Domestic realism
Encyclopedia
Domestic realism normally refers to the genre of nineteenth-century novels popular with women readers. This body of writing is also known as "sentimental fiction" or "woman's fiction". The genre is mainly reflected in the novel though short-stories and non-fiction works such as Harriet Beecher Stowe
's "Our Country Neighbors" and The New Housekeeper's Manual written by Stowe and her sister-in-law Catherine Beecher are works of domestic realism. The style's particular characteristics are:
"1. Plot focuses on a heroine who embodies one of two types of exemplar: the angel and the practical woman (Reynolds) who sometimes exist in the same work. Baym says that this heroine is contrasted with the passive woman (incompetent, cowardly, ignorant; often the heroine's mother is this type) and the "belle," who is deprived of a proper education.
2. The heroine struggles for self-mastery, learning the pain of conquering her own passions (Tompkins, Sensational Designs, 172).
3. The heroine learns to balance society's demands for self-denial with her own desire for autonomy, a struggle often addressed in terms of religion.
4. She suffers at the hands of abusers of power
before establishing a network of surrogate kin.
5. The plots "repeatedly identify immersion in feeling as one of the great temptations and dangers for a developing woman. They show that feeling must be controlled. . . " (Baym 25). Frances Cogan notes that the heroines thus undergo a full education within which to realize feminine obligations (The All-American Girl).
6. The tales generally end with marriage, usually one of two possible kinds:
A. Reforming the bad or "wild" male, as in Augusta Evans's St. Elmo (1867)
B. Marrying the solid male who already meets her qualifications.
Examples: Maria Cummins
, The Lamplighter
(1854) and Susan Warner
, The Wide, Wide World
(1850)
7. The novels may use a "language of tears" that evokes sympathy from the readers.
8. Richard Brodhead
(Cultures of Letters) sees class as an important issue, as the ideal family or heroine is poised between a lower-class family exemplifying poverty and domestic disorganization and upper-class characters exemplifying an idle, frivolous existence (94)."
An example of this style of novel is Jane Smiley
's A Thousand Acres
in which the main character's confinement is emphasized in such a way.
Some early exponents of the genre of domestic realism were Jane Austen
and Elizabeth Barret Browning.
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe was an American abolitionist and author. Her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin was a depiction of life for African-Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and United Kingdom...
's "Our Country Neighbors" and The New Housekeeper's Manual written by Stowe and her sister-in-law Catherine Beecher are works of domestic realism. The style's particular characteristics are:
"1. Plot focuses on a heroine who embodies one of two types of exemplar: the angel and the practical woman (Reynolds) who sometimes exist in the same work. Baym says that this heroine is contrasted with the passive woman (incompetent, cowardly, ignorant; often the heroine's mother is this type) and the "belle," who is deprived of a proper education.
2. The heroine struggles for self-mastery, learning the pain of conquering her own passions (Tompkins, Sensational Designs, 172).
3. The heroine learns to balance society's demands for self-denial with her own desire for autonomy, a struggle often addressed in terms of religion.
4. She suffers at the hands of abusers of power
Abuse of Power
Abuse of Power is a novel written by radio talk show host Michael Savage.- Plot :Jack Hatfield is a hardened former war correspondent who rose to national prominence for his insightful, provocative commentary...
before establishing a network of surrogate kin.
5. The plots "repeatedly identify immersion in feeling as one of the great temptations and dangers for a developing woman. They show that feeling must be controlled. . . " (Baym 25). Frances Cogan notes that the heroines thus undergo a full education within which to realize feminine obligations (The All-American Girl).
6. The tales generally end with marriage, usually one of two possible kinds:
A. Reforming the bad or "wild" male, as in Augusta Evans's St. Elmo (1867)
B. Marrying the solid male who already meets her qualifications.
Examples: Maria Cummins
Maria Susanna Cummins
-Biography:Maria Susanna Cummins was born in Salem, Massachusetts, on April 9, 1827. She was the daughter of Honorable David Cummins and Maria F. Kittredge, and was the eldest of four children from that marriage. The Cummins family resided in the neighborhood of Dorchester in Boston, Massachusetts....
, The Lamplighter
The Lamplighter
The Lamplighter is a sentimental novel written by Maria Susanna Cummins published on March 1, 1854. The Lamplighter was Cummins's first novel and was an immediate best-seller, selling 20,000 copies in twenty days. The work sold 40,000 in eight weeks, and within five months it had sold 65,000...
(1854) and Susan Warner
Susan Warner
Susan Bogert Warner , was an American evangelical writer of religious fiction, children's fiction, and theological works.-Biography:...
, The Wide, Wide World
The Wide, Wide World
The Wide, Wide World is an 1850 novel by Susan Warner, published under the pseudonym Elizabeth Wetherell. It is often acclaimed as America's first bestseller.-Plot:...
(1850)
7. The novels may use a "language of tears" that evokes sympathy from the readers.
8. Richard Brodhead
Richard H. Brodhead
Richard Halleck Brodhead Marquis Who's Who on the Web currently serves as the ninth president of Duke University and is a scholar of 19th-century American literature.-Early life and education:...
(Cultures of Letters) sees class as an important issue, as the ideal family or heroine is poised between a lower-class family exemplifying poverty and domestic disorganization and upper-class characters exemplifying an idle, frivolous existence (94)."
An example of this style of novel is Jane Smiley
Jane Smiley
Jane Smiley is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist.-Biography:Born in Los Angeles, California, Smiley grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, and graduated from John Burroughs School. She obtained an A.B. at Vassar College, then earned an M.F.A. and Ph.D. from the...
's A Thousand Acres
A Thousand Acres
A Thousand Acres is a 1991 novel by American author Jane Smiley. It won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction in 1991 and was adapted to a 1997 film of the same name....
in which the main character's confinement is emphasized in such a way.
Some early exponents of the genre of domestic realism were Jane Austen
Jane Austen
Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...
and Elizabeth Barret Browning.