Undergraduate thesis illuminates the terms of (American) literary minimalism and new realism, offers a brief overview of their origin, development and interdependence, and in doing so applies the findings to prose works of Charles Bukowski and Raymond Carver. Both literary movements, so to speak, don't represent any great novelty in the world of literature, neither in their style nor thematic characteristics. Their "renaissance" in contemporary American literature of the 70's and 80's of the 20th century, closely related to development of the short story genre, seems therefore even more important. In this respect, Bukowski and Carver play a crucial role, as they are, so to speak, the lead representatives of the aforementioned movements. In their works, the so called writers from "the bottom" describe the "ugly" side of life - the dreary everyday life - and their characters are no heroes, but just the opposite: second-rater out of the street, which we can easily relate to. With only a few words the authors tell us a lot, with their (semi)autobiographical stories but reveal us also their life stories.
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