Nat"u*ral*ism, n. 1.
The theory that art or literature should conform to nature;
realism; also, the quality, rendering, or expression of art or
literature executed according to this theory.
2. Specif., the principles and
characteristics professed or represented by a 19th-century school of
realistic writers, notably by Zola and Maupassant, who aimed to give a
literal transcription of reality, and laid special stress on the
analytic study of character, and on the scientific and experimental
nature of their observation of life.
Nat"u*ral*ism (?), n. [Cf. F.
naturalisme.] 1. A state of nature;
conformity to nature.
2. (Metaph.) The doctrine of those who
deny a supernatural agency in the miracles and revelations recorded
in the Bible, and in spiritual influences; also, any system of
philosophy which refers the phenomena of nature to a blind force or
forces acting necessarily or according to fixed laws, excluding
origination or direction by one intelligent will.