Realism is a movement in art and literature that began in
the 19th century France as a shift against the exotic and poetic conventions of
Romanticism. Literary realism allowed for a new form of writing in which
authors represented reality by portraying everyday experiences of relatable and
complex characters, as they are in real life. According to William Dean
Howells, "Realism is nothing more and nothing less than the truthful
treatment of material" (qtd.in Carter 36). Literary realism depicts works
with relatable and familiar characters, settings, and plots centered around
society’s middle and lower classes. As a result, the intent of realism
developed as a means to tell a story as truthfully and realistically as
possible instead of dramatizing or romanticizing it. This movement has greatly
impacted how authors write and what readers expect from literature. For
example, playwright Anton Chekhov reflects in most of his writing a rejection
of his romantic contemporaries and predecessors that tended to falsely idealize
life. Chekhov’s plays and stories, instead, are made up of characters that are
frustrated by the realities of their social situations and their own behaviors
and feelings. His characters represent real, ordinary people who want
happiness, but are limited by and entangled in everyday circumstances
(Britannica) Realism in its broad sense
has comprised many artistic currents in different civilizations. In the visual
arts, for example, realism can be found in ancient Hellenistic Greek sculptures
accurately portraying boxers and decrepit old women. The works of the
18th-century English novelists Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, and Tobias
Smollett are realist in approach. Realism was not
consciously adopted as an aesthetic program until the mid-19th century in
France. Indeed, realism may be viewed as a major trend in French novels and
paintings between 1850 and 1880. One of the first appearances of the term
realism was in the Mercure français du XIXe siècle in 1826, in which the word
is used to describe a doctrine based not upon imitating past artistic
achievements but upon the truthful and accurate depiction of the models that
nature and contemporary life offer the artist. The French proponents of realism
agreed in their rejection of the artificiality of both the Classicism and
Romanticism of the academies and on the necessity for contemporaneity in an
effective work of art. They attempted to portray the lives, appearances,
problems, customs, and mores of the middle and lower classes, of the
unexceptional, the ordinary, the humble, and the unadorned. Indeed, they
conscientiously set themselves to reproducing all the hitherto-ignored aspects
of contemporary life and society, its mental attitudes, physical settings, and
material conditions ("Realism"). For the principles of realism, they are as follows: 1. The philosophy of Realism is known as "descendental" or non-transcendental. The purpose of writing is to
instruct and to entertain. Realists were pragmatic, relativistic, democratic,
and experimental. 2. The subject matter of Realism is drawn from
"our experience," - it treated the common, the average, the
nonextreme, the representative, the probable. 3. The style of Realism is the vehicle which carries
realistic philosophy, subject matter, and morality. Emphasis is placed upon
scenic presentation, de-emphasizing authorial comment and evaluation. There is
an objection towards the omniscient point of view. 4-Realistic Complexity and Multiplicity: Complexity
refers to the interwoven, entangled density of
experience; multiplicity indicates the simultaneous existence of
different levels of reality or of many truths, equally "true" from
some point of view. Characteristics
Emphasis on psychological, optimistic tone, details,
pragmatic, practical, slow-moving plot.
Rounded, dynamic characters who serve purpose in plot.
Character more important than plot.
Attack upon romanticism and romantic writers.
Emphasis upon morality often self-realized and upon an
examination of idealism.
Empirically verifiable
World as it is created in novel impinges upon characters.
Characters dictate plot; ending usually open.
Time marches inevitably on; small things build up.
Climax is not a crisis, but just one more unimportant fact.
Causality built into text (why something happens
foreshadowed). Foreshadowing in everyday events.
Realists show us rather than tell us
Representative people doing representative
things
Events make story plausible
Insistence on experience of the commonplace
Emphasis on morality, usually intrinsic, relativistic
between people and society
Scenic representation important
Humans are in control of their own destiny and are
superior to their circumstances
The
years following the Civil War symbolized a time of healing and rebuilding. For
those engaged in serious literary circles, however, that period was full of
upheaval. A literary civil war raged on between the camps of the romantics and
the realists and later, the naturalists. People waged verbal battles over the
ways that fictional characters were presented in relation to their external
world. Using plot and character development, a writer stated his or her
philosophy about how much control mankind had over his own destiny. For
example, romantic writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson celebrated the ability of
human will to triumph over adversity. On the other hand, Mark Twain, William
Dean Howells and Henry James were influenced by the works of early European
Realists, namely Balzac's La Comedie Humaine (begun in the 1830s); Turgenev's
Sportsman's Sketches (1852); and Flaubert's Madame Bovary (1856).These American
realists believed that humanity's freedom of choice was limited by the power of
outside forces. At another extreme were naturalists Stephen Crane and Frank
Norris who supported the ideas of Emile Zola and the determinism movement.
Naturalists argued that individuals have no choice because a person's life is
dictated by heredity and the external environment. ("Realism") There are a few different types of literary realism,
each with its own distinct characteristics. a- Magical Realism: A type of realism that blurs the lines between
fantasy and reality. Magical realism portrays the world truthfully plus adds
magical elements that are not found in our reality but are still considered
normal in the world the story takes place. One Hundred Years of Solitude
by Gabriel García Márquez (1967) is a magical realism novel about a man who
invents a town according to his own perceptions (“What
is Literary Realism”)
b- Social Realism: A type of realism that focuses on the lives and
living conditions of the working class and the poor. Les Misérables by
Victor Hugo (1862) is a social novel about class and politics in France in the
early 1800s. c- Kitchen Sink Realism: An offshoot of social realism that focuses on the
lives of young working-class British men who spend their free time drinking in
pubs. Room at the Top by John Braine (1957) is a kitchen sink realist
novel about a young man with big ambitions who struggles to realize his dreams
in post-war Britain. d- Socialist Realism: A type of realism created by Joseph Stalin and
adopted by Communists. Socialist realism glorifies the struggles of the
proletariat. Cement by Fyodor Gladkov (1925) is a socialist-realist
novel about the struggles of reconstructing the Soviet Union after the Russian
Revolution. Socialist Realism, which was the officially sponsored Marxist
aesthetic in the Soviet Union from the early 1930s until that country’s
dissolution in 1991, actually had little to do with realism, though it
purported to be a faithful and objective mirror of life. Its “truthfulness” was
required to serve the ideology and the propagandistic needs of the state.
Socialist Realism generally used techniques of naturalistic idealization to
create portraits of dauntless workers and engineers who were strikingly alike
in both their heroic positivism and their lack of lifelike credibility. e- Psychological Realism. A type of realism that’s character-driven, focusing
on what motivates them to make certain decisions and why. Psychological realism
sometimes uses characters to express commentary on social or political issues. Crime
and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1866) is a psychological realist
novel about a man who hatches a plan to kill a man and take his money to get
out of poverty—but feels immense guilt and paranoia after he does it. (“What
is Literary Realism”).
f- Naturalism. An extreme form of realism influenced by Charles
Darwin’s theory of evolution, Naturalism, founded by Émile Zola, explores the
belief that science can explain all social and environmental phenomena. “A Rose
for Emily” by William Faulkner (1930), a short story about a recluse with a
mental illness whose fate is already determined, is an example of naturalism. (“What
is Literary Realism”)
