‬ ‭Technological innovations, such as industrialization, population growth in cities,‬
‭telegraph, steam-driven trains, telephone, phonograph, and electric light, transformed‬
‭society and people's way of life in the 19th century.‬
‭●‬ ‭Photography was an influential medium that captured realistic details and challenged‬
‭traditional art forms.‬
‭●‬ ‭Motion pictures were invented at the end of the century‬
‭●‬ ‭Phonographs (record players) were also invented‬
‭●‬ ‭Before phonographs, music was either played live or listened to live‬
‭●‬ ‭After phonographs, there was a distinction between live and recorded music‬
‭●‬ ‭The distinction between live and recorded music had a profound effect‬
‭●‬ ‭Technological innovations in this lecture and unit emerge in relationship to these‬
‭conceptual changes‬
‭●‬ ‭Realism is a literary and theatrical practice valuing direct imitation‬
‭●‬ ‭It values direct imitation or verisimilitude.‬
‭●‬ ‭Modern realism is often associated with Naturalism.‬
‭●‬ ‭Realism is concerned with psychological motives and the inner reality of characters.‬
‭●‬ ‭Realism is not solely committed to achieving superficial verisimilitude.‬
‭●‬ ‭Verisimilitude means reproducing the appearance of external reality.‬
‭●‬ ‭It is an artistic practice used in reproducing on a canvas, stage, or screen.‬
‭●‬ ‭Verisimilitude was the value of early photography as it looked like the truth.‬
‭●‬ ‭Naturalism is a late 19th-century movement that aimed to achieve an objective‬
‭verisimilitude in art by adopting a scientific attitude towards its subject matter.‬

, ‭●‬ N ‭ aturalism emphasizes the role of society, history, and personality in determining the‬
‭actions of its characters.‬
‭●‬ ‭Naturalism is similar to realism but focused on superficial verisimilitude.‬
‭●‬ ‭Naturalism requires specific settings to convey character, such as a farmhouse kitchen or‬
‭an upper-middle-class living room.‬
‭●‬ ‭Environment produces character from a Naturalist perspective, which can be society or‬
‭historical context.‬
‭●‬ ‭Ibsen's play, A Doll House, is an example of Naturalism that explores the role of family‬
‭in shaping personality and behavior.‬
‭●‬ ‭Realism is concerned with identity from the inside out, while Naturalism is constructed‬
‭from the outside in.‬
‭●‬ ‭Emile Zola is the father of Naturalism, an influential maker of a way of thinking about‬
‭storytelling, but his plays were not particularly successful.‬
‭●‬ ‭Emile Zola's novels and plays had a gritty style and focused on the average person or‬
‭someone struggling in the intersection of the middle class, elites, and those in dire straits.‬
‭●‬ ‭Zola theorized and popularized naturalism, a form of storytelling that pursued the truth‬
‭and was in pursuit of verifying what is, imitating science and photography's objective and‬
‭analytical nature.‬
‭●‬ ‭Zola believed physical environment and the spaces one grew up in determined identity,‬
‭especially in an aesthetic context like a novel or a play.‬
‭●‬ ‭Zola valued theater as an embodied practice where one could see an actual human being‬
‭in their natural environment and verify what is.‬
‭●‬ ‭Zola's philosophy revolved entirely around men and male experience, and he valued the‬
‭theater because it was an embodied practice.‬
‭●‬ ‭Zola's naturalism had a great impact, and he argued that theater should be like the‬
‭sciences and produce the truth.‬
‭●‬ ‭Zola argued that putting a character in a specific environment would present the truth,‬
‭and the physiological embodied human in contemporary writing had to be determined by‬
‭setting.‬
‭●‬ ‭Zola wanted people to put on stage convincing environments so that viewers would see‬
‭these people in their natural environment, the environment that made them who they are.‬
‭●‬ ‭The intersection of Naturalism and early film is due to the similarities in storytelling and‬
‭the context in which they emerged.‬
‭●‬ ‭The module link to the film is incorrect on the slide.‬
‭●‬ ‭The film is "The Arrival of a Train".‬
‭●‬ ‭The film raises interesting questions about early film and what it is about.‬
‭●‬ ‭The Lumière brothers invented the cinematograph, which recorded, developed, and‬
‭showed films.‬
‭●‬ ‭The first public film screening was in 1895, which marks the invention of the social‬
‭practice of going to the movies.‬

The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:

Guaranteed quality through customer reviews

Guaranteed quality through customer reviews

Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.

Quick and easy check-out

Quick and easy check-out

You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.

Focus on what matters

Focus on what matters

Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!

Frequently asked questions

What do I get when I buy this document?

You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.

Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?

Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.

Who am I buying these notes from?

Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller nelsonpaige18. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.

Will I be stuck with a subscription?

No, you only buy these notes for $7.99. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.

Can Stuvia be trusted?

4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)

65907 documents were sold in the last 30 days

Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy study notes for 15 years now

Start selling
$7.99
  • (0)
Add to cart
Added