Domestic realism normally refers to the genre of 19th-century fictional works about the daily lives of ordinary Victorian women. This body of writing is also known as "
sentimental fiction" or "woman's fiction". The genre is mainly reflected in the novel though short-stories and non-fiction works such as
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe (; June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896) was an American author and abolitionist. She came from the religious Beecher family and became best known for her novel ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' (1852), which depicts the harsh ...
's "Our Country Neighbors" and ''The New Housekeeper's Manual'' written by Stowe and her sister-in-law
Catharine Beecher
Catharine Esther Beecher (September 6, 1800 – May 12, 1878) was an American educator known for her forthright opinions on female education as well as her vehement support of the many benefits of the incorporation of kindergarten into children's ...
are works of domestic realism. The style's particular characteristics are:
"1. Plot focuses on a heroine who embodies one of two types of exemplar: the angel and the practical woman (Reynolds) who sometimes exist in the same work. Baym says that this heroine is contrasted with the passive woman (incompetent, cowardly, ignorant; often the heroine's mother is this type) and the "belle," who is deprived of a proper education.
2. The heroine struggles for self-mastery, learning the pain of conquering her own passions (Tompkins, Sensational Designs, 172).
3. The heroine learns to balance society's demands for self-denial with her own desire for autonomy, a struggle often addressed in terms of religion.
4. She suffers at the hands of
abusers of power before establishing a network of surrogate kin.
5. The plots "repeatedly identify immersion in feeling as one of the great temptations and dangers for a developing woman. They show that feeling must be controlled. . . " (Baym 25). Frances Cogan notes that the heroines thus undergo a full education within which to realize feminine obligations (The All-American Girl).
6. The tales generally end with marriage, usually one of two possible kinds:
A. Reforming the bad or "wild" male, as in
Augusta Evans's ''St. Elmo'' (1867)
B. Marrying the solid male who already meets her qualifications.
Examples:
Maria Cummins, ''
The Lamplighter
''The Lamplighter'' is a sentimental novel written by Maria Susanna Cummins and published in 1854, and a best-selling novel of its era.
Plot synopsis
A female Bildungsroman, ''The Lamplighter'' tells the story of Gertrude Flint, an abandoned an ...
'' (1854) and
Susan Warner, ''
The Wide, Wide World
''The Wide, Wide World'' is an 1850 novel by Susan Warner, published under the pseudonym Elizabeth Wetherell. It is often acclaimed as America's first bestseller.
Plot
''The Wide, Wide World'' is a work of sentimentalism about the life of yo ...
'' (1850)
7. The novels may use a "language of tears" that evokes sympathy from the readers.
8.
Richard Brodhead
Richard Brodhead (January 5, 1811September 16, 1863) was an American lawyer and politician from Easton, Pennsylvania. He represented Pennsylvania in both the U.S. House (1843 to 1849) and Senate (1851 to 1857).
He was the father of U.S. Repres ...
(Cultures of Letters) sees class as an important issue, as the ideal family or heroine is poised between a lower-class family exemplifying poverty and domestic disorganization and upper-class characters exemplifying an idle, frivolous existence (94)."
[Campbell, Donna M. ''Domestic or Sentimental Fiction, 1820-1865'' 21 May 2007]
/ref>
An example of this style of novel is Jane Smiley
Jane Smiley (born September 26, 1949) is an American novelist. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992 for her novel ''A Thousand Acres'' (1991).
Biography
Born in Los Angeles, California, Smiley grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, a su ...
's ''A Thousand Acres
''A Thousand Acres'' is a 1991 novel by American author Jane Smiley. It won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction in 1991 and was adapted to a 1997 film of the same name. It was premiered as an ...
'' in which the main character's confinement is emphasized in such a way.
Some early exponents of the genre of domestic realism were Jane Austen
Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots of ...
and Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (née Moulton-Barrett; 6 March 1806 – 29 June 1861) was an English poet of the Victorian era, popular in Britain and the United States during her lifetime.
Born in County Durham, the eldest of 12 children, Elizabet ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Domestic Realism
Genres
Literature
Sentimental novels
Literary realism