Wednesday 10/24 - What is Naturalism?

Coming up: YOUR GRAPHIC ORGANIZER IS DUE TOMORROW, 10/25, AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS!!! We will begin the Prologue of the text tomorrow in class, after discussing the foundation of Wharton's book. Friday, you will also receive your vocabulary quiz for Ethan Frome. THE END OF THE MARKING PERIOD IS QUICKLY APPROACHING SO PLEASE CHECK YOUR GRADE & HAND IN ANY LATE WORK!!! NOTHING WILL BE ACCEPTED FOR GRADING AFTER FRIDAY 11/2.

Objective Question: So, what is Naturalism anyways?

Learning Targets: We can . . .

• Interpret words and phrases that are used in the text, including technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape the meaning.
• Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text.
• Identify and determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text.

Background Information on Naturalism:

Literary and artistic movement popular from 1890-1915

Intro to Naturalism:

• The roles of family, social conditions, & environment are what shape and define human characters.
• Also includes scientific principles in the literature, like human's struggling for survival (Darwinism, survival of the fittest).
• Different from realism because:

Characteristics & Themes:

• novel
• narrative detachment 
• tone is detached or "scientific" because the narrator usually knows that the characters involved are going to suffer or have suffered (LOOK OUT FOR THIS IN THE PROLOGUE)
• Narrator describes what is going on but does not necessarily take sides
• Determinism: While our characters might be determined to escape their fate, in naturalist works, they do not have control over their fate and cannot, therefore, escape it.
• Pessimism: lack of hope - Naturalism is not for those who want happy endings in their literature. Pessimistic because we cannot escape our fate & environment.
• Social Environment:
• Naturalists believe that social environment determines our character & destiny
• Heredity and human nature: what do our character's inherit in human nature. How our characters inherit personality traits and links between personality and genes.
• Poverty
• Survival
• Darwinism

Take a moment to write down in your Naturalism chart, given what we just learned about Naturalism, what might happen in Ethan Frome?

Let's break this down:

1. The term Naturalism describes a type of literature that attempts to apply scientific principles of objectivity and detachment to its study of human beings. 

2.  Naturalistic writers, since human beings are, in Emile Zola's phrase, "human beasts," characters can be studied through their relationships to their surroundings. 

3. The Naturalist believed in studying human beings as though they were "products" that are to be studied impartially, without moralizing about their natures.

4. Naturalistic writers believed that the laws of behind the forces that govern human lives might be studied and understood through the objective study of human beings. 

5. Naturalistic writers used a version of the scientific method to write their novels; they studied human beings governed by their instincts and passions as well as the ways in which the characters' lives were governed by forces of heredity and environment.

6. Naturalism is considered as a movement to be beyond Realism. Naturalism is based more on scientific studies. 

7. Darwin's Theory of Evolution is a basis for the Naturalist writer. Natural selection and survival of the fittest help to depict the struggle against nature as a hopeless fight.

Name_________________________________

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton  background information on the literary movement of Naturalism. Column 1 lists qualities associated with Naturalism. Please respond to the query (new word) in column 2 that asks you to extend the idea presented in column 1. Please use complete sentences.  

Column 1                                                                            Column 2

1. The term Naturalism describes a type of literature that attempts to apply scientific principles of objectivity and detachment to its study of human beings.	What does it mean “to apply scientific principles of objectivity and detachment to human beings?”
2.  Naturalistic writers, since human beings are, in Emile Zola's phrase, "human beasts," characters can be studied through their relationships to their surroundings.	In what ways could human beings be described as “beasts?”
3. The Naturalist believed in studying human beings as though they were "products" that are to be studied impartially, without moralizing about their natures.	a. What does it mean to “moralize” a human being? b. What advantage might a writer have in removing the idea of moralizing from a narrative?
4. Naturalistic writers believed that the laws of behind the forces that govern human lives might be studied and understood through the objective study of human beings.	If moralizing is removed from human nature, what might remain?
5. Naturalistic writers used a version of the scientific method to write their novels; they studied human beings governed by their instincts and passions as well as the ways in which the characters' lives were governed by forces of heredity and environment.	In Romanticism we looked at how instincts and passions impact a tale. Now heredity and environment are added into the mix.  Which set of forces do you think will dominate and why?
6. Naturalism is considered as a movement to be beyond Realism. Naturalism is based more on scientific studies.	Realism is writing about what is: warts and all. Social Science connection. What social movement (s) was taking place in the latter half of the 19th century whose reality when exposed would lead to social change?
7. Darwin's Theory of Evolution is a basis for the Naturalist writer. Natural selection and survival of the fittest help to depict the struggle against nature as a hopeless fight.	So who invariably wins this battle? Why?