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4.3: Literary Movements

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Literary Movements

As mentioned in the previous module, attention to the  context  . in which a work of literature was created and distributed is a critical layer to include in one’s analysis. Beyond specific historical or cultural events relevant to a given literary work, appreciating the rise and fall of the prominence of particular literary movements can inform the interpretations of what we read. There are four major literary movements applicable to the study of modern short fiction:  Romanticism  ,  Realism  ,  Naturalism  , and  Modernism  .

Romanticism  was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the eighteenth century characterized by a heightened interest in nature and an emphasis on individual expression of emotion and imagination. Romanticism flourished from the early to the mid-nineteenth century, partly as a reaction to the rationalism and empiricism of the previous age (the Enlightenment). In fiction, Romanticism is often expressed through an emphasis on the individual (a main character) and the expression of his or her emotional experience, such as by having the plot coincide with the character’s emotional conflicts. In opposition to the logic of the previous age, Romantic fiction sometimes even returns to Gothic elements, which often includes stories about the supernatural of the uncanny. (An example of this literary movement in this module is Edgar Allen Poe’s “A Descent into the Maelström.”)

Realism  was an artistic and intellectual movement of the late nineteenth century that stressed the faithful representation of reality or  verisimilitude  . Realism was a reaction to what were viewed as the exaggerations or flights of fancy of Romanticism. Realists sought to develop an artistic style that valued the faithful portrayal of everyday experience, what Henry James described as “the drama of a broken tea cup.” The development of realism coincided with the rise of social reform movements and many realistic writers and artists chose to focus on social issues, such as poverty and the plight of the working class, in cities as well as in the country. The height of realist writing in American literature is considered to have occurred from the time of the U.S. Civil War (c. 1865) to the turn of the century (c. 1900). Realism as a literary movement swept across the country. This wave also fostered an interest in  Regionalism  , the realistic portrayal of specific areas and locales almost as a fictional form of travel literature. It should be noted that literary realism was equally popular in Europe, such as in the work of Charles Dickens or George Eliot in England, Honoré de Balzac and Gustave Flaubert in France, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Leo Tolstoy in Russia.

Overlapping with the development of Realism was the literary movement known as  Naturalism  (approximately 1880–1930). Naturalist literature sought to apply scientific principles of objectivity and detachment to the characters and subjects represented in novels and short fiction. In this way, Naturalism is influenced more by philosophical ideals than literary techniques including, though not exclusively, existentialism and social determinism. Characters in naturalistic stories frequently confront social conditions or personal conflicts which cannot be reconciled through the exercise of free will alone; these characters may fall upon tragic circumstance due to their social class, the harsh realities of nature or the inner strife of conflicting emotions, morals, and passions. Naturalist authors borrowed some of the stylistic innovations of Realism, yet often felt Realist works did not portray everyday experience in its full grit and trauma, remaining more to middle class tastes. In order to convey what they felt to be the harshness of life circumstances across the spectrum of human experience, some Naturalist writers combined elements of Realism (a focus on the everyday) with elements of Romanticism (a focus on emotion and symbolism) in order to portray what they understood to be the futility of human striving in an indifferent universe.

Modernism  became the predominant literary and artistic movement of the 20  th  century. Modernism is a broad term referring to the social thought, cultural expressions, and artistic techniques that broke with past traditions following the political upheavals across Europe in the mid–1800s (including the French Revolution) through the horrors of the first World War, as well as the scientific and technological developments flowing from the Industrial Revolution. Yet, ‘modernism’ also is a term that is specifically used in relation to a precise style of fiction that attempted to chronicle the personal alienation, cultural disruption, and even loneliness of living in a century of rapid and often traumatic change. Some modernist literature (Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, William Faulkner) relied on a style of writing known as stream-of-consciousness  , where the narrative followed the organic (and sometimes chaotic) pathways of one or more characters’ thoughts. Other modernist authors, such as Hemingway, sought to pare down the comparatively flowery language of previous literary movements and present the complexity of modern life through crisp, sharp detail. Many modernist writers sought to create work that represented not simply a moment or a region (as in Realistic fiction) but a larger, universal truth that transcended personal experience. (Examples of this literary movement in this module include William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” and Franz Kafka’s “Before the Law.”)

The Modernist movement (which many believe is still active) is followed by  postmodern  innovations in fiction; post-modernist literature extends the disillusionment and disruption that characterized modernism by further fragmenting language and literary structures, even by creating “hybrid” forms so that it becomes less clear what is a poem and what is a story, for example. Some postmodernist literature exaggerates the irony at the height of Modernism to the point of becoming parody, obscuring what is comic and what is tragic about the subjects being represented. This course does not include an example of a postmodern short story (largely due to the difficulty in securing copyright of recent works) but students should be aware that a sizable body of literature exists that would no longer be best classified as “Modernist.” The work of the American author Kurt Vonnegut, particularly his novel  Slaughterhouse Five  , is a prime example of postmodern fiction.  (1)

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6 Literary Movements

Literary movements.

As mentioned in the previous module, attention to the  context  . in which a work of literature was created and distributed is a critical layer to include in one’s analysis. Beyond specific historical or cultural events relevant to a given literary work, appreciating the rise and fall of the prominence of particular literary movements can inform the interpretations of what we read. There are four major literary movements applicable to the study of modern short fiction:  Romanticism  ,  Realism  ,  Naturalism  , and  Modernism  .

Romanticism  was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the eighteenth century characterized by a heightened interest in nature and an emphasis on individual expression of emotion and imagination. Romanticism flourished from the early to the mid-nineteenth century, partly as a reaction to the rationalism and empiricism of the previous age (the Enlightenment). In fiction, Romanticism is often expressed through an emphasis on the individual (a main character) and the expression of his or her emotional experience, such as by having the plot coincide with the character’s emotional conflicts. In opposition to the logic of the previous age, Romantic fiction sometimes even returns to Gothic elements, which often includes stories about the supernatural of the uncanny. (An example of this literary movement in this module is Edgar Allen Poe’s “A Descent into the Maelström.”)

Realism  was an artistic and intellectual movement of the late nineteenth century that stressed the faithful representation of reality or  verisimilitude  . Realism was a reaction to what were viewed as the exaggerations or flights of fancy of Romanticism. Realists sought to develop an artistic style that valued the faithful portrayal of everyday experience, what Henry James described as “the drama of a broken tea cup.” The development of realism coincided with the rise of social reform movements and many realistic writers and artists chose to focus on social issues, such as poverty and the plight of the working class, in cities as well as in the country. The height of realist writing in American literature is considered to have occurred from the time of the U.S. Civil War (c. 1865) to the turn of the century (c. 1900). Realism as a literary movement swept across the country. This wave also fostered an interest in  Regionalism  , the realistic portrayal of specific areas and locales almost as a fictional form of travel literature. It should be noted that literary realism was equally popular in Europe, such as in the work of Charles Dickens or George Eliot in England, Honoré de Balzac and Gustave Flaubert in France, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Leo Tolstoy in Russia.

