Naturalism is a movement in theater, film, and literature that seeks to replicate a believable everyday reality, as opposed to such movements as Romanticism or Surrealism, in which subjects may receive highly symbolic, idealistic, or even supernatural treatment. For other usages see Theatre (disambiguation) Theater (American English) or Theatre (British English and widespread usage among theatre professionals in the US) is that branch of the performing arts concerned with acting out stories in front of an audience using combinations of speech, gesture, music, dance, sound and spectacle &#8212... For other uses see film (disambiguation) Film refers to the celluliod media on which movies are printed Film — also called movies, the cinema, the silver screen, moving pictures, photoplays, picture shows, flicks, or motion pictures, — is a field that encompasses motion pictures as an art form or as... Old book bindings at the Merton College library. ... For other uses, see Verisimilitude (disambiguation). ... Everyday life is the sum total of every aspect of common human life as it is routinely lived. ... Romantics redirects here. ... Max Ernst. ...

Naturalistic writers were influenced by the evolution theory of Charles Darwin.^[1] They believed that one's heredity and social environment decide one's character. Whereas realism seeks only to describe subjects as they really are, naturalism also attempts to determine "scientifically" the underlying forces (i.e. the environment or heredity) influencing these subjects' actions. They are both opposed to romanticism, in which subjects may receive highly symbolic, idealistic, or even supernatural treatment. Naturalistic works often include uncouth or sordid subject matter. For example, Émile Zola's works had a frankness about sexuality along with a pervasive pessimism. Naturalistic works exposed the dark harshness of life, including poverty, racism, prejudice, disease, prostitution, filth, etc. They were often very pessimistic and frequently criticized for being too blunt. For other people of the same surname, and places and things named after Charles Darwin, see Darwin. ... See Heredity (disambiguation) for other meanings. ... The social environment is the direct influence of a group of individuals and their contributions to this environment, as both groups and individuals who are in frequent communication with each other within their cultural or socio-economical strata, which create role identity(-ies) and guide the individuals self (sociology... Romantics redirects here. ... Émile Zola (2 April 1840 – 29 September 1902) was an influential French novelist, the most important example of the literary school of naturalism, and a major figure in the political liberalization of France. ...

Theatre

In theatre, Naturalism developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It refers to theatre that attempts to create a perfect illusion of reality through a range of dramatic and theatrical strategies: detailed, three-dimensional settings (which bring Darwinian understandings of the determining role of the environment into the staging of human drama); everyday speech forms (prose over poetry); a secular world-view (no ghosts, spirits or gods intervening in the human action); an exclusive focus on subjects that are contemporary and indigenous (no exotic, otherworldly or fantastic locales, nor historical or mythic time-periods); an extension of the social range of characters portrayed (away from the aristocrats of classical drama, towards bourgeois and eventually working-class protagonists); and a style of acting that attempts to recreate the impression of reality (often by seeking complete identification with the role, understood in terms of its 'given circumstances', which, again, transcribe Darwinian motifs into performance, as advocated by Stanislavski).^[2] Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999... For other people of the same surname, and places and things named after Charles Darwin, see Darwin. ... Prose is writing distinguished from poetry by its greater variety of rhythm and its closer resemblance to the patterns of everyday speech. ... This article is about the art form. ... This article concerns secularity, that is, being secular, in various senses. ... See aristocracy (social studies; social classes). ... Bourgeois at the end of the thirteenth century. ... The term working class is used to denote a social class. ... Konstantin (Constantin) Stanislavski (Константи́н Серге́евич Станисла́вский / Алексе́ев) (January 5, 1863...

The critique of Naturalism

Naturalism was criticized in the twentieth century by a whole host of theatre practitioners; Bertolt Brecht, for example, argued for a puncturing of the illusion of the surface of reality in order to reach the real forces that determine it beneath its appearance; in place of the absorption within a fiction that Naturalistic performance promotes in its audience, he attempted to inculcate a more detached consideration of the realities and the issues behind them that the play confronts. His approach is a development, however, of the critical project initiated by Naturalism; it is a form of modernist realism.^[3] Theatre practitioner is a modern term to describe someone who both creates theatre performance and who produces a theoretical discourse that informs their practical work. ... {{dy justified his choice of form, and from about 1929 on he began to interpret its penchant for contradictions, much as had Eisenstein, in terms of the dialectic. ... For Christian theological modernism, see Liberal Christianity and Modernism (Roman Catholicism). ...

