Frank Norris A Literary Pioneer
During the late 1700s and early 1800s, romanticism was the dominant literary mode in Europe. ... By about the middle of the 19th century, new literary movements began to emerge. After the Civil War, writers like Mark Twain, Bret Harte, and Frank Norris began to experiment with movements called realism and naturalism. ... According to the novelist Frank Norris, realism was the literature of the normal and the representative. “The smaller details of everyday life, things that are likely to happen between lunch and supper" (Norris quoted from McElrath). ... It explores "the unplumbed depths of the human heart, and the mystery of sex, and the problems of life, and the unsearched penetralia of the soul of man” (Norris quoted from McElrath). Frank Norris was one of the first pioneers of American naturalism. Born in 1870 in Chicago, Frank ventured to San Francisco to live with his father at the age of fourteen. Norris was fascinated with the primitive life of the wild West, along with the adventurous tales of Stevenson and Kipling, both of whom were strong, early influences upon his literary tastes. Norris’ father was a man of wealth and decided to send him to study in France. ... Norris began reading the works of the French novelist Èmile Zola who attempted to apply methods of scientific observation to describe social ills and human pathological behavior. Zola’s use of naturalism was relatively unheard of at that time but his novels managed to fuel Norris’ imagination and sharpen his sense of creative purpose. Later, as an undergraduate at the University of California at Berkeley, Norris studied the philosophy of evolution in the natural history classes of Joseph LeConte.