Overlapping with the development of Realism was the literary movement known as  Naturalism  (approximately 1880–1930). Naturalist literature sought to apply scientific principles of objectivity and detachment to the characters and subjects represented in novels and short fiction. In this way, Naturalism is influenced more by philosophical ideals than literary techniques including, though not exclusively, existentialism and social determinism. Characters in naturalistic stories frequently confront social conditions or personal conflicts which cannot be reconciled through the exercise of free will alone; these characters may fall upon tragic circumstance due to their social class, the harsh realities of nature or the inner strife of conflicting emotions, morals, and passions. Naturalist authors borrowed some of the stylistic innovations of Realism, yet often felt Realist works did not portray everyday experience in its full grit and trauma, remaining more to middle class tastes. In order to convey what they felt to be the harshness of life circumstances across the spectrum of human experience, some Naturalist writers combined elements of Realism (a focus on the everyday) with elements of Romanticism (a focus on emotion and symbolism) in order to portray what they understood to be the futility of human striving in an indifferent universe.

Modernism  became the predominant literary and artistic movement of the 20  th  century. Modernism is a broad term referring to the social thought, cultural expressions, and artistic techniques that broke with past traditions following the political upheavals across Europe in the mid–1800s (including the French Revolution) through the horrors of the first World War, as well as the scientific and technological developments flowing from the Industrial Revolution. Yet, ‘modernism’ also is a term that is specifically used in relation to a precise style of fiction that attempted to chronicle the personal alienation, cultural disruption, and even loneliness of living in a century of rapid and often traumatic change. Some modernist literature (Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, William Faulkner) relied on a style of writing known as stream-of-consciousness  , where the narrative followed the organic (and sometimes chaotic) pathways of one or more characters’ thoughts. Other modernist authors, such as Hemingway, sought to pare down the comparatively flowery language of previous literary movements and present the complexity of modern life through crisp, sharp detail. Many modernist writers sought to create work that represented not simply a moment or a region (as in Realistic fiction) but a larger, universal truth that transcended personal experience. (Examples of this literary movement in this module include William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” and Franz Kafka’s “Before the Law.”)

The Modernist movement (which many believe is still active) is followed by  postmodern  innovations in fiction; post-modernist literature extends the disillusionment and disruption that characterized modernism by further fragmenting language and literary structures, even by creating “hybrid” forms so that it becomes less clear what is a poem and what is a story, for example. Some postmodernist literature exaggerates the irony at the height of Modernism to the point of becoming parody, obscuring what is comic and what is tragic about the subjects being represented. This course does not include an example of a postmodern short story (largely due to the difficulty in securing copyright of recent works) but students should be aware that a sizable body of literature exists that would no longer be best classified as “Modernist.” The work of the American author Kurt Vonnegut, particularly his novel  Slaughterhouse Five  , is a prime example of postmodern fiction.  (1)

Literature for the Humanities Copyright © by Lumen Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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The Complete Guide to Literary Movements

As long as people have written, there have been movements informing their stylistic choices. These movements usually reflect global events like wars, changes of social structure, or shifts in power. When you read a work that is representative of a movement, that work is informed by what was happening in the world to spark the movement it is a part of. Often, literary movements existed within a larger artistic movement that included music, visual art, film, and writing all following a similar philosophy. Understanding different movements can help us better understand the writers and works we enjoy, and can provide guiding ideologies you can use to grow your own work. Take a look at these six major movements and see what speaks to you.

Top 6 Literary Movements

• Romanticism (1800 to 1850). Championed by authors like William Wordsworth and Emily Dickinson , Romantic authors often used themes of the individual, imaginative, and emotional in their works. The movement explored the effect of leaving behind the strict order that was cental to Classical and Neoclassical works, as well as departing from the heavily rational basis of the Enlightenment period. As a result, many Romantic works feel relevant today, where individual, imaginative, and emotional themes are important to many modern works.
• Transcendentalism (1820 to 1840). Transcendentalism evolved as a reaction to intellectual and spiritual values that were often used to excluse less educated people in the 1800's. Transcendental works focused on the more universal themes of the inherent goodness of people, and the presence of nature. If these themes sound familiar, that is because the movement evolved from Romanticism in England and Germany. Authors central to this movement included Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller .
• Modernism (1870 to 1940). The first literary movement of the 20th century, Modernism sought to depart from tradition, and explore the the use of literary form for self-expression. Modernist writers like Edna St. Vincent Millay and T.S. Eliot subverted traditional writing practices by using unreliable narrators who reflected on absurd or irrational representations of reality, science, and philosophy. This shifted works from being largely human and nature focused, to more diverse themes.
• Harlem Renaissance (1918 to 1930). In the years before The Great Depression, the Harlem Renaissance emerged from a growing group of young black artists and writers like Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston. It was a movement of self-expression and acceptance for minority writers, giving them a voice to express their experience and culture to a wider audience than they previously had. The movement also produced a subgenre of jazz poetry - poems that drew their rhythm from the popular jazz of the 20's.
• New York School (1950 to 1970). The New York School art movement had a diverse range of visual and literary arts, all of which share a similar philosophy of spontaneity. While the writing was not confessional, it was often stream of consciousness and articulate. Using surreal imagery, it looked at topics ranging from light, to violent, to purely observational. Frank O'hara is often considered the central figure of the New York School movement, because of his involvement in both visual and literary arts, but many other artists both in and outside of New York were significant figures in the movement.
• Postmodernism (1960 to 1990). One of the most recent literary movements, Postmodernism, has taken the ideology of Modernism a step further. Beyond just the use of unreliable narrators and philosophical grounding, Postmodern works often shape their meaning in relation to other works and the world around them. Because of this, the works are often political, and center on acts of overt or subversive rebellion. In this movement pastiche became central to many works like Margaret Atwood's use of fairy tale imagery alongside ominous language in The Circle Game , allowing authors to layer themes of social and political commentary, dark humor, and the interconnection of existing works.

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A Look at the American Literary Movements

The United States may be a relatively young country by global standards, but American literary history stretches back centuries. Let’s take a dive into the history of the main American literary movements and what they say about the characteristics of American literature.

Native American Literature

Long before the arrival of Europeans in the Americas, native people had their own rich culture. The Native American literary tradition comprises oral tradition, folktales, creation stories and other myths that survive in the traditions and stories told by modern-day Native Americans.

One common element in these stories is repetition of incidents in a culturally significant number, usually four (the cardinal directions) or seven (the cardinal directions plus skyward, earthward and center). These stories were told and retold by generations of storytellers across the many tribes, and the stories vary in the telling not just from storyteller to storyteller and tribe to tribe, but even across multiple tellings by the same narrator.

In the 1700s, the Reverend Samson Occom, a member of the Mohegan nation, was among the first Native Americans to publish writings in English. At the beginning of the 20th century, Zitkála-Šá, a Yankton Dakota writer, musician and activist, collected and published legends drawn from Native cultures for a widespread white, English-speaking readership — along with personal stories that explored her struggles with cultural identity and the tension between traditional and assimilation. Another iconic writer of the early 20th century was Charles Eastman, considered the first to write American history from the Native American point of view.

