The Cambridge Companion to American Realism and Naturalism: From Howells to London (Cambridge Companions to Literature)

This Companion examines a number of issues related to the terms realism and naturalism. The introduction seeks both to discuss the problems in the use of these two terms in relation to late nineteenth-century fiction and to describe the history of previous efforts to make the terms expressive of American writing of this period. The Companion includes ten essays which fall into four categories: essays on the historical context of realism and naturalism by Louis Budd and Richard Lehan; essays on critical approaches to the movements since the early 1970s by Michael Anesko, essays on the efforts to expand the canon of realism and naturalism by Elizabeth Ammons; and a full-scale discussion of ten major texts, from W. D. Howell’s The Rise of Silas Lapham to Jack London’s The Call of the Wild, by John W. Crowley, Tom Quirk, J. C. Levenson, Blanche Gelfant, Barbara Hochman, and Jacqueline Tavernier-Courbin. The American Background / Louis J. Budd -- The European Background / Richard Lehan -- Recent Critical Approaches / Michael Anesko -- Expanding The Canon Of American Realism / Elizabeth Ammons -- The Portrait Of A Lady And The Rise Of Silas Lapham : The Company They Kept / John W. Crowley -- The Realism Of Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn / Tom Quirk -- The Red Badge Of Courage And Mcteague : Passage To Modernity / J.c. Levenson -- What More Can Carrie Want? : Naturalistic Ways Of Consuming Women / Blanche H. Gelfant -- The Awakening And The House Of Mirth : Plotting Experience And Experiencing Plot / Barbara Hochman -- The Call Of The Wild And The Jungle : Jack London's And Upton Sinclair's Animal And Human Jungles / Jacqueline Tavernier-courbin -- Troubled Black Humanity In The Souls Of Black Folk And The Autobiography Of An Ex-colored Man / Kenneth W. Warren. Edited By Donald Pizer. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 278-280) And Index. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 278-280) And Index. Although realism and naturalism could have sprung up independently in the United States, the historical fact is that they flourished earlier in the European countries all the way eastward to Russia and that American writers were especially stimulated by British and French models. The Companion examines a number of issues related to the terms realism and naturalism, which have long served to designate major late nineteenth-century American fiction