By Lechi Eke
Naturalism, a literary movement that started in 1865, was short-lived as it came to an end in 1900. In this edition of Inside Literature, we will look into why it was so short-lived. It should be recalled that Naturalism is not a rejection of Literary Realism as the latter was to Romanticism; rather, it used realism which attempts to depict things as they are, to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment played an inescapable part in shaping human character. Naturalistic writers were influenced by the evolution theory of Charles Darwin, preaching man’s inability to change or to resist his circumstances.
So naturalism is social Darwinism, the inability of man to escape heredity and class. But, is it true? What about Jack London’s life story, his rags to riches true life story? Didn’t his efforts in life pay off? Certainly, Jack London’s life story defeats naturalism’s theories of pessimism and determinism.
Naturalism as a theory in Literature emphasizes scientific observation of life without idealism or avoidance of the ugly; it’s a newer and harsher realism. It originated in France picking a cue from the theoretical critical approach of Hippolyte Taine, who announced in his introduction to Histoire de la littérature anglaise or History of English Literature (1863–64) that “there is a cause for ambition, for courage, for truth, as there is for digestion, for muscular movement, for animal heat. Vice and virtue are products like vitriol and sugar.”
Naturalist writers portray realistic situations often with a pessimistic and detached tone which tends to determinism. They believed that anything that happened “could be traced to genetic or environmental causes, and characters would act in ‘scientific’ ways according to these principles.”
Émile Zola was one writer known for excessive research for his naturalistic writings. He used observations he made from studying the French lower class in his many naturalism literary work. Also Jack London started his writing career after his sojourns in Klondike, Alaska. London travelled to Alaskan Klondike with some gold prospectors and when he returned from this trip he declared that he had stories to write, and he began his writing career after observing first hand the goings on in that area. He said of his Klondike Alaska experiences, “It was in the Klondike I found myself.”
Although every serious writer must be an observer of life, and goings on around him/her, the naturalist writers, even more than the realists used great observation, and reproducing details to prove that occurrences in life are causally determined by natural laws.
Below are some advantages of naturalistic observation (culled).
1. It allows researchers to study ideas that cannot be manipulated otherwise. Naturalistic observation makes it possible for researchers to study concepts that could not be manipulated if they were in a lab setting because of the ethics involved.
2. Strengths of survey research include its cost effectiveness, generalizability, reliability, and versatility.
3. Observing human behaviour helps researchers to understand that people have different quirks and patterns of behaviour.
4. Knowing how naturalistic observation is conducted is one of the advantages of naturalism.
Naturalistic observation is a research method commonly used by psychologists and other social scientists. This technique involves observing and studying the spontaneous behaviour of participants in natural surroundings. Researchers simply record what they see in whatever way they can, like notice clusters of gestures, look for deviations, compare and contrast, identifying strong voices, observe how people work, and ascertain actions and words, etc. (these are tips for reading human behaviour culled from the internet).
Another merit of naturalistic observation is that it can be both qualitative and quantitative. Although used for qualitative research, some researchers end up writing volumes in just a few minutes or seconds of observation, but because findings are based on observation of natural situation, they have quality. On the other hand, naturalistic observation can also involve quantitative research in order to ascertain data.
Also chances of being biased are limited as there are advantages of having better insight and clarity in data collected.
5. The focus of naturalism also gives scholars an advantage in its study.
Naturalism focuses on explanations which come from natural laws than use supernatural or spiritual explanations. It refers to a realistic approach to art that rejects idealized experiences.It is the belief that nothing exists beyond the natural world (this may be an advantage in the sense that the seen and known is given adequate attention to attain the truth rather than groping about to find the unseen or the unknown in an attempt to discover the truth).
6. Another advantage of naturalism is that it helps researchers improve personal observation skills. A researcher learns how to observe his surroundings. How to observe surroundings is to build a habit of being mindful of your surroundings, especially those you think you’re already familiar with.
A serious observer needs to keep an observation journal detailing irregular occurrences, sounds, and events happening around him/her. He or she should also take into account body language when talking to people.
Other advantages of observation as a tool of naturalism are, owing to disguised form of observation, behavior is naturally studied and data is not distorted; the subjects behave in the desired natural manner and do not get influenced by what the observer wants to hear. Also, observation techniques are cost effective and produce valid results.
Despite all the advantages of naturalism, especially in the area of the skills it equips practitioners with, yet, its disadvantages abound, and they are the reasons why the movement was short-lived.
The Disadvantages of Naturalism
Naturalism denies that there is “purpose” in nature.
The basic principles of naturalism embrace mass and energy, and other physical and chemical properties acknowledged by scientists, but deny the existence of spirits, deities, and ghosts.
Naturalism fails to determine the exact cause of behaviour, and the experimenter cannot control outside variables.
A major disadvantage of naturalism is atheism. Philosophical naturalism touts the belief that there are no supernatural entities and that there’s no such Being as God.
Naturalism also attaches too much importance to the animal nature of man, his instincts, impulses and emotions, and completely ignores the spiritual and cultural values of life. It gives too much emphasis on the heredity of the child.
Also one of the features of naturalism which adds to its disadvantages is its suggestion of philosophical pessimism. In this, writers use scientific techniques to depict human beings as objective and impartial characters whereas realism focuses on literary technique. Realism depicts things as they appear, while naturalism portrays a deterministic view of a character’s actions and life.
Under the naturalistic school of philosophy the aim of education is self-expression. Some naturalists consider man as a machine and they opine that the aim of education is to make the human machine as perfect and efficient as possible.
The definition of naturalism is a view, particularly a philosophical and artistic one that bases everything on what can be seen, what is viewed as natural and what is viewed as earthly. This view is faulty considering that man is a tripartite being that has a spirit, a soul and a body. There are many things going on in man’s life that cannot be scientifically proven or determined by observation, or some natural explanations. Naturalism therefore is an atheistic viewpoint.
People may behave differently when they know they are being watched.
People may try to behave in a certain way in order to conform to what they think the researcher expects to see.
Different observers may draw different conclusions from the same witnessed behaviour.
Other disadvantages of naturalism are: 1. observations are time-consuming and may involve large amount of inactivity, 2. observations may lack depth and qualitative richness, 3. if the ethics are not handled well, legal action can be taken. Example: Transportation departments make use of the observation techniques to conduct traffic counts – (culled).
There are also the disadvantages of using surveys to conduct research because of weaknesses of survey research which include inflexibility and issues with validity, using observation of human behaviour which may have problems with inaccuracies since human attitudes change with emotions and situations.
Of course, it is difficult to determine the exact cause of behaviour and the experimenter cannot control outside variables.
