revised for 2/17-19/98. Final revision 2/16.
 
*these next two classes lecture will examine "naturalism" in literature and social science (Veblen) with specific reference to Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie, the work of Thorstein Veblen , and (next class) Jack London's, Martin Eden (1909) First class looks at naturalism generally with reference to the two readings in Dreiser and Veblen. Second class look at London, Martin Eden
 
I. Defining Naturalism
 
A. overview. As the successor to "realism" naturalism emerged in the late 1880s, one evidence being some favorable comment on Emile Zola's Germinal, a book previously condemned. Although primarily a literary movement, it had parallels in the social sciences, and even (via reinterpretations of Darwinian theory) influenced public policy. Stages of each are as follows:
 
1. Literature: anticipation in Twain's Conn. Yankee (1889); the "Veritism" of Hamlin Garland (so called "plains realism); and finally in the work of Norris, Dreiser et al. Although "realism" remained the "official literature of the progressive era ( now attenuated in the writing of Booth Tarkington, the "American" Winston Churchill, and others), naturalism flourished as a minor and controversial strain.
 
2. Social sciences, where it emerged (a) in growing emphasis on "instinct" in such works as Veblen's 's Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), William Graham Sumner's Folkways (1906); and (b) behaviorism, which, although attacking "instinct" theory took an equally "naturalistic" view of human behavior.
 
3. Public policy. The translation in English of the work of August Weissmann in the early 1890s, works that stressed heredity and "natural selection" spawned a school of "neo Darwinians." Applied to public policy, neo-Darwinism translated into various proposals to keep the "unfit" from reproducing, among them Eugenics.
 
*the central problem of naturalism from the 1890s to the present, has centered on its social consequences, and the apparent ambiguous posture of leading "naturalists" toward social reconstruction and reform. Stated simply, the issue is whether we should regard the Naturalists as (1) a "left wing" of progressivism, the cultural side of socialism; or (b) a reactionary mood that finally denies the possibility of change or the efficacy of human effort. During the past decade, this question has been reformulated in terms of the relation between naturalism and the rise of consumer culture (see below)
 
B. Characteristics of Naturalism.
 
*starting with the premise that human beings and their behavior may be analyzed in similar fashion to than of animals, naturalism shared realism's concern with verisimilitude, and for this reason was sometimes viewed as simply "realism-but-moreso." Philosophically, however, naturalism derived from growing tendency among natural scientist to deny the supernatural entirely, e.g. in writings of Ernst Haeckel, Riddle of the Universe (1899), Paul Carus's journal The Monist, and Jacques Loeb's work at the Rockefeller Institute. Naturalism thus had at least three distinctive themes that distinguished it from earlier "realism."
 
1. primitivism, which viewed humans as driven by basic, allegedly "biological" impulses (hunger, sex, desire for security etc.). In practice, this meant a focus on humans at the fringe (proletarian) or in extreme situations--the latter which renders it is some vital respects a species of Romanticism.
 
2. Determinism, whereby individuals can control neither their basic impulses nor their external circumstances
 
3. Cataclysm, wherein individuals or groups are led to an inevitable doom.
 
*work of Veblen and Dreiser illustrate al three. Both in Chicago in the late 1890s, reporting on the often garish nouveau riche society that was particularly strident in that city.
 
(i) Dreiser's Sister Carrie and other works (Titan, etc.) .
 
1. impulse. Carrie in opening chapter. Hurstwood.
 
2. determinism. Antiphonal rise and fall of two seem to bear no relation to merit or motive. This one of reasons taken of market by Mrs. Doubleday, wife of publisher.
 
3. Cataclysm. Hurstwood's suicide. Also destruction of Cowperwood in the Titan by the "gray wolves" of the Chicago City Council
 
(ii) . Veblen's work also illustrates. )
 
*summary of Leisure Class, and later in Business Enterprise (1904).
 
a. Stated simply, Veblen's evolutionist account of the development of human society runs as follows: (ANALYZE SELECTION BELOW)
 
1. Savage state: characterized by four basic "instincts" or impulses: parental, predatory, workmanship, idle curiosity. Although rearranged in successive stages, these instincts never entirely disappear, but do change character.
 
