Literature Of The Late 19th Century – Perspectives On America

The literature of the Late 19th Century- Perspectives on America

The literature of the 19th Century- Perspectives on America

In American literary realism, there are two prominent names, with little elements common between them. Mark Twain, starts his analysis about realism by criticizing social values about racism and slavery in the late nineteenth century. His inclusion about regional dialogue helps the readers to visualize the dialect of Huck’s language. Twain’s ‘Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ predicts realism as a swamp on which critics of his writings can easily be bogged down. This is the reason it becomes hard to find a common ground for placing Twain and Ward’s writings together. ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"NM3dokfq","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Jewett, 1891)","plainCitation":"(Jewett, 1891)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":5,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/RN9DGZQZ"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/RN9DGZQZ"],"itemData":{"id":5,"type":"book","title":"A white heron","source":"Google Scholar","author":[{"family":"Jewett","given":"Sarah Orne"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1891"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Jewett, 1891) As a reason of many dissimilarities between Mark Twain and Henry Ward, it is right to comment that only thing they both have in common is the ‘profession’.

Another aspect of his writings which helps to reflect an image of realism is frequent use of keen satire and the use of colloquial dialogue. His premeditated yet untroubled writing style, the reflection of imagery and depiction of child heroes in some of his famous writings reflect the depiction of realism. Contrary to Twain, Charles Browne (Artemus Ward) recognized for his famous literary piece nom de plume, reflected the constructs of realism through standup comedy. At the time, these both writers lived, the realist aspect was more reflected either through the material affairs or through the writings ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"ixwCyiHX","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Ochs & Capps, 1996)","plainCitation":"(Ochs & Capps, 1996)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":2,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/TV2IHVVP"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/TV2IHVVP"],"itemData":{"id":2,"type":"article-journal","title":"Narrating the self","container-title":"Annual review of anthropology","page":"19–43","volume":"25","issue":"1","source":"Google Scholar","author":[{"family":"Ochs","given":"Elinor"},{"family":"Capps","given":"Lisa"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1996"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Ochs & Capps, 1996). They both have employed the realist perspective in either way. Their writings contrast in the manner in which they have used discourses to display the imagery of realism. Ward’s ‘On Forts’ and ‘Fourth of July Oration’, however totally contrast from Twain’s writings. The critical analysis suggests that both writers have narrowly differed on some aspect of realism, which they have presented in many contrasting forms.

For many readers, the writings of Mark Twain present some inclusive themes of realism. He has not employed a limited perspective to convey his ideas. For example, in the ‘Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’, Twin has explored many new aspects of literary realism. The themes which Twin has more focused over in this collection are freedom, individual conscience and nature. Freedom is preliminary to this story, since the main character of Twin, Douglas is trying to escape from some of is close relatives ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"VZ98PXd4","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Clemens, 1962)","plainCitation":"(Clemens, 1962)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":7,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/QRCQI6LM"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/QRCQI6LM"],"itemData":{"id":7,"type":"article-journal","title":"The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County","container-title":"Selected Shorter Writings of Mark Twain. Ed. Walter Blair. New York: Houghton Mifflin","volume":"18","source":"Google Scholar","author":[{"family":"Clemens","given":"Samuel"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1962"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Clemens, 1962). Twin has elaborated realism by signifying the use of individual conscience, which is a kind of a new aspect in the late eighteenth-century literature.

References:

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Clemens, S. (1962). The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. Selected Shorter Writings of Mark Twain. Ed. Walter Blair. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 18.

Jewett, S. O. (1891). A white heron.

Ochs, E., & Capps, L. (1996). Narrating the self. Annual Review of Anthropology, 25(1), 19–43.