American literary naturalism: from Hobbes to Bergson -- Stephen Crane and the necessary fiction: "The open boat", "The blue hotel", Maggie, The red badge of courage -- Norris and hard determinism: McTeague -- Dreiser's trilogy and the dilemma of determinism: The financier, The titan, The stoic -- Dos Passos and society's self: Manhattan transfer -- Steinbeck and nature's self: The grapes of wrath -- Faulkner and naturalism's selves: The sound and the fury