(NOVEMBER 1, 1871 – JUNE 5, 1900)

STEPHEN CRANE

WHO WAS HE?

• an American novelist, short story writer, poet and journalist.

• wrote notable works in the Realist tradition as well as early examples of American Naturalism and Impressionism

• Crane began writing at the age of four and had published several articles by the age of 16. Having little interest in university studies, he left school in 1891 and began work as a reporter and writer.

WRITING

• Crane's first novel was the 1893 Bowery tale Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, which critics generally consider the first work of American literary Naturalism.

• He won international acclaim for his 1895 Civil War novel The Red Badge of Courage, which he wrote without any battle experience.

• Late that year he accepted an offer to cover the Spanish-American War as a war correspondent. As he waited in Jacksonville, Florida for passage to Cuba. While en route to Cuba, Crane's ship sank off the coast of Florida, leaving him adrift for several days in a dinghy. His ordeal was later described in "The Open Boat".

• During the final years of his life, he covered conflicts in Greece and lived in England.

• Plagued by financial difficulties and ill health, Crane died of tuberculosis in a Black Forest sanatorium at the age of 28.

AFTER DEATH

• At the time of his death, Crane had become an important figure in American literature. He was nearly forgotten, however, until two decades later when critics revived interest in his life and work.

• Stylistically, Crane's writing is characterized by vivid intensity, distinctive dialects, and irony.

• Common themes involve fear, spiritual crisis and social isolation

CRANE UTILIZES: REALISM, NATURALISM, AND IMPRESSIONALISM

• Stephen Crane's first novel addressed an unpopular subject; with its unflinchingly honest, brutally realistic portrayal of the seamier side of urban New York, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets was initially rejected by editors who considered the subject matter inappropriate for publication.

• Popular novels of the time depicted the city of New York spinning dizzily in its increasing wealth and importance. Novels seemed largely sentimental and romantic. Popular novels overlooked the grim poverty that scarred the underbelly of industrial New York in places like the squalid tenements of the Lower East Side.

• With Maggie, Crane reacted to this romanticized and homogenized perspective on American life by showing the New York that he had seen himself. It was a New York inhabited by the poor, the drunken, and the desperate, people blinded by hypocrisy or driven by need, profane and corrupted

REALISMdepicts life as it really is

provides extremely detailed descriptions of “ordinary people”

avoids the sensational, dramatic elements of naturalistic novels and romances.

displays a pessimistic view of the world

IN REALISM . . .

Character is more important than action and plot; complex ethical choices are often the subject.

Diction is natural vernacular, not heightened or poetic; tone may be comic, satiric, or matter-of-fact.

NATURALISMthe general tone is one of hopelessness and even despair.is a more deliberate kind of realism in novels, stories,

and plays, usually involving a view of human being as passive victims of natural forces and environment.

typically illustrates the helplessness of man, his insignificance in a cold world and his lack of dignity.

is concerned with the less elegant aspects of lifehas settings that are the slums, the sweatshops, the

factories and the farmrepresents the life of the lower class truthfully highlights forbidden regions as violence, sex and death

IMPRESSIONISM

• The term ‘Impressionism’ comes from the school of mid-nineteenth century French painting, which was in reaction to the academic style of the day.

• They developed a technique by which objects were not seen as solids but as fragments of color which the spectator’s eye unified.

IMPRESSIONISMthe selection of a few details to convey the

sense impressions left by a scene or incidentcharacters, scenes, or actions are portrayed

from an objective point of view of realitygreat precision in the use of language to

illustrate the transitory, vague, complex, and subjective impressions based on experiences

an example would be of using color to give bits and pieces of the scene - in his landmark novel, 'The Red Badge of Courage', Stephen Crane gives us the sense and mood of the battle, without the technical details

CHARACTERS

• JIMMY• MAGGIE• MARY• PETE• OTHERS AS THEY APPEAR

• SETTING: BOWERY OF NEW YORK—SOUTHERN SIDE, SLUM AREA.