In American literature, the term "realism" encompasses the period of
time from the Civil War to the turn of the century during which William
Dean Howells, Rebecca Harding Davis, Henry James, Mark Twain, and others
wrote fiction devoted to accurate representation and an exploration of
American lives in various contexts. As the United States grew rapidly
after the Civil War, the increasing rates of democracy and literacy, the
rapid growth in industrialism and urbanization, an expanding population
base due to immigration, and a relative rise in middle-class affluence
provided a fertile literary environment for readers interested in
understanding these rapid shifts in culture. In drawing attention to
this connection, Amy Kaplan has called realism a "strategy for imagining
and managing the threats of social change" (Social Construction of American Realism ix).
Realism was a movement that encompassed the entire country, or at least the Midwest and South, although many of the writers and critics associated with realism (notably W. D. Howells) were based in New England. Among the Midwestern writers considered realists would be Joseph Kirkland, E. W. Howe, and Hamlin Garland; the Southern writer John W. DeForest's Miss Ravenal's Conversion from Secession to Loyalty is often considered a realist novel, too.
Realism was a movement that encompassed the entire country, or at least the Midwest and South, although many of the writers and critics associated with realism (notably W. D. Howells) were based in New England. Among the Midwestern writers considered realists would be Joseph Kirkland, E. W. Howe, and Hamlin Garland; the Southern writer John W. DeForest's Miss Ravenal's Conversion from Secession to Loyalty is often considered a realist novel, too.