Washington State University
Washington State University: Literary Movements: American Realism, 1865 1890
This site from Washington State University provides a good definition of American realism and explains the literary time period it encompasses. There is also a section that lists the characteristics of realism, practitioners, and context...
Victorian Web
The Victorian Web: Realism
This Victorian Web site defines realism as used in literature and as a "nineteenth-century movement that believed novelists and painters should concentrate on describing the physical, material details of life."
Bartleby
Bartleby.com: Cambridge History of Eng and Am Lit: Later National Literature: Pi
This encyclopedia, "The Cambridge History of English and American Literature" provided by Bartleby.com, includes some information in Book III (Later National Literature) about realism as related to the writer Poe. Find this information...