*note in his different writings Veblen, like other social scientists of the time, often varied these basic "impulses," as well as names of the "stages" in which they developed.
 
2. Predatory stages blends in "barbarism" in which the original instincts are perverted: not yet a leisure class but there is distinction between occupations of men and women, anticipating later distinction between "business" (ceremonial, useless) and "industry" (productivity).
 
3. Upper barbarian stage, where desire to dominate leads to desire to outstrip others in pecuniary achievement. Instinct of workmanship thus perverted into "leisure class culture," the leading characteristic of which is the honorific character of wasteful and useless endeavor. ("conspicuous consumption," "conspicuous leisure," "superior uselessness," "pecuniary emulation etc.).
 
b. How comes out in selection in Hollinger and Capper reader (from Theory of the Leisure Class) (analyze)

(iii) . London's Martin Eden (1909).(NEXT CLASS) Document analysis
 

1. Dreiser, Sister Carrie, ch. 1.

 
Questions:
 
a. Carrie's relation with her "hometown" and family? Cf. With Drouet? And reunion with sister at end of chapter? Implications of consequences of consumer/commercialism on traditional community?
 
Meaning: "Through all humanity be still enclosed in the shops, the thrill runs abroad. The dullest feel something which they may not always express or describe. It is the lifting of the burden of toil."
 
b. Carrie and traditional morality ? "Self interest was...her guiding characteristic?" what are the bases of her judgments? Attitude toward clothes and other aspects of the new consumer culture?
 
C. Drouet's occupation? Character?
 
D commodification? Meaning in context of this chapter? "She felt the worn state of her shoes."
 
2. Veblen. Does the same sort of analysis work . Analyze "Economic Theory of Women's Dress" (handout in class) from this perspective. (if time)
 
1. Just as Bowlby/Michaels note divorce of "thing" and "value," so Veblen does in "clothing" and "dress." Note: note just naive aesthetic but to make "person pleasing," (i.e. desirable) , "enviable presence." Key element is denial of labor: "conspicuously unproductive assumption of a valuable good."
 
2. Is especially "feminine": indeed women are the ultimate consumers even though they do not "own" (p. 199). Women no less than the "dress" she wears is thus "commoditized" , i.e. in Veblen's term she is "chattel."

3. Veblen and reform? here is the perennial problem captured in earlier characterizations of him as "amoral moralist" (D. Aaron, Men of Good Hope (early 1950s), or "ironic." See s below Bowlby's analysis of why naturalists adopted their "tough style" ("looking into," not "just looking"). See also gender reference in second to last paragraph of "Women's Dress" where Veblen implicitly distinguishes himself from the "genial volunteer contingent for the ranks of womankind." (p. 205) . If we look into Veblen's life, we might discover the same complex of envy/disgust in face of the new consumerism tat Michaels notes of Dreiser. Thus, according to this view, it is not possible to speak of Veblen as "opposed" to the things he describes because again: capitalism provides both the objects of desire and the subjects desiring them
 
II. Historiography
 
*just as realism has gone through three successive reevaluations (progressive, 1950s nostalgia/acquiescence, and part of "incorporation" of capitalist/industrial "America (Trachtenberg) so naturalism has spawned at least three schools of interpreters.
 
A.. Left has sometimes taken at face value, accepting their own testimony that they wrote of horrible conditions under capitalism to dramatize the need for drastic change, and socialism specifically. Superficial evidence in each case: (1) working class or lower class backgrounds; political activities; their own statement of what they intended.
 
*problems: (1) own careers sometimes belied (e.g. London), and some naturalists from upper class (Norris, e.g.). (2) their novels succeeded as literature to the degree that readers get caught up in fate of protagonists, that is feel his helplessness, sympathize with plight.
 
B. "Divided stream" analysis of 1940s-1960s got at this tension. Theories of Walcutt, American Literary Naturalism: The Divided Stream; and Donald Pizer, Realism and Naturalism, and Frederic Jaher, Doubters and Dissenters. Noted conflict between the social message (reform through science) and the aesthetic appeal, which derived from the fact that the reader becomes emotionally involved in the plight of the central characters.
 