Naturalistic performance is often unsuitable for the performance of other types of theatre—particularly older forms, but also many twentieth-century non-Naturalistic plays. Shakespearean verse, for example, demands a rigorous attention to its rhythmic sub-structure and often long and complex phrasings; naturalistic actors tend to cut these down to the far shorter speech patterns of modern drama, destroying the rhythmic support that assists the audience's process of comprehension. In addition, Shakespearean drama assumed a natural, direct and often-renewed contact with the audience on the part of the performer; 'fourth wall' performances foreclose these complex layerings of theatrical and dramatic realities that are built into Shakespeare's dramaturgy. A good example is the line spoken by Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra's act five, when she contemplates her humiliation in Rome at the hands of Octavius Caesar, by means of mocking theatrical renditions of her fate: "And I shall see some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness in the posture of a whore"; that this was to be spoken by a boy in a dress in a theatre is an integral part of its dramatic meaning—a complexity unavailable to a purely naturalistic treatment.^[4] There are a variety of theatrical styles used in theatre and drama. ... Shakespeare redirects here. ... Blank verse is a type of poetry, distinguished by having a regular meter, but no rhyme. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Dramaturgy is the art of dramatic composition and the representation of the main elements of drama on the stage. ... Anthony and Cleopatra, by Lawrence Alma-Tadema. ...

Naturalistic performance in cinema

In film, which permits a greater illusionism than is possible on stage, naturalism is the normal style, although there have been many exceptions, including the German Expressionists and modern directors such as Terry Gilliam, who have reveled in artificiality. Note that even a fantastical genre such as science fiction can be naturalistic, as in the gritty, proletarian environment of the commercial space-freighter in Alien. Expressionism in filmmaking developed in Germany (especially Berlin) during the 1920s. ... Terrence Vance Gilliam (born November 22, 1940) is an American-born British filmmaker, animator, and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... This article is about the first film in a series. ...

Literature

As in film, naturalism is the general style, although the flexibility and amorphous quality of prose, as opposed to the concrete visual imagery of film, has allowed for a great number of other forms. In this context, naturalism is the outgrowth of Realism, a prominent literary movement in mid-19th-century France and elsewhere. For other uses, see Realism (disambiguation). ... ... For the periodical, see Nineteenth Century (periodical). ...

United States

In the United States, the genre is 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 counter distinction to realism, particularly the mode of realism codified in the 1870s and 1880s, and associated with William Dean Howells and Henry James. Abraham Cahan (July 7, 1860 - 1951) was a leading writer and lecturer for socialist and labor movements in New York City. ... Ellen Glasgow Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow (April 22, 1873 - November 21, 1945) was a Pulitzer Prize winning American novelist from Richmond, Virginia. ... David Graham Phillips, born October 31, 1867 - died January 24, 1911, was an American journalist and novelist. ... For other persons named Jack London, see Jack London (disambiguation). ... For the U.S. Continental Congress delegate, see Stephen Crane (delegate). ... Benjamin Franklin Norris (5 March 1870, Chicago – 25 October 1902) was an American novelist during the Progressive Era, writing predominantly in the naturalist genre. ... Theodore Dreiser, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1933 Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American naturalist author known for dealing with the gritty reality of life. ... William Dean Howells (March 1, 1837 – May 11, 1920) was an American realist author. ... For other uses of this name, see Henry James (disambiguation). ...

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 at the end of the 19th century. French naturalism, as exemplified by Emile Zola, can be regarded as a programmatic, well-defined and coherent theory of fiction that self-consciously rejected the notion of free will, and dedicated itself to the documentary and "scientific" exposition of human behavior as being determined by, as Zola put it, "nerves and blood". mile Zola (April 2, 1840 - September 29, 1902) was an influential French novelist, the most important example of the literary school of naturalism, and a major figure in the political liberalization of France. ... Free-Will is a Japanese independent record label founded in 1986. ...

Many of the American naturalists, especially Norris and London, were heavily influenced by Zola. They sought explanations for human behavior in natural science, and were skeptical, at least, of organised religion and beliefs in human freewill. However, the Americans did not form a coherent literary movement, and their occasional critical and theoretical reflections do not present a uniform philosophy. Although Zola was a touchstone of contemporary debates over genre, Dreiser, perhaps the most important of the naturalist writers, regarded Balzac as a greater influence. Naturalism in American literature is therefore best understood historically in the generational manner outlined in the first paragraph above. In philosophical and generic terms, American naturalism must be defined rather more loosely, as a reaction against the realist fiction of the 1870s and 1880s, whose scope was limited to middle-class or "local color" topics, with taboos on sexuality and violence. The most significant elements of this reaction can be summarized as follows. Honoré de Balzac Honoré de Balzac (May 20, 1799 - August 18, 1850), was a French novelist. ...

