In his first book devoted exclusively to naturalism, Donald
Pizer brings together thirteen essays and four reviews written over
a thirty-year period that in their entirety constitute a full-scale
interpretation of the basic character and historical shape of
naturalism in America.
The essays fall into three groups. Some deal with the full range
of American naturalism, from the 1590s to the late twentieth
century, and some are confined either to the 1890s or to the
twentieth century. In addition to the essays, an introduction in
which Pizer recounts the development of his interest in American
naturalism, reviews of recent studies of naturalism, and a selected
bibliography contribute to an understanding of Pizer's
interpretation of the movement.
One of the recurrent themes in the essays is that the
interpretation of American naturalism has been hindered by the
common view that the movement is characterized by a commitment to
Emile Zola's deterministic beliefs and that naturalistic novels are
thus inevitably crude and simplistic both in theme and method.
Rather than accept this notion, Pizer insists that naturalistic
novels be read closely not for their success or failure in
rendering obvious deterministic beliefs but rather for what
actually does occur within the dynamic play of theme and form
within the work.
Adopting this method, Pizer finds that naturalistic fiction
often reveals a complex and suggestive mix of older humanistic
faiths and more recent doubts about human volition, and that it
renders this vital thematic ambivalence in increasingly
sophisticated forms as the movement matures. In addition, Pizer
demonstrates that American naturalism cannot be viewed
monolithically as a school with a common body of belief and value.
Rather, each generation of American naturalists, as well as major
figures within each generation, has responded to threads within the
naturalistic impulse in strikingly distinctive ways. And it is
indeed this absence of a rigid doctrinal core and the openness of
the movement to individual variation that are responsible for the
remarkable vitality and longevity of the movement.
Because the essays have their origin in efforts to describe the
general characteristics of American naturalism rather than in a
desire to cover the field fully, some authors and works are
discussed several times (though from different angles) and some
referred to only briefly or not at all. But the essays as a
collection are "complete" in the sense that they comprise an
interpretation of American naturalism both in its various phases
and as a whole. Those authors whose works receive substantial
discussion include Stephen Crane, Frank Norris, Theodore Dreiser,
Edith Wharton, James T. Farrell, Norman Mailer, Joyce Carol Oates,
and William Kennedy. Of special interest is Pizer's essay on
"Ironweed, "which appears here for the first time.
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