American literary naturalism: The evolution of the term naturalism, and an identification of the writers who were most responsible for how the term was defined (Stephen Crane)

Defining literary terms or movements is often an exercise in futility. There is usually no single, fixed definition of a particular term. This dissertation will examine how, and when, naturalism, to the extent it evolved as a distinct type of fiction from its predecessors, became defined in American literature.; This examination of American literary naturalism will be conducted by researching the contemporaneous commentary that existed at the time the fiction first appeared on the American scene. Newspaper reviews, literary magazines, textbooks, and anthologies written at the time naturalistic fiction was being introduced into America will be surveyed in chronological order. I will track the use of the term naturalism as it grew out of the heated debates surrounding American realism.; This dissertation will illustrate the dynamic and plastic nature of the terminology used on the American literary scene. The evidence will show two things. First, the approach to defining American literary naturalism did not become a consistent effort until after the publication of The Red Badge of Courage and the re-publication of Maggie . Second, the definition of naturalism in American fiction was defined by, and a result of, the writings of a very few authors. In fact, what the contemporaneous evidence demonstrates is that the most popular, best selling, “realistic” authors at the time had little to do with the evolving definition of American naturalism.