Beginning in the late 1960s, the Native American Renaissance saw a surge of Native American literature, including authors like James Welch and Paula Gunn Allen. Contemporary Native writers such as Eden Robinson and Sherman Alexie continue to be vital voices in the American literary tradition.

Colonial Literature 1600s-1700s

As the English colonies were established in the 17th century, the topics of literature among the colonists reflected their historical context. The earliest English works from the colonies ranged from practical accounts of colonial history and life written by leaders such as John Smith, to Anne Bradstreet’s  The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America , likely the first collection of poetry written in and about America.

Since many of the colonies were founded due to religious divisions back in Great Britain, it should be no surprise that religious themes were common. Such works ranged from the Puritan writings of ministers such as Increase Mather, to Roger Williams’ arguments for separation of church and state, and even the anti-religious  New English Canaan  by Thomas Morton — a harsh critique of the Puritans’ customs and power structures.

Enlightenment and Revolution Mid- to Late 1700s

In the years surrounding the American Revolution, literature likewise shifted to encompass the patriotic spirit that drove the nation toward independence. The iconic  Federalist Papers  in the realm of politics were matched by works by other authors in the realm of science and philosophy, such as Thomas Paine’s  The Age of Reason.

1789 saw the publication of  The Power of Sympathy  by William Hill Brown. Widely recognized as the first American novel, Brown’s work was a cautionary tale about the dangers of seduction, advocating for rational thinking and moral education of women. Given its historical context, critics have viewed  The Power of Sympathy  as an exploration of virtues most needed by the new nation.

American Gothic Early 1800s-present

Not to be confused with the famous painting by Grant Wood, American Gothic literature draws on dark themes from the nation’s historical and contemporary challenges. The early Gothic writers drew on frontier anxiety and fear of the unknown; Washington Irving’s  The Legend of Sleepy Hollow  (1820) is perhaps the most famous example. 

As the nation grew and matured, the Gothic tradition matured with it, through the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe and others. Southern Gothic writers used the decaying plantations of the post-Civil War South in place of the castles of European Gothic literature, as in the works of William Faulkner. The contemporary works of authors like Stephen King, who draws on his own experiences in rural Maine in his stories, continue the long American Gothic tradition.

Romanticism and Transcendentalism 1820s-1850s

The romantic era began in Europe in the eighteenth century, but it arrived in America later, around 1820. American romantic writers explored themes of individualism, intuitive perception and the inherent goodness of the natural world. Among the best known American romantic novels are Nathaniel Hawthorne’s  The Scarlet Letter  (1850), a dramatic story of a woman cast out of a Puritan community for committing adultery; and Herman Melville’s  Moby Dick  (1851), one of history’s most famous stories of man against the elements.

Emerging from romanticism later in the 1800s was perhaps the first notable American intellectual movement, transcendentalism, built on the belief in the inherent goodness of people, and the idea that self-reliance, transcending the corrupting influence of society, unlocks that goodness. We see these ideas in the works of Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller and others. Perhaps the best-known transcendentalist book was Thoreau’s  Walden , a reflection on his experience living independently near Walden Pond.

Since transcendental literature was in many respects the opposite of American Gothic, it should come as no surprise that prominent Gothic writers also penned critiques of transcendentalism, such as Hawthorne’s  The Blithedale Romance .

Literary Realism, Naturalism and Modernism 1860s-1940s

Following the Civil War, American literature was marked by a deep skepticism, understandable given the historical context. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, American literary realism, in the works of Mark Twain, John Steinbeck and others, was marked by attempts to present realistic things as they are, without supernatural or speculative elements. Twain’s vigorous, colloquial style in works such as  The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn  was a shot across the bow at tired conventions. American naturalism, heavily influenced by the works of Frank Norris, stood in the middle ground between romanticism and realism; for instance, Stephen Crane’s short story  The Open Boat , a naturalistic depiction of a group of shipwreck survivors, explores themes of the indifference of the universe.

From the same current as realism, literature progressed to American modernism in the interwar period, with some of the most famous works penned by the “Lost Generation” of expatriate writers such as Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Modernist works drew from the pain and loss of direction that this generation experienced in the wake of World War One, but it also contained themes of hope as individuals could change their surroundings.

Contemporary & Postmodern Literature 1950s-present

The postwar period saw the rise of a whole spectrum of innovative and subversive themes in literature, from the overtly counter-cultural works of the 1950s “Beat Generation” to John Updike’s reflective explorations of faith, personal turmoil and sensuality. Sexually frank content entered the mainstream in this period, as restrictions on obscenity were loosened and writers were empowered to speak freely about previously taboo topics.

Over the last several decades, American literature has seen an explosion of postmodernist themes such as unreliable narrators, internal monologue and temporal distortion. Contemporary writers have used literature to critique American culture, find connections across time and place and explore themes such as pluralism, relativism and self-consciousness.

The broader story of the American literary movements

American literature is about far more than just entertainment; it’s both a reflection of, and an influence upon, the moments in history and the changing human experience that shaped each movement. When you learn about the characteristics of American literature, you learn about what it is to be human, to struggle and succeed, to love and lose, to communicate and create. Get started with the  fully online B.S./B.A. in English/Writing  at Eastern Oregon University Online.

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Transrealism: the first major literary movement of the 21st century?

It’s not science fiction, it’s not realism, but hovers in the unsettling zone in between. From Philip K Dick to Stephen King, Damien Walter takes a tour through transrealism, the emerging genre aiming to kill off ‘consensus reality’

A Scanner Darkly is one of Philip K Dick’s most famous but also most divisive novels. Written in 1973 but not published until 1977, it marks the boundary between PKD’s mid-career novels that were clearly works of science fiction, including The Man in the High Castle and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, and his late-career work that had arguably left that genre behind. Like VALIS and The Divine Invasion that followed it, A Scanner Darkly was two stories collided into one – a roughly science-fictional premise built around a mind-destroying drug, and a grittily realistic autobiographical depiction of PKD’s time living among drug addicts.

It is also, in the thinking of writer, critic and mathematician Rudy Rucker, the first work of a literary movement he would name “transrealism” in his 1983 essay A Transrealist Manifesto . Three decades later, Rucker’s essay has as much relevance to contemporary literature as ever. But while Rucker was writing at a time when science fiction and mainstream literature appeared starkly divided, today the two are increasingly hard to separate. It seems that here in the early 21st century, the literary movement Rucker called for is finally reaching its fruition.

Transrealism argues for an approach to writing novels routed first and foremost in reality. It rejects artificial constructs like plot and archetypal characters, in favour of real events and people, drawn directly from the author’s experience. But through this realist tapestry, the author threads a singular, impossibly fantastic idea, often one drawn from the playbook of science fiction, fantasy and horror. So the transrealist author who creates a detailed and realistic depiction of American high-school life will then shatter it open with the discovery of an alien flying saucer that confers super-powers on an otherwise ordinary young man.

It’s informative to list a few works that do not qualify as transrealism to understand Rucker’s intent more fully. Popular fantasy or science fiction stories like Harry Potter or The Hunger Games lack a strong enough reality to be discussed as transrealism. Apparently realistic narratives that sometimes contain fantastic elements, like the high-tech gizmos of spy thrillers, also fail as transrealism because their plots and archetypal characters are very far from real. Transrealism aims for a very specific combination of the real and the fantastic, for a very specific purpose, that seems to have become tremendously relevant for contemporary readers.

