American Naturalism

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Jude Davies (University of Winchester)
Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

Literary naturalism denotes a particular genre of fiction that developed in the USA in the 1890s, associated principally with writers such as Abraham Cahan, Ellen Glasgow, David Graham Phillips, Jack London, and most prominently Stephen Crane, Frank Norris, and Theodore Dreiser. The term naturalism operates primarily in counterdistinction to realism, particularly the mode of realism codified in the 1870s and 1880s, and associated with William Dean Howells and Henry James.

It is important to clarify the relationship between American literary naturalism, with which this entry is primarily concerned, from the genre also known as naturalism that flourished in France from the 1850s to the 1880s. French naturalism, as exemplified by Gustave Flaubert, and especially Emile Zola, can be regarded

1704 words

Citation: Davies, Jude. "American Naturalism". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 November 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=764, accessed 19 March 2024.]

764 American Naturalism 2 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.