*problems. In stressing the psychological, ignores the fact that they were writers producing for an audience in an increasingly commercialized literary market; and were commenting not so much on situation of labor, but on problems of commercialization of society and rise of consumerism.

C. Naturalism and Capitalism
 
[report on Harris, Neil "The Drama of Consumer Desire," in Cultural excursions : marketing appetites and cultural tastes in modern America (Chicago, 1990) S McCabe NX180.S6 H325 1990 
*the following is an alternative explanation of naturalism in terms of the rise of consumer culture, corporate capitalism, and the money economy in the last third of the 19th century. Based loosely on Bowlby, Rachel. Just Looking: Consumer Culture in Dreiser, Gissing, and Zola (New York, 1985); and Michaels, Walter Benn. The Gold Standard and the Logic of Naturalism: American Literature at the Turn of the Century (Berkeley, CA: University of California, 1987). The position rests on (a) an understanding of specific developments in the economy; (b) the relation of literature to these developments.
 
a. Economic developments in this reading have several interrelated components, each with a change in the way individuals view the world. All stress newness of arrangements in mature stage of capitalism.
 
* Consumerism. Have several distinct characteristics: (Bowlby view)
 
(i). "modern consumption is not a matter of basic items bought for definite needs, but of visual satisfaction and remarkable sights of things not found at home". (Bowlby, p. 1 paraphrasing Guy Debord).
 
(ii). production thus shifted from the production for needs to the creation of new needs. (p. 2)
 
(iii). "value" of product thus not inherent and related to function but relative to other products: how much it stands out from other products, and hence is desired .
 
(iv) . design of department store (the palaces of this new consumer aristocracy) reflect this change.
 
(a) grandiose architecture and theatrical forms blur functional and financial consideration. (p.
 
(b). putting all under same roof destroyed categorical distinction reducing all to common denominator that they were for sale (p. 3)
 
(c). "impulse buying" replaces planned buying.
 
(d). "entree libre" destroyed the moral equation of entering a shop and buying, while fixed price changed relation of consumer and sales person (service).
 
*Bowlby: "People could now come and go, to look and dream, perchance to buy, and shopping become a new bourgeois leisure activity-- a way of pleasantly passing the time, like going to a play or visiting a museum." (p. 4) .[N.b. Bowlby doesn't relate to marginalism in economics, but this seems to reflect the same sense in that value now related to "desire" ] . Consumerism transforms products into "commodities."
 
** also transformation of industry. Merchandise into "spectacle." (Bowlby, p. 6)
 
* Gender is crucial:
 
(a women complicity in oldest trade made prostitute and new consumerism somehow parallel images e.g. Bauledalire: "Such an image are the arcades, which are both house and stars. Such an image is the prostitute, who is saleswoman and wares in one." (Bowlby p. 10)
 
(b) for women this had special twist: not only did new consumerism appeal to them, but they urged to make themselves appealing commodities by indulging its products. ". . .become. . .like prostitutes in their active, commodified self-display" but at same time take on role prostitute did not have of being at same time consumer. See implications for writers below.
 
* Money economy, and corporate capitalism. Michaels suggests something similar going on here: i.e "commodification." Key to concept of "commodities" ( Marx) is that their value "as commodities depends on something more than the "physical relation between physical things'" (p. 20). E.G. diamonds and pearls have certain physical qualities (and commercial uses) but their exchange value is something "imperceptible". This duality leads to "commodity fetishism", whereby we come to think of commodities as something more than themselves while ignoring the human labor in them. "Commodities come to look neither like things as such nor as things that represent human labor but as things that are somehow human." [KEY : ignoring component of labor in them].
Read Sister Carrie p. 111 on clothes (Modern Library edn).  
i. commodities : cannot be reduced to their components and still retain value: e.g. money to paper, or corporation that cannot be reduced to its shareholders; "nor can self be reduced it its body (William James: there can be no principle of personal identity utterly independent of the body OR utterly identical to it). [cf. pair of NIKE sneakers is more than rubber, or air that fills the soles]]
 
ii. the concept of "the money economy" has this same characteristic. That is, it is a number of people doing a number of things, and wanting a number of things. But also something more than what those people do or want. ". . .the desire to personify the economy is the desire to bridge the gap between our actions and the consequences of our actions by imagining a person who does not do what we do but who does do what we do does." (p. 179)

cf current references to "the market"

