ETYM Cf. French naturalisme.
Belief that the world can be explained in terms of natural forces.
In the arts generally, an approach that advocates the factual and realistic representation of the subject of a painting or novel with no stylization.
Specifically, naturalism refers to a movement in literature and drama that originated in France in the late 19th century with the writings of Emile Zola and the brothers Goncourt. Similar to realism in that it was concerned with everyday life, naturalism also held that people’s fates were determined by heredity, environment, and social forces beyond their control.
Zola, the chief theorist of the movement, demonstrates the characteristic accuracy of reportage in his Rougon-Macquart sequence of novels (1871–93), which shows the working of heredity and environment in one family. Other naturalist writers include Guy de Maupassant and Alphonse Daudet in France, Gerhart Hauptmann in Germany, and Theodore Dreiser in the us.
1. An artistic movement in 19th century France; artists and writers strove for detailed realistic and factual description; SYN. realism.
2. The doctrine that the world can be understood in scientific terms without recourse to spiritual or supernatural explanations. + prikaži više