Naturalism, in literature, is the attempt to apply scientific theory and methods to imaginative writing. Naturalists concentrate on the physical world to the exclusion of the supernatural. Naturalism thrived in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s and has been most important in the novel and in drama.
Theory of Naturalism.
Naturalists have been the most uncompromising Realists. They believe that knowledge is acquired through the senses, and that the function of the writer is to report accurately what he or she observes. The Naturalist tries to be as objective as a laboratory scientist. In their theory of life, Naturalists are more pessimistic than Realists. The Realist believes people can make moral choices, but the Naturalist doubts that they can. Naturalists believe everything people do is determined by their heredity, or environment, or both. Naturalists believe people are trapped by forces such as money, sex, or power.
In picturing people as trapped, the Naturalist usually deals with the more sordid aspects of life. Characters in Naturalistic literature are driven by their most basic urges. They are often brutal and usually failures. They use coarse language, and their view of life is often bleak and without hope. Yet in the best Naturalistic works, there is a tone of compassion and even admiration for those characters who struggle against overwhelming odds.
Naturalism in fiction.
The principles of Naturalistic fiction were first stated by the French author Émile Zola in The Experimental Novel (1880). Zola argued that novelists should treat their material as scientists treat theirs. Before 1880, psychological and physiological studies such as Zola recommended had appeared in works by Honoré de Balzac, Jules and Edmond de Goncourt, Gustave Flaubert, and other French writers. Zola’s books shocked English and American readers, but his theories and novels established Naturalism as an important literary movement.
Naturalism never became popular in England, but it has been a major influence in the United States since the 1890’s. Stephen Crane, Hamlin Garland, and Frank Norris were the first Americans consciously to adopt the Naturalistic style. Jack London and Edith Wharton developed it further. Most critics, however, consider Theodore Dreiser the best American Naturalist. Dreiser’s novel An American Tragedy (1925) is a moving account of a young man trapped by circumstance. Later American Naturalistic novelists include Nelson Algren, John Dos Passos, James T. Farrell, Norman Mailer, and Richard Wright.
Naturalism in drama
has the same goals as Naturalism in fiction. A highly realistic setting provides a sense of environment overwhelming the characters. The staging, acting, and plots try to resemble life, not art. Everything focuses upon the hopeless, but often admirable, struggle of the characters against fate.
Zola also led the movement in drama with his adaptation of his novel Thérèse Raquin into a play in 1873. August Strindberg of Sweden and Gerhart Hauptmann of Germany rank among the best European Naturalistic playwrights. Strindberg’s The Father (1887) and Miss Julie (1889) are two violent studies of sex. The Weavers (1893) by Hauptmann, a grim portrait of a workers’ revolt, set the style for German Naturalism. Naturalism also appears in plays by Henrik Ibsen of Norway and Leo Tolstoy and Maxim Gorki of Russia.
In the United States, Naturalism became most popular and important in the plays of Eugene O’Neill. Many of O’Neill’s plays, especially the trilogy Mourning Becomes Electra (1931), have pathetic characters and depressing atmosphere. Other American playwrights whose works contain Naturalistic elements include Arthur Miller, Clifford Odets, and David Mamet.
Naturalism today has declined in influence, but its methods and its view of life are responsible for much of the imaginative power in today’s fiction and drama. Excessive though Naturalism may have been in its hopelessness and brutality, modern literature reveals life more honestly because of it.
