Definition of American Literature 1865-1914 Essay

Definition of American Literature 1865-1914 - Essay Example Naturalism is a movement that emerged in response to the perceived excesses of Romanticism and Surrealism, particularly with reference to those styles’ symbolic, idealistic, and optimistic views of the world and human nature. Nevertheless, while realism sought only to impose empirical value into art by portraying subjects in an earthly way, separate from the idealism of the early 19th century, the movement toward naturalism reflected more of a philosophical shift than an artistic one. Although naturalism is viewed often as an outgrowth of literary realism, it is the result from a leap further into the study of human nature, rather than a study of art. While realism attempted to portray human beings as they actually are, naturalism took a step further by first proposing a theory of human nature and then representing that nature in art. Part of this theory of human nature was determinism, or the belief that every event in the universe, including human behavior, is causally deter mined by previous events. .