Read: p. 70 of Sister Carrie on "money" (Modern Library edn).  

iii. his thesis: the "logic of the gold standard" is to destroy this gap, to make the "sign" = to the real value. That is to make paper money "as good as gold." But to think of gold as money (i.e. as representing money) is to admit of it being something more than a soft metal, its to admit the possibility of the "money economy." Thus the result of all the demand for a "gold standard" ironically was finally to validate the "money economy" . I.E. "economy" considered as person closes gap between "what we do" and "what we do does." Economy is a "person" that neither does what we do, nor what we intend to do, but what we do does.
 
* So also, the "logic" of naturalism is to live up to the outward self (e.g. look on Carrie's face) and hence overcome the "constitutive discrepancy within the self." (p. 22). But in the very act, it validates the commoditized self--i.e. the self that is something more than the body, but not totally independent of it.
 
 

.4. Novelist finally endorses the world (although here critics differ).
a. Bowlby . says concerned with disparities of self, and hence implies critical. 2. Michaels sees as more uncritical.

2. Michaels: much more complicated position, although boils down to more extreme notion that the "logic of naturalism" validates not only the consumer culture, but is a more basic sense the "money economy" of which it is a part. Key is that it is impossible to speak of author apart from the society of which he is a part, or text apart from "context." Can see in his treatment of Sister Carrie:
a. initially Michels himself argued that Sister Carrie was "unequivocal endorsement" of the worst excesses of unrestrained consumer capitalism , for reasons noted below.
 
b. but finally goes further re: Dreiser. It is not relevant to ask if Dreiser is for or against capitalism because cannot speak of a Dreiser as a pre-existing self without speaking of capitalism.
 
*Michaels: "It [is]. . . wrong to think of the culture you live in as the object of your affections: you don't like it or dislike it, you exist in it, and the things you like and dislike exist in it too.. . .In other word, Dreiser didn't so much approve or disapprove of capitalism; he desired pretty women in little tan jackets with mother of pearl buttons, and he feared becoming a bum on the streets of New York. These fears and desires were themselves made available by consumer capitalism, partly because a capitalist economy made it possible for lower class women to wear nice clothes and for middle-class men to lose their jobs, but more importantly because the logic of capitalism linked the loss of jobs to a failure of self-representation [the commoditized self?] and linked the desirability of those women to the possibility of mimesis. Carrie is desirable, in this reading, because she herself desires--"to reproduce life," to make herself into a representation. And this insatiable appetite for representation Dreiser identifies with sexual promiscuity, corporate greed, and [n.b.] his own artistic practice." (pp. 18-19) Again: capitalism provides both the objects of desire and the subjects desiring them
 
c. Reference to "his own artistic practice" ties the naturalist novel as writing to consumer culture and money economy in more direct way--parallel to Bowlby but slightly different. The writer as artist creates "artificial bodies" (p. 55) in narratives that like commodities are both things (marks on page) and "more than things"- and thus "artificial bodies" in the way that corporations are "artificial." By welding that so closely to the fantastic artificialities of modern capitalism (i.e using words to represent that world of consumer capitalism with all its excesses) the naturalistic novel implicitly identifies the artificial excesses of art to those of modern consumer capitalism.
 
i. Sister Carrie, e.g. might have ended differently. As in final version, we see Carrie rocking her way to new desires while Hurstwood dies in disgraceful poverty. Could have ended with powerful scene of Hurstwood's death (condemnation of capitalism) or (as in earlier version) with a moralized Carrie, "renouncing desire in favor of an American self-sufficiency.' [both genteelly anti-capitalist in bringing novel to reality (of death, limits of desire). But instead "Dreiser makes use of the verbal forms of fiction to commit himself to the physical forms of capitalism...(p. 56)
 
*"To the extent then, that Sister Carrie is itself structured by an economy in which excess is seen to generate the power of both capitalism and the novel, neither the agrarian insistence on the material [as in Howells realism] nor the genteel insistence on the ideal can rescue the text from its won identification with power." (p. 58). Howells "Pernicious Fiction" as attempt to keep literature from being cvommoditized, even though he aware it is. Realism is "honest."