Naturalism Blog

Naturalism is seen as a subset of the genre Realism, because it contains many of the same characteristics yet it can also stand on its own as a genre. It came about sometime in the late nineteenth century, while Realism was developed in the early nineteenth century. These works are sometimes reported to have been started by a French woman, however there were many American authors who also adopted the writing style (Sommers).

Naturalism is a genre based mainly upon the ideas of Charles Darwin (Sommers). Darwin was a scientist who believed that humans were simply highly developed animals with no sense of free will at all. He believed that everything that made up their character had to do with their genetics and the environment that they were raised in. In this way, naturalist writing became almost like a study or a science experiment on what we think of as common animals (Sommers).

Because of these theories, the stories in the Naturalism genre could generally be supposed to follow along the same basic story line. This story line was about a person whose actions are driven by his own compulsions and desires, yet he cannot decide how his destiny will pan out in the end (Sommers).

These stories were written along a basic guideline as far as technique as well (Sommers). Most of the stories were presented as sort of factual, scientific journal entries about how the main character reacts to events in his or her life. In this way the style also resembles almost a case study about a particular animal that we would find today. In these stories the subject, or hero of the story if you will, is placed in an unfamiliar place. The character is then studied and his or her reactions to the place are recorded as if an experiment is being conducted as to how he or she will react to the situation. As previously mentioned, the character acts upon his or her own instincts but is still fated to accept whatever will come to him or her in the long run (Sommers).

Sommers, Joseph Michael. "naturalism." In Maunder, Andrew. Facts On File Companion to the British Short Story. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CBSS450&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 15, 2011).