Realist and Naturalist Trends in 19th-Century Fiction

Realism and Naturalism in Literature

Realism and Naturalism: The realist movement reacted against the Romantic excesses and the overuse of subjectivity and imagination. It favored thorough and accurate observation of contemporary reality.

Naturalism in France and Spain

In France around 1870 a movement called Naturalism emerged that pushed realist objectives to an extreme. Naturalism sought to explain the causes of human behavior and incorporated new scientific ideas about the human being (determinism, heredity, natural selection of species...). It was expressed in extreme characters with physical or severe moral traits, emphasizing the most miserable aspects of human life. It was a very controversial movement, whose principal theoretical representative was Émile Zola.

In Spain, the realist aesthetic reproduced the characteristics of European authors. Based on the national literary traditions—the picaresque (for example, Don Quixote) and the novel of manners—Spanish realist writers analyzed and dissected contemporary reality. As for Naturalism, the novelist Emilia Pardo Bazán spread Zola's ideas, but these theories clashed with the religious sensibilities of many authors, and Naturalism had little impact.

Characteristics of Realism

1. Minute observation of reality. Its aim is to achieve credibility and present the novel as a piece of life.
2. Essential theme: contemporary reality.
3. Settings: essentially urban; the city is the home of the bourgeoisie and the site of economic and social transformations.
4. Narrator: the norm is the omniscient narrator, who may intervene in the story, make judgments, or adopt a neutral, 'invisible' stance. Thesis novels abound and usually present a Manichean division between good and bad.
5. Psychological analysis: characters are usually numerous and represent particular social groups. Individual personalities are shown, typically belonging to the bourgeoisie, although as the century progresses the working classes are also included. Women are very present; the narrative seeks complicity with the reader through identification with characters, since much of the work is directed by their perspectives.
6. Plot construction: simple plots organized by contrast — upper class versus lower class, vice versus virtue, pure love versus debauchery, usury versus generosity, materialism versus spirituality.
7. Dialogue: language is adapted to the nature of the characters, reflecting popular speech, regional turns of phrase, and jargon.
8. Narrative techniques: incorporation of free indirect style and interior monologue.
9. Temporal structure: respect for chronological narrative temporality.
10. Style: tends toward sobriety.