<P> Theatrical realism was a general movement in 19th - century theatre from the time period of 1870--1960 that developed a set of dramatic and theatrical conventions with the aim of bringing a greater fidelity of real life to texts and performances . Part of a broader artistic movement, it shared many stylistic choices with naturalism, including a focus on everyday (middle - class) drama, ordinary speech, and dull settings . Realism and naturalism diverge chiefly on the degree of choice that characters have: while naturalism believes in the overall strength of external forces over internal decisions, realism asserts the power of the individual to choose (see A Doll's House). </P> <P> Russia's first professional playwright, Aleksey Pisemsky, and Leo Tolstoy (The Power of Darkness (1886)), began a tradition of psychological realism in Russia which culminated with the establishment of the Moscow Art Theatre by Constantin Stanislavski and Vladimir Nemirovich - Danchenko . Their ground - breaking productions of the plays of Anton Chekhov in turn influenced Maxim Gorky and Mikhail Bulgakov . Stanislavski went on to develop his' system', a form of actor training that is particularly suited to psychological realism . </P> <P> 19th - century realism is closely connected to the development of modern drama, which, as Martin Harrison explains, "is usually said to have begun in the early 1870s" with the "middle - period" work of the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen . Ibsen's realistic drama in prose has been "enormously influential ." </P> <P> In opera, verismo refers to a post-Romantic Italian tradition that sought to incorporate the naturalism of Émile Zola and Henrik Ibsen . It included realistic--sometimes sordid or violent--depictions of contemporary everyday life, especially the life of the lower classes . </P>

Which of the following is an author of american literary realist fiction