The potential list of transrealist authors is both contentious and fascinating. Margaret Atwood for The Handmaid’s Tale and her novels from Oryx and Crake onwards. Stephen King, when at his best describing the lives of blue-collar America shattered by supernatural horrors. Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo and David Foster Wallace , among other big names of American letters. Iain Banks in novels like Whit and The Bridge. JG Ballard, as one of many writers originating from the science-fiction genre to pioneer transrealist techniques. Martin Amis in Time’s Arrow, among others.

This proliferation of the fantastic in contemporary fiction has at times been described as the “ mainstreaming of science fiction ”. But sci-fi continues on much as it ever has, producing various escapist fantasies for readers who want time out from reality. And of course there’s no shortage of purely realist novels populating Booker prize lists and elsewhere. Both sci-fi and realism provide a measure of comfort – one by showing us the escape hatch from mundane reality, the other by reassuring us the reality we really upon is fixed, stable and unchanging. Transrealism is meant to be uncomfortable, by telling us that our reality is at best constructed, at worst non-existent, and allowing us no escape from that realisation.

“Transrealism is a revolutionary art form. A major tool in mass thought-control is the myth of consensus reality. Hand in hand with this myth goes the notion of a ‘normal person’.” Rucker’s formulation of transrealism as revolutionary becomes especially meaningful when compared to the uses transrealism is put to by the best of its practitioners. Atwood, Pynchon and Foster-Wallace all employed transrealist techniques to challenge the ways that “consensus reality” defined who was normal and who was not, from the political oppression of women to the spiritual death inflicted on us all by modern consumerism.

Today transrealism underpins much of the most radical and challenging work in contemporary literature. Colson Whitehead’s intelligent dissection of the underpinnings of racism in The Intuitionist and his New York Times transrealist twist on the zombie-apocalypse novel, Zone One. Monica Byrne’s hallucinatory road-trip across the future of the developing world and the lives of women caught between poverty and high-speed technological change in The Girl in the Road. Matt Haig’s compulsive young adult novel The Humans, which invites the reader to see human life through alien eyes. Transrealism has 30 years of history behind it, but it’s in the next 30 years that it may well define literature as we come to know it.

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What Is Naturalism? Definition, Usage, and Literary Examples

Naturalism definition.

Naturalism  (NATCH-rull-ihz-uhm) is a late 19th-century literary movement in which writers focused on exploring the fundamental causes for their characters’ actions, choices, and beliefs. These causes centered on the influence of family and society upon the individual—and all the complications that exist therein—resulting in a view that environmental factors are the primary determinant of human character. Naturalism is in many ways interconnected with  realism , but realism is primarily a style of writing, while naturalism is a philosophy in writing.

French author Émile Zola first adapted the term  naturalism  to describe a specific type of literature and designed many of the theories behind the movement. Though its prominence ended around the turn of the 20th century, naturalism left an ongoing impact, as many modern writers incorporate naturalist features into their work.

The History of Naturalism

Jules-Antoine Castagnary, a French art critic, first used the term  naturalism  to describe a style of lifelike painting that became popular in the early 1860s. Émile Zola then applied the term to literature. Zola’s seminal essay “The Experimental Novel,” published in 1880, presents a detailed examination of the novel as a preeminent naturalistic literary art form.

Zola laid out three main arguments in the essay. First, writers could incorporate French physiologist Claude Bernard’s method of scientific inquiry to their works. Bernard stated that controlled experiments could either prove or disprove a hypothesis regarding the tested phenomena. Zola posited that a writer could use this same approach, with the characters functioning as the phenomena. Second, Zola said this experimental method separates naturalism from realism and  romanticism . Finally, Zola presented an argument challenging his critics’ assertions that his work was immoral and offensive.

Zola’s 20-novel series  Les Rougon-Macquart , written between 1871 and 1893, is one of the most significant contributions to naturalist literature. It centers on the lives of two fictional French families—one privileged, the other destitute—throughout five generations. Environment, heredity, and the challenges of life in the  Second French Empire  ultimately lead each family to ruin.

American author Frank Norris was another formative figure in the naturalism movement. Like Zola, he viewed his characters as experiments; he exposed them to certain stimuli or phenomena and recorded their reactions. The result blends literature and science, marrying a writer’s gift for character and description with a scientist’s detached observations on proven or disproven hypotheses. Stephen Crane, the author of  The Red Badge of Courage  and other works, employed a similar approach and contributed greatly to the canon of American naturalism.

Naturalism as its own distinct literary movement largely ended around 1900, when American magazine  The Outlook  published a tongue-in-cheek obituary for naturalism. The publication went so far as to deem Zola’s efforts to craft a new form of scientific literature a total failure. This stance is debatable, especially because countless writers since 1900 have infused their works with heavily naturalistic elements. Ernest Hemingway, Edith Wharton, and Jack London are just a few who carried naturalism into the 20th century.

The Elements of Naturalism

The major elements of naturalist works are determinism, objectivity, pessimism,  setting , and plot twists.

Determinism

This is the philosophical belief that external causes are responsible for all the events in an individual’s life. Fate, nature, or heredity explain why a character’s journey unfolds the way it does. Forces beyond one’s will and control predetermine everything.

For example, in William Faulkner’s short story “ A Rose for Emily ,” the central character’s insanity is a foregone conclusion. It is a natural byproduct of the oppressive control her father exerted over her, her codependent relationship with him, and the self-imposed isolation she maintained her entire life. It’s clear to the reader that there was never any hope for Miss Emily—her fate was determined by her circumstances.

Objectivity

Naturalist writers maintain an objectivity in their storytelling. They detach themselves from the emotional components of the story and serve more as impartial observers of what transpires. When discussing emotions at all, the focus is on primitive emotions of survival, usually in a hostile world.

In  The Red Badge of Courage , Crane describes a battle scene with a cool remove:

The men dropped here and there like bundles. The captain of the youth’s company had been killed in an early part of the action. His body lay stretched out in the position of a tired man resting, but upon his face there was an astonished and sorrowful look, as if he thought some friend had done him an ill turn.

Rather than drawing readers focus to the viscerally disturbing realities of battle, he takes an almost lackadaisical approach to depict the scene. The  imagery  it evokes is commonplace—describing dead men as bundles or resting—rather than violent.

Authors of naturalist works typically possess a cynical or fatalistic worldview, wherein they don’t see their characters as having much power over their lives or decisions. These writers view life as a glass-half-empty prospect.

An example of this appears in Jack London’s classic adventure novel  The Call of the Wild , in which the central character is a dog named Buck. “Thus, as token of what a puppet thing life is,” London writes, “the ancient song surged through him and he came into his own again.” Calling life a “puppet thing” is a pessimistic way of viewing the human—or animal—experience.

Naturalism puts great emphasis on the impact of environment, so location tends to play a significant role in these works. The setting often becomes a character in and of itself.

