Realism and its Genres

Regionalism and The American Tall Tale

Background

The 1800’s: It was the age of the first mappings

and surveyings of the West It was the age of in which the rails of

the first transcontinental railroad had bound East and West.

The Setting The Civil War moved massive numbers of

troops across great expanses and a variety of American settings

Westward expansion continued as pioneers moved further and further West across untamed and unknown lands.

Americans wanted to know what their country looked like, and how the varied races which made up their growing population lived and talked.

A Continental Conversation The East asked what kinds of people leading what

kinds of life are at the end of those bands of iron? The Western regionalists answered: Men and women

like yourselves, but dressed differently, speaking differently, with different social ways: fantastic deserts, mile deep canyons, mountains high enough to bear snow the year round, forests with trees as wide as man can stretch and wider, villages where the only woman was the town whore, camps where the only currency was gold-dust.

A Continental Conversation Writers of the South told of swamps where

the cypress grew out the green-scummed water and the moss grew down into it, and of the cities where the obsessive blood-consciousness of its inhabitants testified to the mingling of the races.

Mid-western authors narrated the tales of the plains where a man could be lost in the dust or ruined by hailstorm; of cities where fortunes were made or lost in a day's trading on the beef or grain exchanges.

A Holistic Literary Voice The second half of the 19th c. saw America

becoming increasingly self-conscious at the very time regional writers began to write about its various aspects.

The literary map of America, so long a small corner of light in the East, with a glimmer on the southern coast, began to be totally illuminated throughout the country

A Regional Focus

Thus was born a literary narrative that focused on America’s many parts and celebrated, as Whitman notes, its multitudes

What is Regionalism?

Often called “local color.” Focuses on characters, dialect,

customs, topography, and other features specific to a certain region (eg. the South)

Coincided with Realism and sharing many of the same traits.

Prominent from 1865-1895.

Why did Regionalism develop? Dual influence of Romanticism and

Realism The Civil War and the building of a

national identity An outgrowth of realism with more

focus on a particular setting and its influence over characters

Characteristics of Regionalism Setting—often remote and usually integral

to the story; Characters—more concerned with the

character of the region than an individual—quaint, stereotypical; Narrator-- an educated observer from the world

beyond who’s often deceived Emphasis on dialect Use of stock characters

Plot—nothing much happens, revolves around the community and its rituals

Themes in Local Color

Dislike of change, nostalgia for an always-past Golden Age;

Triumphant trickster or trickster tricked;

Tall tale-tradition, conflicts described humorously, larger than life

Regionalism and the Tall Tale Tall Tales are an extension of

Regionalism, (and therefore, Realism) in that they promote communal identity

They promote a recognition of a specific area, a character, a type and engage the reader in a lively conversation, a sense of being “in” on the joke at work in the story

So What’s a Tall Tale?

Tall tales, oral and written, are one of America's oldest and most popular narrative forms

They flourished in the nineteenth century, especially on the frontier.

They began as a way for pioneers to understand the greatness of the American West. There were huge forests, ferocious animals, deserts, and mountains.

Pioneers were trying to conquer these elements, and that was a scary business.

Outrageous victories over the forces of nature, of those who would impede that progress (Native Americans, African Americans, women, animals) became the focus of these narratives.

Attributes of a Tall Tale Tall Tales are:

a combination of reality and fantasy based on real or fictional people humorous, its humor stemming from absurd

situations intended to entertain through amusing stretchers or comic lies.

usually told in the first person as a true story frequently disguised as a personal narrative or

anecdote

Attributes of the Tall Tale, cont. Tall Tales are:

The typically depends on the storyteller assuming a straight-faced pose that appears to be relating fact but actually enlarges the plot with fictional and outlandish details

Involves the frame story (story within a story)

Extraordinary person in ordinary situation - main character is larger-than-life or has some superhuman ability

Attributes of the Tall Tale, cont. Tall Tales are:

Caricature – comical or ludicrous representation of a specific person or type of person

Hyperbole – details, events, people highly exaggerated

Irony – in diction, settings, characters, events, outcomes

Vernacular – language typical of a specific area and of common people in behavior

The Results

As a whole cumulatively creates an incredible and fanciful yarn (A long, often elaborate narrative of real or fictitious adventures; an entertaining tale )

Famous American Tall Tales Johnny Appleseed Daniel Boone Davey Crockett John Henry Calamity Jane Pecos Bill Casey Jones Paul Bunyan and his giant blue ox Babe