Introduction to naturalistic literature

The early naturalist writers were deeply influenced by the deep-rooted realism in modern French literature, and admired Balzac, Stendhal and Flaubert. Zola thinks Balzac painted the whole world and created modern novels, and he is the father of naturalistic novels. Flaubert's Madame Bovary is regarded as a model by naturalists, although Flaubert himself is a realistic writer to a greater extent. Naturalist advocates disappearing behind the narrative completely like Flaubert and becoming an indifferent anatomist. Mo Bosang, another representative writer of naturalistic literature, is Flaubert's proud disciple himself, and he inherited Flaubert's realistic writing method. 1880, Zola published two collections of essays, Experimental Novel and Naturalist Novelist, and officially named this literary trend as "Naturalism". In 40-year-old Earle's dictionary, "naturalism" is defined as "explaining phenomena through mechanism rules without seeking natural reasons". Zola introduced this concept into literature and advocated a creative idea of pursuing pure objectivity and authenticity and understanding human behavior from the perspective of physiology and genetics. Embodied in literary works, naturalistic literature tries to describe reality in detail, giving people an impression of real life and photography.

Although naturalism inherits some ideas of realism to a great extent, it is very different from realism in concrete creation. First of all, naturalism ignores the shaping of typical characters and only pursues their temperament characteristics and psychopathy, which is quite different from the principle of realism; Secondly, naturalistic literature downplays the plot, does not pursue dramatic twists and turns, and pursues the realm of "no twists and turns", only providing readers with a record of life, which is also contrary to the principle of realism. The depth of naturalistic literature's perception of social alienation is beyond the reach of realistic literature, which has profoundly influenced modern literature in the 20th century. Naturalism literature originated in France. The Gungur brothers are pioneers of French naturalism literature. They claim to be novelists who describe contemporary life, are willing to describe the lower classes and prefer to study special cases of pathology. Sister philomena describes a trainee doctor who died of purulent infection, while René Mopland satirizes bourgeois morality. The Gonggur brothers often analyze the characters in the novels as special spiritual cases. In language, they destroy the logical factors of syntax and express short-lived impressions with dismembered sentences, bold new words and deliberately ungrammatical sentences. The Gungur brothers have a very high position in the history of French literature, and now the highest prize in French literature is named after them. Emile Zola (1840- 1902) is a representative figure and the highest achiever of French naturalism literature. His masterpiece, The Lugon-Macard Family, is a monument of naturalistic literature and another French novel series after Balzac's Human Comedy, including 20 novels. This masterpiece is about "the natural history and social history of a family in the Second Reich", which is a chronicle-like historical picture of the Second Reich of France. Among them, the outstanding works are Nana, Pub and Budd. Zola began to write theoretical works in the 1980s, systematically expounding naturalism. The so-called "Mei Tang Group" formed around Zola is the core group of French naturalism.

Besides Zola, guy de maupassant (1850- 1894) is also an outstanding representative of naturalistic literature. Mo Bosang is a rare master of short stories in the history of human literature, and so is Chekhov of Russia. Mo Bosang, a disciple of Flaubert, a master of realistic literature, received strict realistic skills training under Flaubert's guidance in his early years, so the structure of Mo Bosang's short stories is very rigorous. Representative works include Suicide Ball, Life and Beauty. Mo Bosang's novels attach importance to psychoanalysis and the study of the hazy subconscious. His aesthetic thoughts are embodied in On Fiction. On the one hand, he insists on realism, on the other hand, he thinks that writers must remain indifferent. "There is no trace, it looks very simple, so people can't see or point out the idea of the work and can't find his intention."

In the1880s, naturalism transcended the borders of France and spread to other countries in Europe and America.

German poets "broke through" to publicize naturalism, and the establishment of "free theater" provided a stage for naturalistic drama. Gerhart Hauptmann (1862- 1946) is an important writer of German naturalism literature. Before Sunrise shows the social contradictions in Germany in a naturalistic way, and attributes the moral decay of the rich to the inheritance of alcoholism. The Weaver, which shows the contradiction between labor and capital and the workers' uprising, turned from naturalism to realism.

In Britain, influenced by naturalism, "Slum Literature" appeared, which is keen to express the dirty and terrible things in life. George gissing's works (1857- 1903) describe that the strong run rampant in the slums of London, and the poor can't get rid of hunger and overcome the genetic influence. Morrison's The Story of Inferior Alley describes the life of a poor man with serious mental defects, like a wild animal.

The Swedish playwright john august Strindberg (1849- 19 12) also belongs to naturalism, and later turned to modernism.

In addition, naturalism has a great influence in Italy, Russia, the United States and Japan. Naturalism is an important school of western modern literature, and it is also a transitional school from modern literature to modern literature, which has had a far-reaching impact on the trend of modernist literature in the 20th century. The pursuit of irrationality and unconsciousness in modernist literature is actually an inheritance of naturalism. As a bridge between realism and modernism, naturalism plays an important role in connecting the past with the future.

However, naturalism has a short existence because it denies realism and does not create its own theoretical system like modernism. Many naturalist writers turned to other schools in the later period. French naturalism literature reached its peak in1870-1880s, and then gradually declined. Outside France, the influence of naturalism was not very significant, and it was soon surpassed by the emerging symbolism and expressionism. Nevertheless, the importance of naturalism is beyond doubt, so in the history of western literature, naturalism literature is regarded as an important school alongside romanticism and realism.