Jesse Rigdon
French Literature
Rédaction 1
Madame Kirkland
Le 3 octobre 2014

19th century writers were traditionally writers of the romantic movement that began in Europe and spread to the rest of the world during the 19th century. Romantic writings were characterized by reliance on the imagination and subjectivity of approach, freedom of thought and expression, and an idealization of nature. During the late 19th century, a new type of writing style became more popular: realism, which was writing pertaining to depicting contemporary life and society during that time. Naturalism was also a popular writing style. It “”””Naturalism was a late nineteenth century movement in theater, film, art and literature that seeks to portray common values of the ordinary individual, as opposed to such movements as Romanticism or Surrealism, in which subjects may receive highly symbolic, idealistic, or even supernatural treatment. Naturalism was an outgrowth ofRealism. Realism began after Romanticism, in part as a reaction to it. Unlike the Romantic ideal, which focused on the inner life of the (often great) individual, Realism focused on the description of the details of everyday existence as an expression of the social milieu of the characters. Honore de Balzac begins Old Goriot with a 30-some page description of the Maison Vaquer, a run-down but "respectable" boarding house owned by Madame Vaquer. While much of Realist literature moved attention away from the higher classes of society, there were some exceptions, such as Leo Tolstoy. But in naturalist literature and visual arts, the general direction of Realism is taken further. The subjects changed to primarily people of lower birth. In naturalist works writers concentrate on the filth of society and the travails of the lower classes as the focal point of their writing. Naturalism was heavily influenced by both Marxism and evolutionary theory. Naturalism attempted to apply what they saw as the scientific rigor and insights of those two theories to artistic representation of society, as a means of criticizing late nineteenth century social