Title Facing facts : realism in American thought and culture, 1850-1920 / David E. Shi

Published New York : Oxford University Press, 1995

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Description 1 online resource (x, 394 pages) : illustrations Series Oxford paperbacks Oxford paperbacks Contents pt. I. Setting the Stage. 1. Antebellum Idealism. 2. New Paths -- pt. II. The Generative Forces. 3. Touched with Fire. 4. A Mania for Facts. 5. Goods and Surfaces -- pt. III. Realism Triumphant. 6. Truth in Fiction. 7. Realism on Canvas. 8. Form Follows Function -- pt. IV. Extraordinary Realities. 9. Realism and the Social Question. 10. Savage Realism. 11. A World Full of Fists. 12. Ash Can Realism -- pt. V. An Epoch of Confusion. 13. The Modernist Revolt Summary In Facing Facts, David Shi provides the most comprehensive history to date of the rise of realism in American culture. He vividly captures the character and sweep of this all-encompassing movement - ranging from Winslow Homer to the rise of the Ash Can school, from Whitman to Henry James to Theodore Dreiser. He begins with a look at the antebellum years, when idealistic themes were considered the only fit subject for art (Hawthorne wrote that "the grosser life is a dream, and the spiritual life is a reality"). Whitman's assault on these otherworldly standards coincided with sweeping changes in American society: the bloody Civil War, the aggressive advance of a modern scientific spirit, the emergence of photography and penny newspapers, the expansion of cities, capitalism, and the middle class - all worked to shake the foundations of genteel idealism and sentimental romanticism The public developed an ever-expanding appetite for concrete facts and for art that accurately depicted them. As Shi proceeds through the nineteenth century, he traces the realist impulse in each major area of arts and letters, combining an astute analysis of the movement's essential themes with incisive portraits of its leading practitioners. Here we see Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., shaken to stern realism by the horrors of the Civil War; the influence of Walt Whitman on painter Thomas Eakins and architect Louis Sullivan, a leader of the Chicago school; the local-color verisimilitude of Louisa May Alcott and Sarah Orne Jewett; and the impact of urban squalor on intrepid young writers such as Stephen Crane. In the process of surveying nineteenth-century cultural history, Shi provides fascinating insights into the specific concerns of the realist movement - in particular, the nation's growing obsession with gender roles Realism, he observes, was in part an effort to revive masculine virtues in the face of effeminate sentimentality and decorous gentility. By the end of the nineteenth century, realism had displaced idealism as the dominant approach in thought and the arts. During the next two decades, however, a new modernist sensibility challenged the fact-devouring emphasis of realism: "Is it not time," one critic asked, "that we renounce the heresy that it is the function of art to record a fact?" Shi examines why so many Americans answered yes to this question, under influences ranging from psychoanalysis to the First World War. Nuanced, detailed, and comprehensive, Facing Facts provides the definitive account of the realist phenomenon, revealing its essential causes, explaining why it played so great a role in American cultural history, and suggesting why it retains its perennial fascination Analysis Realism United States Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 309-376) and index Notes Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL digitized 2011 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL Print version record Subject Realism. Civilization Intellectual life Realism Kultur Realismus Realisme (beeldende kunst) Realisme (letterkunde) SUBJECT United States -- Intellectual life -- 1865-1918. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85140366 United States -- Intellectual life -- 1783-1865. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85140365 United States -- Civilization -- 1865-1918. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85139940 United States -- Civilization -- 1783-1865. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85139937 Subject United States USA Form Electronic book ISBN 9780199854097 0199854092 128053379X 9781280533792 9786610533794 6610533792 9780195106534 0195106539

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