Survey American Literature Period 4
Week 2: Realism, Modernism, Sentimentalism, Couleur Locale
Late 19th Century American Literature
At the end of the 19th century, American Realism and Naturalism are still in vogue, and we can see
that in these works. Yet there is a shift from earlier works, as it were back to romanticism. Examples
of important works are:
- The Yellow Wallpaper 1892
- "Désirée's Baby” 1893
- “The Storm” 1898
Recap: Romanticism vs. Realism and naturalism
Elements of Romanticism are: Elements of realism and naturalism:
- The alienated, solitary individual - Portrait of society and the individual’s relation
to it
- Use of allegory and symbols - Direct descriptive language
- Nature - City
- Emphasis on the more bizarre, exotic, - Everyday, common scenes and average,
inner self actual people.
- Upper and upper-middle class - Often lower classes, a more democratic art.
- Imagination - Reason
Late 19th century American Literature: Late realism, neo-romantics, proto modernism?
In the late 19th, early 20th century, influences of both realism and romanticism were visible. Literature
was about the everyday and focused on actual people, but then on their inner self. Literature was
about society and their rules, but also about the alienated individual in society. There was an interest
in modernity; technology, modern life, etc.
Late realism
Late realism is realism but of a peculiar kind. Compare Armand in “Désirée’s Baby” to Editha in
Howell’s ”Editha”. Both are consumed by their own thoughts and obsessions, leading to destruction
of their partners. But in so far as Editha is not stupid, she’s evil: she sacrifices George, both literally,
by having him killed, and morally, by having him kill, for no other reason that it will make her look
good. Armand, on the other hand is shown to be stupid and tragic, trapped inside his insecurity and
bigotry. His tragic stupidity destroys his happiness, while Editha’s evil stupidity makes her very happy.
Howells is interested in societal forces- where evil always triumphs, while Chopin sees societal forces
destroying everyone. Désirée loses, but so does Armand.
Neo-romantics
To see the difference with Romanticism- compare “The Yellow Wallpaper” to Hawthorne’s “The
Birth-Mark” – both about husbands trying to cure their wives, and both interested in obsession, the
difference between science and imagination, nature and technology, and yet very different.
Hawthorne is interested in allegory, Gilman in actual human beings, Hawthorne is writing a timeless
tale about interfering in nature, Gilman is very much invested in her current society, and trying to
change it.
,Proto-modernism
There are many modernist aspects to these texts:
- The figure of the mad woman/mad man
- The interest in the inner workings of the soul coupled with detachment (a detached narrator)
- Description of a changing society
- The fragmented nature of the narrative in “The Yellow Wallpaper”
But there is:
- Little experimentation with shifting perspectives/stream of consciousness/grammar/
typography
- No sense of a generally experienced alienation
- The destruction of the known world has not happened yet- no sense of ‘the centre cannot
hold”
Changes in American Society in the late 19th century Wikipedia page
There was a lot going on in the American society:
- Industrialization
- Urbanization
- A declining birth rate
- But a growing non-WASP (=non-With Anglo-Saxon Protestant) immigration population
- The anonymity provided by city life
- Increased divorce rate
Femininity – Anxiety
As we have seen, society was changing, especially after the Civil War and the end of slavery. That
change created anxiety, and society wanted to soothe that anxiety by looking towards womanhood-
an idealized form of being female.
Femininity is invested with ideology (True womanhood).
There were two separate spheres for men and women (as a result of rise in wealth: women no longer
have to work on the farm). Women now became more spiritual and moral leaders of the home.
Feminine virtues:
- Generosity
- Piety
- Moral purity
- Acceptance and submission
- Nurture & Domesticity
The household was seen as the cornerstone of the nation. However, there was a question of
ethnicity and socio-economic level: not true outside the white upper middle class.
Femininity was also invested with sexual purity (Southern Belle).
,The angel of the house
Advice literature
There were many, many books that advised women on how to behave:
"Whatever have been the cares of the day, greet your husband with a smile when he returns. Make
your personal appearance just as beautiful as possible. Let him enter rooms so attractive and sunny
that all the recollections of his home, when away from the same, shall attract him back."
- Hill's Manual of Social and Business Forms, 1888
The Southern Belle
Her gender, and indeed her sexuality, are tied up in turn of the century ideas of womanhood.
That means the woman has no sexual desire of her own, but is willing to be tempted by a man – the
right man (rich, cultured, of a good family)- into marriage.
At the same time, the Southern Belle is charged with maintaining what is left of Southern Culture
after the defeat in the Civil War by being sexually pure.
Sexual purity comes to represent racial purity. White women were seen as pure and tempted, Black
women were seen as highly sexual (Jezebel) or asexual (Mammy) .
Interracial sexual relations become the ultimate horror (41 US states had anti- miscegenation laws at
one point or another – 16 of whom were finally declared unconstitutional in 1967).
This image of women also leads to problems and new anxiety.
The Woman Question
“What happens to women when they sit at home and do nothing?” This question arose as the
growing upper middle class included a great many women, who had less and less to do.
They weren’t allowed to work outside of the house and running a household one could do with
1-2 servants, and thus the woman had time on her hands. This presented a problem – both real
and imagined. Answers to the question could be:
- They go mad. (“The Yellow Wallpaper”)
- They have an affair (“The Storm”)
Thus this becomes a problem. But what is interesting, is the question to what extent the
problem is a consequence of the perception of there being a problem .
The woman question: Adultery
, This subject has produced some of the most important novels of the 19 th century. Adultery, and
the notion that it showed an inadequacy in the husband’s masculinity was itself a reason for
distrust and frosty relations between husbands and wives, possibly leading to affairs…
The “woman question” could have been a consequence of the perception of there being a
problem. The very notion of adultery caused tension.
The woman question: Madness
The notion of female madness –Hysteria (from the Greek hystera or ὑστέρα= womb). The idea
that women went mad, and killed themselves is widespread in the 19th century, leading to
overreaction and overprotection, as shown in “The Yellow Wallpape r”, itself leading to
madness.
Here, it is to be seen again that there is merely a perception of a problem, out of which flows a
real problem.
Revivals
The Awakening by Kate Chopin was about sexual liberation, it was woman-centric. The Yellow
Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman may be (one of) the first feminist text(s).
While Chopin’s work had remained of interest (her short stories were often anthologized as
regional writing). The Awakening was not well received or remembered.
Gilman was almost completely forgotten by WWI, and certainly “The Yellow Wallpaper”
Yet in the late 1960s and the 1970s a Kate Chopin Revival and a Charlotte Gilman Revival
occurred.
The reason was mostly the book “The Feminine Mystique” (1963) by
Betty Friedan. It was one of feminism’s classic texts. It argued that there
was a “problem that has no name”, namely the unhappiness of women
who were happily married, with children and well of.
That unhappiness is partiality tied to the ideals of the late 19 th century:
True Womanhood and sexual purity.
The Yellow Wallpaper
Friedan, and certainly her followers, felt that the institution of marriage
itself was responsible for this unhappiness: that it left no place for the
female nature.
By the 1970s a fourth generation of women were graduating, who had seen their mothers being
unhappy housewives.
They immediately
responded to this reading
of the novel, and it
became a classic text. It
has led to great many
artistic interpretations of
the text, including one
now (not) going on in
London’s Morris Gallery.
Black Women
