American InterContinental University Realism Creative Writing Discussion

Assignment – Journal Writing 2

We’ve moved along in American Literature, from the exploration of the sublime to the supernatural and out into the wilderness. In 500 words, give me your overall impression of the progression of the literature from the Gothic movement to now. What patterns do you see emerging? How do they all connect, theme-wise? How do they connect with historical situations, that you can see? What do you know about American Literature and America, now that you’ve made it to Realism? Reference specific details from the readings of the time periods.

Word Count: 500 words or more

Format: MLA

Any material quoted needs to be a citation, or it is considered copied and plagiarism. Any instances of plagiarism will be an automatic zero.

2. 

Assignment – Realism Creative Writing

It’s your chance to be a realist. Write me a creative fictional story based in the themes of Realism. You can choose the topic, but it must Realism. This should be a FICTIONAL SHORT STORY. Here are the characteristics again:

Renders reality closely and in comprehensive detail. Selective presentation of reality with an emphasis on verisimilitude, even at the expense of a well-made plot

Character is more important than action and plot; complex ethical choices are often the subject.

Characters appear in their real complexity of temperament and motive; they are in explicable relation to nature, to each other, to their social class, to their own past.

Class is important; the novel has traditionally served the interests and aspirations of an insurgent middle class. (See Ian Watt, The Rise of the Novel)

• Events will usually be plausible. Realistic novels avoid the sensational, dramatic elements of naturalistic novels and romances.
• Diction is natural vernacular, not heightened or poetic; tone may be comic, satiric, or matter-of-fact.
• Objectivity in presentation becomes increasingly important: overt authorial comments or intrusions diminish as the century progresses.
• Interior or psychological realism a variant form.

In Black and White Strangers, Kenneth Warren suggests that a basic difference between realism and sentimentalism is that in realism, “the redemption of the individual lay within the social world,” but in sentimental fiction, “the redemption of the social world lay with the individual” (75-76).