Continuation And Innovation

American literature flourished during the 20 th century. A variety of literature schools sprung up like mushrooms, such as postwar experimentalism, modernism, black humor, Jewish literature, feminist literature and post modernism. No matter how diversified literature became, realism still existed as an essential part of American literature. Though during the prevailing period of modernism and post modernism, realism was regarded as obsolete and dead, it didn’t mean that realism had lost its values and should be abandoned. Post-war novelists like John Cheever and Updike still adhered to principles of realism in their writings. However, realism in contemporary American literature is no longer the standard realism in traditional meaning. New features have been integrated, which make it more inclusive and opener. It is called neo-realism or post-modern realism by critics.Neo-realism is the continuation of realism in post-war America, which originated from the specific social and cultural phenomena. Traditional realism is unable to portrait the social disorder and the spiritual crisis modern people faced up with. Neo-realism absorbing writing skills of modernism and postmodernism can reflect the real life of modern people and vividly depict the psychological changes of the characters. Neo-realistic fictions adopt the realistic settings and try to create a lifelike appearance by the pursuit of reality in details. While adhering to the principles of traditional realism, it has a more profound understand of reality and focuses on the portrait of characters’ psychology. Fictional plot, experimental methods, blending of reality and fiction are all used to reflect American society past and present. Under the influence of modernism and post-modernism, writing techniques like symbolism, grotesque and collage are integrated by neo-realistic novelists in their works, making it different from traditional realism. This trend is most distinguished during 1970 s after the exhaustion of post-modernism. It achieved a continuation and progression between tradition and innovation and allowed further development.As to the definition of neo-realistic fiction, from abroad to home, it is various. Researching results throughout half of a century show that neo-realistic fiction has become a trend of modern fiction, and the researching focus has changed from purely theoretic illustration to text analysis of certain novelists. Though neo-realism has been widely concerned since 1970 s and some scholars regard it as a literary phenomenon appeared during 1970 s, nothing takes place accidentally. It must go through a constant changing and developing process. In fact, this trend has emerged after WWII in the works of some novelists like John Cheever. Therefore, following the principle of theory instructing practice, this dissertation focuses on novelists sticking on traditional realism while having innovation on writing techniques under the influence of modernism and post-modernism. John Cheever, J.D. Salinger and John Updike are chosen as the researching subjects. This dissertation aims to trace the origin and development of American neo-realistic novels, study its inheritance and transcendence to traditional realism and show that it is in accordance with the current status of American society. Facing the complex social phenomena after WWII, neo-realistic novelists try to uncover the illusion of flourished society and depict the spiritual crisis of contemporary Americans with new writing techniques. They adopt writing techniques of post-modernism not for the purpose of purely artistic innovation but to present a real image of contemporary American society. Neorealism is both a continuation and innovation to traditional realism. It is a higher level of realism and builds a bridge between tradition and experiments, which leads a new way to contemporary American fiction.