美国文学--现实主义,马克吐温
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The Age of Realism
The year 1865 is considered as an important year in the shift from
Romanticism （浪漫主义）to Realism （现实主义）in American literature．Realism
had always existed in literature，but yet not until the late nineteenth century did
realism dominate in American 1iterature．The American society after the Civil
War (1861—1865) provided rich soil for the rise and development of Realism．
The civil War was a turning point in American historyThe Civil War destroyed
the romantic concept of war. In the eyes of romanticists，wars were always
glorious, grand，and noble encounters，something heroic. However, the
amazing number of dead soldiers made it hard for people to have a noble vision
of mankind any more.
Therefore, Mark Twain once described man as “the only
animal who indulged in one after another of the atrocity （凶恶，残暴） of war．”
This statement is a representative attitude of the post-Civil War writers in
America．To them，there is nothing romantic about war．
Moreover, the Civil War also changed American people‟s views on values,
morality and religion．Before the Civil War，the puritan ethic （清教的价值观）was the dominant morality in America．Puritans believed in the principles of evil
and“salvation”. They considered perseverance （坚持不懈），stark （全然的）simplicity，and strenuous （艰苦，繁重的）good works as virtue，and regarded
idleness，drunkenness and sexual immorality as depravity （堕落）. However，materialism had shaken the religious conviction of the Puritans.
Stimulated by
materialism，people were eager to pursue money and enjoyed the pleasures of
life．They became dubious about human nature and God‟s benevolence （仁慈）.
The Civil War marked a deterioration （恶化）of American moral values．
Another important effect of the Civil War was American industrialization and
urbanization （城市化） with its accompanying social diseases．
The above political，social and moral changes have influenced American
writers in both theme and technique．After the Civil War，there appeared a new
generation of writers who were dissatisfied with the optimistic ideas of the
Romanticists and showed a great interest in the realities of life. These realists
sought to portray American life as it really was. They insist that the ordinary and
the local were as suitable for artistic portrayal as the magnificent and the
remote. They tried their best to create a new kind
of literature that was
completely realistic．
Realism first appeared in the United States in literature with local, an
amalgam （混合物） of romantic plots and realistic description of things
immediately observable：the dialects，customs，sights，and sounds of reginal
America.
We can see this in the true-to-life descriptions of Bret Harte，William
Dean Howells, Hamlin Garland，and Mark Twain．Bret Harte is the first American
writer of local color to achieve wide popularity．He presents stories about
western mining town involving colorful gamblers，outlaws，and scandalous （丑恶可耻的）women. Thereafter editors ever sensitive to public taste （大众的阅读兴趣）demanded such works，and writers including Harte, Harriet Beecher
Stowe，and Mark Twain provided regional stories and tales of the lives of America‟s Westerners，Southerners，and Easterns．Local-color fictions reached
its peak of popularity in the 1880s，but by the turn of the century it has begun
to decline as its limited resorces were exhausted and as its most popular writers
grew tediously repetitious or turned to other literary modes.
Realism is a direct contrast to Romanticism．As a movement，American
Realism started during the Civil War period and evolved in the second half of the
19th century．It has realistically-flawed （有缺陷的）heroes instead of the
idealized characters in Romanticism．The writers of the Realism tried to
represent life with their writings．Their settings often include factories and
slums，and their characters are ordinary people such as poor workers，businessmen，vagrants （流浪者），swindlers，（诈骗者）and even prostitutes．
The most distinguishing characteristic of realism is probably the one given by
William Dean：that it is“nothing more and nothing less than truthful treatment
of material．‟‟The realists tend to be highly selective in their choice of material，focusing upon what seems real to middle-class readers。 The subjects of
realistic fiction thus tend to be contemporary，ordinary，and
middle-class．“Truthful” treatment of such subjects usually consists of a faithful
imitation of surface details with the goal of creating the illusion of reality．
Creating such an illusion requires certain artistic choices．Characters have to
be ordinary，average，contemporary people．Plots have to be unobtrusive （尊重事实的，自然的）made up of the trivial incidents of everyday life，as“natural”as
