Do you have a bad starting point in life? Just give up right away! Things will never get better! This sounds brutal, but that was how the poets thought in naturalism. You may remember that the writers of realism in the 1870s and 80s had great faith in the power of literature. Towards the end of the 1880s, the carbonation had run out of the soda bottle. The champagne had gone stale. The embers had gone out. In short: The authors had lost their optimism. Because realism was followed by naturalism. The writers in naturalism had a rather mechanical view of life: They believed that heredity and environment were decisive for your destiny. The individual had little power to change his life. If you were born poor, you were doomed to live in poverty for the rest of your life. The books in naturalism are often about the lowest in society. The misery is described in detail. The narrators in the books often keep an objective distance from what is being told. The authors will present the misery as clearly and honestly as possible. The books were often about taboos such as sexuality, double standards, death, poverty and disease. In naturalism, the books are often about people who try to do the right thing, but are pulled down by their animal instincts, - - for example greed, lust or the desire for power over others. Literature never arises in a vacuum, it is characterized by the time in which it is written. The authors of naturalism are strongly inspired by Charles Darwin and his teachings on "survival of the fittest". Naturalists see the world as a battlefield, with winners and losers, both in nature and among humans. Perhaps not so surprising, since it was at this time that Europe divided Africa between them in the form of colonies. Naturalism was also characterized by society as it had become at the end of the 19th century. Industrialization had led to cities growing rapidly. In the cities, the social problems grew. There was a housing shortage, poverty, drug abuse, prostitution and pollution. This characterizes the books in naturalism. In the villages, the transition from non-kind households to money households took place. Many farmers in Norway had to borrow money to cope with the transition, and many ended up going bankrupt. The great naturalist in Norwegian literature is Amalie Skram. If you wonder what naturalism is, you will get the answer in the novel series Hellemyrsfolket: The persons speak dialect. There are huge class differences. Heritage and the environment suggest that the people of Hellemyren are doomed to be poor. In the first novel in Hellemyrsfolket, it is about Oline and her husband, Sjur Gabriel. They struggle to keep their children alive in a small village near Bergen. They have many children, and several of them die. Oline is treated badly when she is in town to sell fish. Sjur Gabriel finds out that Oline spends some of the small income on alcohol. They lose their youngest son Little Gabriel, and life gets even worse. The last sentence in Hellemyrsfolket is a classic in Norwegian literature: "From that day on, both husband and wife drank at Hellemyren". So to summarize Hellemyrsfolket: It's about addiction, death, class differences, hopelessness - typical of naturalism. Arne Garborg's novel Fred also has features from naturalism. The small farmer Enok Hove broods over finances and religion, and finally takes his own life. Inheritance and environment are important factors in the naturalistic poetry, no one escapes the environment they are born into. Fred also shows the transition between a natural household and a cash household at the end of the 19th century. The most famous naturalists from Kristiania were the writers Hans Jæger and the married couple Christian and Oda Krogh. Both Hans Jæger's novel Fra Kristiania-bohêmen and Christian Krogh's Albertine were seized and banned because of their content. Jæger was fined and imprisoned for the novel. Krogh received a fine. In Albertine, Krogh shows the double standards in bourgeois society by describing how young women end up in prostitution - - and men abuse their power over vulnerable women. The most important name in naturalism is the French Emile Zola. It was actually he who invented the term naturalism. His breakthrough was the novel Thérèse Raquin in 1867. It is about young Mrs. Raquin, who is married off to her sickly cousin Camille. They get a loveless marriage. Raquin falls in love with a colleague of her husband's, and together they drown her husband Camille. Afterwards, they regret it, and it ends with them committing suicide together. Desire and death - typical of naturalism. Another French writer, Gustave Flaubert, published the novel Madame Bovary as early as 1857. It is often characterized as an early naturalist novel, or a novel that prepares naturalism. In Madame Bovary, the portrayals of the characters are objective and detached. Madame Bovary is a novel without a hero. All the people are driven by selfishness and greed. They have no consideration for others. The novel ends in tragedy for the main character. Egoism, greed, suicide - typical of naturalism. The Swedish writer August Strindberg brings Sweden into naturalism with the novel Röda rummet in 1879. There he attacks society and the church. Strindberg criticizes Stockholm and the conservatives, and shows corruption, fraud and stock speculation among businessmen. Röda rummet is considered Sweden's first modern novel. The main character Arvid Falk is looking for work, and dreams of becoming a writer. The language is realistic. The naturalists wrote in everyday language to bring out differences in social class. Okeeeeee, at the end of the 19th century there had been a period with a lot of social studies in literature for a while. The emotions were getting ready for a comeback! Things will never get better!