This is the case in Frank Norris’s novel  McTeague: A Story of San Francisco . The downfall of the title character and his wife plays out against a California backdrop, from San Francisco to Death Valley, where the shattered dreams of the gold-seeking miners reflect the shattered dreams of the McTeagues.

Plot Twists

Many naturalist works include a  plot  twist or some type of intense gut-punch at the end of the story. This underscores the futility of the character’s struggle and the fixed quality of their destiny. For instance, Kate Chopin’s novel  The Awakening  ends with Edna Pontellier drowning herself in the Gulf of Mexico after rebelling against the societal role assigned to her.

The Function of Naturalist Works

The function of naturalism is to present the world as it is—without embellishment, idealization, or romance—and illustrate the dominance of environmental conditions in human life and on individual characters. This  perspective  allows the author to comment on the darker sides of human nature.

Subjects like poverty, disease, racism, and prostitution often make their way into literary naturalism. The gritty vantage point on the human experience can sometimes be bleak, but authors write this way in service of a higher purpose. They aim to improve the condition of the world by highlighting the dire, uncontrollable circumstances with which everyday people typically live.

Naturalism vs. Realism

Naturalism is an outgrowth of  realism . The latter is a literary technique in which an author describes the way things are, but naturalism significantly expands upon this idea by delving into how the way things are influences a character’s behavior and nature.

The characters in realist works have more agency. While they’re products of their environments, they have the freedom to counter their environments and influence their own futures. This differs significantly from naturalist works, where characters enjoy no such autonomy from their circumstances. The hard reality of their lives, defined by genetics, nature, or just the cruel hand of fate, is the sole deciding factor in what happens to the characters.

There is also a scientific component to naturalism. The movement coincided with the first publication of many of Charles Darwin’s theories, which may explain the movement’s tendency to portray a survival-of-the-fittest mindset and a lack of personal, independent choice in one’s fate. Hand in hand with this idea is the presence of the more primitive or animalistic emotions in many naturalist characters.

Naturalism is innately more socially conscious and political than realism. Characters usually live in hardscrabble conditions or face serious life-or-death decisions as a result of external factors rooted in society or circumstance. These conditions are essentially larger than the characters themselves, conditions with which many readers—sometimes, whole communities—can identify. So, on a fundamental level, naturalism deals with more socially relevant issues and bigger-picture perspectives than realism.

Notable Naturalist Writers

• Saul Bellow,  The Adventures of Augie March
• Kate Chopin,  The Awakening
• Stephen Crane,  The Open Boat ,  The Red Badge of Courage
• Theodore Dreiser,  An American Tragedy ,  Sister Carrie
• William Faulkner,  As I Lay Dying ,  The Sound and the Fury
• Ellen Glasgow,  Barren Ground
• Ernest Hemingway,  A Farewell to Arms ,  The Sun Also Rises
• Jack London,  The Call of the Wild ,  White Fang
• Cormac McCarthy,  Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness in the West ,  The Crossing
• Frank Norris,  McTeague: A Story of San Francisco ,  The Octopus: A Story of California
• Joyce Carol Oates,  Black Water ,  Childwold
• Hubert Selby, Jr.,  Last Exit to Brooklyn ,  Requiem for a Dream
• Upton Sinclair,  The Jungle ,  Oil!
• Edith Wharton,  Ethan Frome ,  The House of Mirth
• Émile Zola,  Les Rougon-Macquart ,  Thérèse Raquin

Examples of Naturalism in Literature

1. Stephen Crane, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets

Crane’s 1893 novella is a gritty tale of a young woman named Maggie who can’t escape her miserable lot in life. This is one of the first major works of American naturalism, set in the rough Bowery of New York City.

Maggie grows up in a violent, alcoholic household. When she starts dating a bartender named Pete, her family kicks her out of the house. Later, Pete leaves her, and Maggie’s family refuses to let her return home. She lives on the streets, forced to become a prostitute. The book ends with Maggie’s death.

2. Richard Wright, Native Son

Wright’s 1940 novel follows Bigger Thomas, a 20-year-old black man on Chicago’s South Side in the 1930s. He lives in a rundown, one-room apartment with his brother, sister, and mother. After accidentally killing his white friend Mary, Bigger goes on the run with his girlfriend Bessie. They hide out in an abandoned building, where Bigger rapes and ultimately kills Bessie.

The police apprehend Bigger after an intensive, citywide manhunt. His lawyer, Boris Max, defends him by saying Bigger’s destiny was inescapable. His is the embodiment of every black American’s fate: becoming a product of the brutal, oppressive system that created them. Proving this point, the jury finds Bigger guilty and sentences him to die—a verdict he comes to accept.

3. Hubert Selby Jr.,  Requiem for a Dream

Selby’s 1978 novel is an unflinching look at addiction and its consequences. Elderly Sara Goldfarb, her son Harry, his girlfriend Marion, and his best friend Tyrone are all searching for their own version of the American Dream. Sara, who wants to be on television, grows addicted to diet pills. Harry, Marion, and Tyrone, all heroin users, buy a large amount of heroin and plan to sell it at a huge profit to fund their respective dreams.

As expected, their addictions interfere with their plans, and they turn against one another. The novel ends with each character’s life in ruins. Sara receives electroshock therapy after addiction pushes her to insanity; Harry loses an arm after frequent heroin injections cause an infection; Tyrone goes to jail, where being a black man makes him the target of abuse; and Marion becomes a prostitute to support her habit.

Further Resources on Naturalism

Goodreads has a comprehensive list of  Popular Naturalism Books .

Xiaofen Zhang wrote an academic perspective on the movement:  On the Influence of Naturalism on American Literature .

M.H. Abrams discusses  the differences between realism and naturalism .

ELA Common Core Lesson Plans has  advice on teaching naturalism .

The Art Story delves into  naturalism in literature and fine art  and the similarities and differences between the two art forms.

Related Terms

• Characterization
• Perspective

Definition of Realism

Realism is a movement in art and literature that began in the 19th century as a shift against the exotic and poetic conventions of Romanticism . Literary realism allowed for a new form of writing in which authors represented reality by portraying everyday experiences of relatable and complex characters, as they are in real life Literary realism depicts works with relatable and familiar characters, settings , and plots centered around society’s middle and lower classes. As a result, the intent of realism developed as a means to tell a story as truthfully and realistically as possible instead of dramatizing or romanticizing it. This movement has greatly impacted how authors write and what readers expect from literature.

For example, playwright Anton Chekhov reflects in most of his writing a rejection of his romantic contemporaries and predecessors that tended to falsely idealize life. Chekhov’s plays and stories, instead, are made up of characters that are frustrated by the realities of their social situations and their own behaviors and feelings. His characters represent real, ordinary people who want happiness but are limited by and entangled in everyday circumstances.