Naturalist fiction in the United States often concentrated on the non-Anglo, ethnically marked inhabitants of the growing American cities, many of them immigrants and most belonging to a class-spectrum ranging from the destitute to the lower middle-class. The naturalists were not the first to concentrate on the industrialized American city, but they were significant in that they believed that the realist tools refined in the 1870s and 1880s were inadequate to represent it. Abraham Cahan, for example, sought both to represent and to address the Jewish community of New York's East Side, of which he was a member. The fiction of Theodore Dreiser, the son of first and second generation immigrants from Central Europe, features many German and Irish figures. Frank Norris and Stephen Crane, themselves from established middle-class Anglophone families also registered the ethnic mix of the metropolis, though for the most part via reductive and offensive stereotypes. In somewhat different ways, more marginal to the mainstream of naturalism, Ellen Glasgow's version of realism was specifically directed against the mythologizing of the South, while the series of "problem novels" by David Graham Phillips, epitomized by the prostitution novel Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise (1917), can be regarded as naturalistic by virtue of their underclass subject-matter. Abraham Cahan (July 7, 1860 - 1951) was a leading writer and lecturer for socialist and labor movements in New York City. ... Theodore Dreiser, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1933 Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American naturalist author known for dealing with the gritty reality of life. ...

Allied to this, naturalist writers were skeptical towards, or downright hostile to, the notions of bourgeois individualism that characterized realist novels about middle-class life. Most naturalists demonstrated a concern with the animal or the irrational motivations for human behavior, sometimes manifested in connection with sexuality and violence. Here they differed strikingly from their French counterparts.

See also

• Realism
• Realism in the drama
• Naturalism (art)
• Philosophical naturalism
• Sociological naturalism
• Naturalism in 19th century French literature

For other uses, see Realism (disambiguation). ... Realism in the theatre was a general movement in the later 19th century that steered theatrical texts and performances toward greater fidelity to real life. ... Naturalism in art refers to the depiction of realistic objects in a natural setting. ... This article is about methodological naturalism. ... Sociological naturalism is a term used in sociology, for the view that natural world and social world are roughly identical and governed by similar principles. ... French literature of the nineteenth century is, for the purpose of this article, literature written in French from (roughly) 1799 to 1900. ...

Works cited

• Banham, Martin, ed. 1998. The Cambridge Guide to Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521434378.
• Counsell, Colin. 1996. Signs of Performance: An Introduction to Twentieth-Century Theatre. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 0415106435.
• Hagen, Uta. 1973. Respect for Acting. New York: Macmillan. ISBN 0025473905.
• Hall, Peter. 2004. Shakespeare's Advice to the Players. London: Oberon. ISBN 1840024119.
• Kolocotroni, Vassiliki, Jane Goldman and Olga Taxidou, eds. 1998. Modernism: An Anthology of Sources and Documents. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0748609733.
• Rodenberg, Patsy. 2002. Speaking Shakespeare. London: Methuen. ISBN 0413700402.
• Stanislavski, Constantin. 1936. An Actor Prepares. London: Methuen, 1988. ISBN 0413461904.
• Weimann, Robert. 1978. Shakespeare and the Popular Tradition in the Theater: Studies in the Social Dimension of Dramatic Form and Function. Baltimore and London: The John Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0801835062.
• Williams, Raymond. 1976. Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. London: Fontana, 1988. ISBN 0006861504.
• ---. 1989. The Politics of Modernism: Against the New Conformists. Ed. Tony Pinkney. London and New York: Verso. ISBN 0860919552.
• ---. 1993. Drama from Ibsen to Brecht. London: Hogarth. ISBN 0701207930.

Uta Hagen with Paul Robeson in the Theatre Guild production of Othello, which ran on Broadway from 1943 to 1945. ... Sir Peter Reginald Frederick Hall CBE (born 22 November 1930) is an English theatre and film director. ... A portrait of Konstantin Stanislavsky by Valentin Serov. ... Raymond Henry Williams (31 August 1921 - 26 January 1988) was a Welsh academic, novelist and critic. ...

Notes

External link

• Article giving historical information about the naturalism movement
• Article on American literary naturalism