QUESTION IMAGE
Question
- which scientist most influenced the literary movement or style known as naturalism?
marie curie
alexander bell
francis newton
charles darwin
🆕 New Concept Discovered: Literary Naturalism and Scientific Determinism
How scientific theories shape literary movements.
Step 1: Define Literary Naturalism
Literary naturalism was a late 19th-century movement that sought to apply scientific principles of objectivity and observation to the study of human beings. Unlike realism, which simply aimed to depict life accurately, naturalism was heavily driven by the belief that human beings are governed by forces beyond their control, such as heredity, instinct, and their physical environment.
Step 2: Identify the Scientific Influence
To find the scientist who most influenced this movement, we look at the core ideas of the options provided:
- Marie Curie: Known for her pioneering research on radioactivity. Her work was in physics and chemistry, which did not directly shape the philosophical foundations of literary naturalism.
- Alexander Bell: Known for inventing the telephone. His work was in telecommunications and engineering.
- Francis Newton: Likely a distractor or confusion with Isaac Newton (physics/calculus) or Francis Bacon (scientific method).
- Charles Darwin: Published On the Origin of Species in 1859. His theory of evolution by natural selection suggested that humans are animals shaped entirely by heredity (genetics) and their environment.
Naturalist writers (such as Émile Zola, Stephen Crane, and Jack London) adapted Darwin's biological theories to literature. They portrayed characters who were locked in a "survival of the fittest" struggle, ruled by their biological urges and environmental conditions rather than free will.
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Charles Darwin