Common Examples of Themes in Realism

Like most genres and literary movements, realism features fundamental, common, and recurring themes and motifs . Here are some common examples of those themes and conventions in literary realism:

• close, detailed, and comprehensive portrayal of reality
• emphasis on appearance of what is real and true
• importance of character over action and plot
• complex ethical decisions are often the subject matter
• characters appear real in their complexity, behavior, and motives
• characters appear natural in their relation to each other and their circumstances
• importance of economic and social class, especially “middle” class interests
• plausible, logical events (not overly sensational  or dramatic)
• natural speech patterns among characters in terms of diction and vernacular (not overly poetic in language or tone )
• presence of “objective” and impartial narration of story
• subsets include: magical realism, social realism, “kitchen sink” realism, psychological realism, socialist realism

Examples of Novels in Literary Realism

Due to the changes in class structure with the developments of the second half of the 19th century, the novel became extremely popular. Literacy grew and written works were more accessible. Realism also enhanced the prevalence of novels since their subject matter often focused on characters and themes important and relatable to the working class, middle class, and social mobility.

Here are some examples of novels that helped to shape this literary movement:

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ( Mark Twain )
• House of Mirth ( Edith Wharton )
• The Jungle (Upton Sinclair)
• The Red Badge of Courage (Stephen Crane)
• Daisy Miller (Henry James)
• The Call of the Wild (Jack London )
• Middlemarch ( George Eliot )
• Vanity Fair (William Makepeace Thackeray)
• Jane Eyre ( Charlotte Bronte )
• The Grapes of Wrath ( John Steinbeck )

Famous Authors’ Perspectives Regarding Literary Realism

It is beneficial, for understanding literary realism, to get a sense of how well-known writers feel about this technique and movement. Here are some famous authors’ perspectives regarding literary realism.

• The monster I kill every day is the monster of realism. (Anais Nin)
• Realism, n. The art of depicting nature as it is seen by toads. The charm suffusing a landscape painted by a mole, or a story written by a measuring-worm. (Ambrose Bierce)
• Would it not be better to have it understood that realism, in so far as the word means reality to life, is always bad art — although it may possibly be very good journalism? (Sherwood Anderson)
• Nothing is more real than nothing. (Samuel Beckett)
• Realism is a very sophisticated form of literature, a very grown-up one. And that may be its weakness. But fantasy seems to be eternal and omnipresent and always attractive to kids. (Ursula K. Le Guin)
• I don’t want realism. I want magic! ( Tennessee Williams )
• Realism can break a writer’s heart. (Salman Rushdie)
• It’s all lies. Some of them are just prettier than others, that’s all. People see what they think is there. (Terry Pratchett)
• It seems to us that the readers who want fiction to be like life are considerably outnumbered by those who would like life to be like fiction. (Sara Caudwell)
• When I work, I’m just translating the world around me in what seems to be straightforward terms. For my readers, this is sometimes a vision that’s not familiar. But I’m not trying to manipulate reality. This is just what I see and hear. (Don DeLillo)

Difference Between Realism and Naturalism

There is often confusion in trying to differentiate literary works that feature realism and those that feature naturalism . Naturalism is considered a form or subcategory of realism that is heavily influenced by Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.

The writers that pioneered the realist movement created complex, relatable characters while presenting detailed and realistic observations of society. In addition, realism encouraged narration that shifted away from romanticized and poetic language. This allowed writers to adopt a more truthful voice and address conditions of real life, including the realities of war, poverty , etc.

Naturalism, as a post-Darwinian movement of the late 19th century, attempted to apply the “laws” of scientific determinism to fiction. This movement upheld the belief that science provides an explanation for social and environmental phenomena. Naturalist writers extended the objective presentation of the details of everyday life as an insistence that literary works should reflect a deterministic universe in which a character is a biological entity controlled by environment and heredity.

Here are some examples of themes and conventions that reflect literary works of naturalism and differentiate them from realist works:

• grim, animalistic environment
• antisocial behavior and rough language of characters belonging to lower class
• Themes of survival
• a deterministic theory that genetic endowment is inescapable
• lack of ability to impose individual will
• pessimistic, tragic view of life

History of Realism in the US

Realism in the United States crept into literature, music, and art in the middle of the 19 th century and stayed until the early decades of the 20 th century. The artists, writers, and literary scholars depicted the social realities, contemporary landscapes, and ordinary people in their writings as well as paintings. Some of the popular writers depicting realism in their literary pieces are Henry James, Stephen Crane, George Bellows, Edward Hopper, George Lukas, and William Glackens.

History of Realism in the UK

Realism in the United Kingdom dates back to the decade of 1850 but it actually started during the Victorian period (1837-the 1901). Although the English ideals were being portrayed in literary pieces, Victorians turned to the depiction of what is known as the opposite of that. The imminent Victorian writers who were realists were George Eliot, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens , Thomas Hardy , etc.

Six Types of Realism

There are six types of realism given in the writings of different writers. These are as follows:

• Magical Realism: Magical realism shows fantasy as reality such as in the novels and stories of Gabriel Garcia Marquez .
• Social Realism: It shows the true living conditions of the workers such as in Hugo’s Les Miserables.
• Naturalism : It shows the influence of the Darwinian theory of evolution such as in the writings of Emile Zola and William Faulkner .
• Psychological Realism: It shows the inner side of characters that exist in reality such as in the writings of Dostoyevsky.
• Kitchen Sink Realism: It shows the realism focusing on the young British working class as in the writings of John Braine.
• Socialist Realism: It shows the realism glorifying the struggle of the working class as shown by Gladkov in his novels.

 Difference Between Romanticism and Realism

Romanticism is quite simple to understand by its name. It comprises fantasy shown through fiction, realism means to portray what actually exists. In other words, realists were more concerned with the world as it existed at that time than with the world of fantasy. However, the romanticists were mostly involved with the fictionalized world and also the world based purely on fantasy. Therefore, romanticism was based on fantasy rather than reality.

Difference Between Realism and Impressionism

Impressionism means to capture imitations of an object which is also called its essence. Realism is only related to its accurate description that actually exists. In other words, impressionism is more concerned with light in painting. Therefore, it could also be shown in writing. On the other hand, realism is the contrary it is showing the actual reality and not its silhouette.

Difference Between Nominalism and Realism

Nominalism is concerned with abstract concepts, showing that they do not exist as they are in the tangible world, or in material shape. Realism, however, is more concerned with showing the physical world that actually exists. In literature, it means pertaining to names in that reality is made up of only items and this exists because of the things or items and not on their own. It also means that the world does not exist in just people’s/reader’s minds.

Examples of Realism in Literature

Realism is a literary technique and movement that revolutionized literature. Literary realism creates the appearance of life as it is actually experienced, with characters that speak the everyday language and are representative of everyday life as a reader would understand it. Here are some examples of realism in literature and how they enhance the value of a literary work:

Example 1: East of Eden by John Steinbeck

There’s more beauty in truth, even if it is dreadful beauty.

Steinbeck encapsulates the scope of literary realism with this quote from his novel. The objective of most realist writers is to open the eyes and minds of readers to find comfort in the truth, without exaggeration , over-dramatization, or romanticism. Steinbeck’s novel traces generations of a family that faces realistic issues such as jealousy, betrayal, disappointment, and other struggles. However, rather than overdramatizing these circumstances or romanticizing the characters, Steinbeck portrays them as objectively and truthfully as possible for fiction. This allows readers to identify and relate to the novel as a form of literary realism.

Example 2: A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen

Nora: And then I found other ways of making money. Last winter I was lucky enough to get a lot of copying to do. I locked myself in and sat writing every evening till late in the night . Ah, I was tired so often, dead tired. But still it was wonderful fun, sitting and working like that, earning money. It was almost like being a man.

In his play , Ibsen presents a harsh criticism of Victorian marital expectations and the traditional roles that men and women play in society. In this work, Ibsen portrays the main character, Nora, as a woman who is treated like a child by her husband and other characters. As a result, the play exposes Nora’s restricted role as a woman with respect to choosing an individual path, earning income, and making important household decisions.

Ibsen’s drama is a realistic exposition of societal problems that come about due to the drastic imbalance of power between women and men. The characters are relatable in the way they speak, feel, and behave. In addition, their decisions and actions are realistic and complex. This realism is significant in terms of the way the reader/ audience understands the underlying themes of the play.

Example 3: The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin

She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.

Initially, it appears that Chopin’s work of short fiction is a form of Romanticism with idealized characters and overdramatic depictions of events. As the main character Louise receives news that her husband has died, she isolates herself in a room with what the reader believes is the intention to overcome the shock and mourn her very recent loss. In a Romantic literary work, Louise’s reaction and behavior would have been described through poetic language and dramatic depictions.

Instead, Chopin creates a realistic and relatable, though surprising, reaction within Louise at the hearing of her husband’s death. She is sad that he is gone and knows she will miss his love. However, Louise looks to the future and understands suddenly that she is free of the entrapments of marriage and her role as a wife. Chopin reveals a complexity in Louise’s character that is realistic. In addition, as a form of realism, the story confirms many of the societal issues present at the time–particularly for women in terms of personal, economic, and social freedom. For readers, this realistic portrayal of Louise’s complex character and conflicting feelings is an assertion that, as a woman, she is an individual and not exclusively enmeshed in her role as a wife.

Example 4: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Now the way that the book winds up is this: Tom and me found the money that the robbers hid in the cave , and it made us rich. We got six thousand dollars apiece–all gold. It was an awful sight of money when it was piled up. Well, Judge Thatcher he took it and put it out at interest, and it fetched us a dollar a day apiece all the year round– more than a body could tell what to do with. The Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would civilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways; and so when I couldn’t stand it no longer lit out.

This example shows the description of Tom and Widow Douglas and how they interact with each other. It shows pure realism as it happens with them and Mark Twain only describes how it happens.

Example 5: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

That was two months ago. Then he wanted to come – to the house. He wanted to stay there. He said al of us – that he would not have to work. He made me come there – in the evening. I told you – you thought I was at factory. Then – one night it snowed, and I couldn’t go back.  And last night – the cars were stopped. It was such a little thing – to ruin us all. I tried to walk, but I couldn’t. I didn’t want you to know. It would have – it would have been all right.

Rudkus is telling what he wants to do and what not. He tells about his work and the actual situation which is a purely realistic portrayal of his life. This also shows that it happens as it is and not as it should be.

Example 6: The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

But he obstinately took roundabout ways, and presently he was where he could see long gray walls of vapor where lay battle lines. The voices of cannon shook him. The musketry sounded in long irregular surges that played havoc with his ears. He stood regardant for a moment. His eyes had an awestruck expression. He gawked in the direction of the fight.

This description of Fleming shows realism at work but it is also called naturalism as it shows the nature of things, too. Therefore, naturalism is also realism, but it is its extreme form as shown through the walls that vapor comes into bamboozle Fleming.

Synonyms of Realism

Realism, like all other literary devices , is also irreplaceable, yet a few following words come close to it in meanings. They include fidelity, authenticity, verisimilitude , truthfulness, accuracy, naturalism, and faithfulness.

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Reading Radically: A Reading List of the 1960s and 70s Protest Movements to Understand Activism Today

Jessica shattuck recommends cathy wilkerson, james kunen, abe peck, and more.

On April 23, 1968, protesting Columbia University students took over Hamilton Hall, and over the next few days, occupied three more Columbia buildings and the President’s office. At issue were Columbia’s connection to the Vietnam War (through its affiliation with a weapons research think tank) and the construction of a new gym, which students argued would be functionally segregated on account of its two separate entrances: one for the largely black neighborhood community, and the other for the largely white student body.

The issues being protested were serious, but there was, by many accounts, a sense of exuberance and optimism to the protest. Two students got married inside an occupied (or “liberated,” in protest parlance) building by a chaplain who climbed in through a window. Others devised ways to send buckets of sandwiches on pullies to the students inside. There was agitprop theater and lots of singing.

In researching my new novel, Last House , which is set, in part, in this time and place and follows the journey of one young activist, I was struck by these protesters’ sense of passion and also agency. They seemed to see America as a still-malleable construct, a country whose history their actions had the power to shape.

Through the character of Katherine Taylor, writer for a radical underground paper, I wanted to write about this. And I wanted to explore the radicalization that occurred in some corners of the movement as this sense of agency diminished. As the 60s turned into the ’70s and the Vietnam War dragged on abroad, and racism and injustice persisted at home, frustration mounted.

There was disagreement in the movement about how best to persist: with the same largely peaceful protests of the 60s or with newer more aggressive tactics?

Out of this debate, small, radical splinter groups like The Weathermen formed; in one eighteen-month period from 1971 to ’72 almost twenty-five hundred bombs on American soil in acts of domestic terrorism. (The vast majority of these caused no human injury.) I wanted to consider how and why some people turned to violence, and how and why so many others—the vast majority, in fact—did not.

Last House follows the Taylor family over the last seventy-five plus years, beginning with a Greatest Generation couple, Nick and Bet, a WWII veteran turned oil company lawyer and his wife, and ending in the present. Nick and Bet’s children, who narrate the second half of the book, become enmeshed in the radical left at the end of the ’60s.

In my research, the following books were immensely helpful to me.

Cathy Wilkerson, Flying Close to the Sun: My Life and Times as a Weatherman

On March 6, 1970, a bomb went off in the basement of a Greenwich Village townhouse killing three members of the Weather Underground. Two others, including Wilkerson, emerged from the house only to disappear. The bomb, as it turned out, was being built by the group to detonate at a soldiers’ dance at Fort Dix. Had it not exploded early, there would have been even more casualties.

Wilkerson spends the rest of her life—and much of her memoir—reckoning with this. The memoir charts her journey from naïve, middle-class girl, outraged by civilian casualties in Vietnam and civil rights abuses at home, to hardened revolutionary.

James Kunen, The Strawberry Statement: Notes of a College Revolutionary

This is a funny, disarmingly written first person diary of the Columbia Student protests of 1968 written by then 19-year-old Kunen, who was a student at the time. “Who We Are” is the title of one section of his introduction.”We’re unhappy because of the war, and because of poverty and the hopelessness of politics, but also because we sometimes get put down by girls, or boys, as the case may be, or feel lonely and alone and lost,” he offers as part of his answer.

This is the endearing combination of conviction and thoughtful, self-deprecating sensibility that shapes the narrative.

Elaine Brown, A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story

This memoir by the former Black Panther Party Chairwoman, sometimes lover of Huey Newton, associate of Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Seale, Stokely Carmichael, and other famous personalities, gives an amazingly vivid account of what it was like to be inside the struggle of the Panthers, from the FBI assassination of Fred Hampton in 1969 to the successful campaign of Lionel Wilson, Oakland’s first black mayor.

It’s also a powerful story of coming of age poor, black, and female in a world largely dominated by men.

Abe Peck, Uncovering the Sixties: The Life and Times of the Underground Press

This is kind of a zany book about the history of the underground press during the 60s and early 70s. From The Rat to The Berkeley Barb and The Black Panther , Peck takes readers inside the counterculture papers that proliferated during this time, their wild headlines (“Heil Columbia” reads the cover of The Rat May 3-16, 1968) and grand manifestos, their arguments, their experiments, and their parties.

He also explores the FBI’s Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) as it honed in on the New Left and underground magazines like Ramparts , which were working to expose its operations. This was of particular interest to me for the plot of Last House .

Richard Vinen, 1968: Radical Protest and its Enemies

Vinen puts the American protest movement of 1968 into a global context. This was the same year ten million French workers went on strike and Czechs took to the streets to demand democracy, only to have the Soviet tanks roll in. Vinen offers a counterpoint to the many memoirs and oral histories of the era (like the ones I’ve just sited), which he points out allow the primary actors of the protest movement tell their own story.

This is a dryer, more academic work than many of the other books listed here, but I liked having it in the mix.

Clara Bingham, Witness to the Revolution: Radicals, Resistors, Vets, Hippies, and the Year that America Lost its Mind and Found its Soul

I absolutely love a good oral history and this one is both evocative and accessible. Bingham conducted a hundred interviews with people, from Weather Underground member Bernadine Dohrn (one of the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted People from 1970-73) to FBI agent Bill Dyson, to various less-well-known student draft resistors, police officers, and protest organizers across the country.

The interviews are broken up and organized into overlapping thematic and chronological categories (“Resistors,” “Moratorium,” “Kent State” for example) which builds a layered narrative of the major events of the era through multiple points of view. The resulting work feels like eves-dropping on a number of interesting, self-reflective conversations.

Bryan Burrough, Days of Rage: America’s Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence

Burrough writes about the many bombs smuggled into police stations, government buildings, and restaurants (which he calls, at one point, “exploding press releases”), the politically motivated bank robberies, and the kidnapping of Patty Hearst, among other largely-forgotten acts of homegrown terrorism in the 1970s. The book has the propulsive immediacy of a thriller, and offers a vivid chronical of the radicalization and evolution of various individuals.

Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent

OK so this book is obviously not about the protest movement of the late 60s and early ’70s (it was published in 1907). But it is one of my all-time favorite novels, and turns on a politically motivated bombing that could have come out of the Weathermen’s playbook.

Conrad’s exploration of terrorism and anarchism, the morality of violence and the exploitation of “useful idiots” (in today’s terms) feels highly relevant to the period I was writing about. And the tragic relationship between Winnie Verloc and her brother Stevie was, in some obscure and mostly subliminal way, an inspiration for the relationship between Katherine and her brother Harry in Last House .

______________________________

Last House   by Jessica Shattuck is available via William Morrow.

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Pulse of Pride

Russia Escalates Anti-LGBTQIA+ Measures with Imprisonments, Book Bans, and Declaring LGBTQ Movement as Terrorist

Posted: May 13, 2024 | Last updated: May 13, 2024

Russia is increasing its crackdown on LGBTQIA+ activism and literature as part of a broader anti-LGBTQ+ agenda that is rapidly spreading throughout the country.

Banning Activism

The increased efforts to suppress the LGBTQ+ community is part of a full ban on “LGBT Activism” enacted in 2022 that was built on pre-existing discriminatory laws and prejudices.

Winding Back the Clock

Turning back to gain a better understanding of where this coming from, we can look back to 2013 when Russia passed its first law against “gay propaganda” to “protect children.”

Banning Positive Representation

In 2022 the law was expanded so that any positive representation of same-sex relationships was banned from media such as advertisements, films, video games, and books.

Declaring a Terrorist Movement

In the same expansion of the 2013 law, the Russian Supreme Court even went so far as to declare the “International LGBT movement” a terrorist organization.

Consequences for Defiance

There have already been some consequences for Russians fighting back against the ban with students like Danila Morozov.

15 Days in Jail

Danila Morozov is a Youth Parliament member and was sentenced to 15 days in jail and fined 50,000 rubles ($825 AUD) for displaying LGBT symbols and sharing posts that allegedly discredited the Russian army.

Banning Books for Promoting Gay Relationships

The new expansion of the law has also created a council within the Russian Book Union that will identify and ban books that promote “non-traditional sexual relationships.”

Who’s on the Council?

Though the council is meant to be nominally independent from the larger Russian government, the council is packed with Kremlin loyalists from the Russian military and Orthodox Church.

Putin’s Anit-LGBTQ+ Agenda

These members of the council are essentially representatives of Putin’s government, which is often characterized by the president’s strict anti-LGBTQ+ agenda.

Popular Titles Banned

Three of the most popular books that have already been banned are “A Home at the End of the World” by Michael Cunningham, “Giovanni’s Room” by James Baldwin, and “Heritage” by Vladimir Sorokin.

Article 6.21 of Russia’s New Code

The council’s decision to ban these three famous works stems from Article 6.21 of Russia’s code of administrative offenses, which prohibits “propaganda” that advocates “non-traditional” relationships.

More Bans to Come

In 2022, an independent journalist created a list that identified 250 more books at risk of being banned under the expanded propaganda law.

Banning Neutral Information

Human Rights Watch has spoken out about the new ban and that it stops “sharing positive and even neutral information” about LGBTQ+ relationships.

Speaking Out and Showing Support

Outside of Russia, many people are speaking out against the ban and voicing their support for Russia’s LGBTQ+ community, facing the brunt of this backlash.

Connections With Soviet Era Censorship

One such person is Jeff Hawn, a Russian economic specialist at the London School of Economics, who made connections to strict Soviet-era censorship.

A Special Status for Russia

 Hawn pointed out that “Literature has always enjoyed a special status because censorship of books was a very important part of the Soviet regime” and that “freedom for writers after the fall of the Soviet Union was enshrined.”

Literature in High Regard

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Russians held literature in high regard due to the strict censorship laws that had previously prevented citizens from accessing these works.

Avoiding Book Bans

Due to the cultural appreciation of literature in Russia, the ban initially avoided books in the hopes of not perpetuating Soviet-era censorship into Russian history.

Focusing on Mass Media

Instead, the Russian government’s priority was the censorship of mass media like the Internet and television due to its more significant impact on public perception of the LGBTQ+ community.

Increasing Censorship

The fact that the Russian government is now banning books as well and no longer shows the same concern for repeating the mistakes of Soviet Censorship is a sign that Putin is growing more strict with his anti-LGBTQ+ agenda.

The post Russia Escalates Anti-LGBTQIA+ Measures with Imprisonments, Book Bans, and Declaring LGBTQ Movement as Terrorist first appeared on Pulse of Pride .

Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock / Free Wind 2014.

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