Introduction
Realism can be broadly defined as the truthful depiction of reality and is a literary technique practiced by many writers in different historical periods. As William Dean Howells put it, “Realism is nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material.” More narrowly defined, literary realism is a movement in art, which started in the nineteenth century in France, from where it has spread to many other countries and lasted until the beginning of the twentieth century. Realist authors described their contemporary life as it was, portraying everyday activities and experiences without embellishment or interpretation. Before the nineteenth century, major literary characters were royalty, dukes, knights, ghosts, monsters and other supernatural creatures. In the middle of the nineteenth century attention shifted to common people – farmers, merchants, lawyers and peasants. George Eliot, William Dean Howells, Honoré de Balzac, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Gustave Flaubert, Ivan Turgenev, Guy de Maupassant, Anton Chekhov, Bolesław Prus and Émile Zola are all representatives of the realism movement in literature.
Realistic Literature
Artists and literary realists were heavily influenced by political and social changes that were taking place in Europe and in the United States, in particular by the development of science, the growth of commerce and the spread of democracy. Representatives of middle and lower class were becoming increasingly important in the life of the countries and in literature as well. Society was placing more value on an individual and, as a response to this, in literature characters were becoming more important than plot. Writers started using dialects and local vernaculars to make their stories even more realistic. The realists wanted to bring literature closer to science and assumed they can obtain truth by the simple observation and recording of reality.
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Ethical issues were another big topic in realist literature. The authors accurately and in detail depicted moral dilemmas and choices of their characters, but did not try moralize or to teach its audience. Explicit authorial comments and interpretations diminished by the end of the nineteenth century as objectivity became increasingly important. “The basic axiom of the realistic view of morality was that there could be no moralizing in the novel.”
Some of the writers felt that realism focused too much on external reality. Henry James, for example, was one of the authors who turned to a psychological realism, which laid more emphasis on intricate work of the human mind.
Realism in France
As it has already been mentioned, realism started in France in the middle of the nineteenth century as a reaction to romanticism. The first major works of realism began with the novels of Gustave Flaubert and the short stories of Guy de Maupassant.
Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, a realistic portrayal of bourgeois life, was one of the cornerstones of Realism. Flaubert managed to turn journalism into art, carefully depicting all his characters and settings in great detail. Flaubert does not judge his character Emma Bovary, a bored, middle-class housewife, for her lifestyle and for having love affairs with two men. The author only describes her feelings and behaviour in objective and impersonal tone: “What exasperated her was that Charles did not seem to notice her anguish. His conviction that he was making her happy seemed to her an imbecile insult, and his sureness on this point ingratitude. For whose sake, then was she virtuous? Was it not for him, the obstacle to all felicity, the cause of all misery, and, as it were, the sharp clasp of that complex strap that bucked her in on all sides.” Flaubert’s approach to writing was that the novelist should not judge, teach, or explain but remain neutral.
Honoré de Balzac is one of the most prominent representatives and is often considered the grandfather of literary Realism. In his series of novels, The Human Comedy, Balzac tried to depict various aspects of contemporary French society between the years 1789 and 1848, portraying thieves, prostitutes, aristocrats and political leaders. The title of the book is chosen in contrast to Dante's Divine Comedy, which had described everything but the earthly human reality. Obsession with details and long description of settings is characteristic of both Balzac and Flaubert, making their writing almost tangible.
Realism in the United States
Realism in American fiction lasted from 1865 to the turn of the century. The Civil War just, reconstruction and urbanization, industrialization and technological advances were changing American society. Mark Twain and William Dean Howells were the pioneers of realism in the United States. The novelist Henry James, one of the greatest realists, developed a subgenre, the psychological novel, which is concerned with motivation and behaviour of the characters.
Theodor Dreiser is an exceptional American writer, journalist, and a pioneer of naturalism in the American literature. Though, not only is he known as a contributor to the literary naturalism. Dreiser’s precise descriptions and analytical observations, as well as characters that are portrayed to be the product of their environment, integrated harmoniously with and contributed greatly to American literary realism.
Dreiser’s works show the emergence of capitalism and desire of consumption being two leading forces behind people’s actions, as opposed to the earlier important, outdated sentiment. His characters usually change in class and status over the course of the narration, and fall for the risk of being trapped in the machine of the cruel society. “Sister Carrie” is a text grounded upon the conventions of realism, though built with the addition of interesting traits of naturalism. According to Nicole Smith, the characters in the novel are “creatures not only of the natural world, but also of the environment”. The environment of capitalism, urbanism, and class inequalities. In fact, naturalism is usually set in an urban setting, where the characters are wisps in a sea that are brought from shore to shore, by forces stronger than them, like capitalism. If to believe the above to be the textbook definition of naturalism in literature than “Sister Carrie” should be seen as a perfect example of it.
Realism in Russia
In Russia, realism was represented in the plays and short stories of Anton Chekhov and novels of Leo Tolstoy. Tolstoy’s two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are considered among the greatest novels of all time and masterpieces of realist literature.
Anton Chekhov portrayed the Russian life of his time, and he is regarded as the outstanding representative of the late nineteenth-century Russian realist school. Chekhov himself was born in a small town and was familiar with the realities of lower-middle-class and peasant life, whose feelings and tragedies he reflected objectively and unsentimentally in his writings. Themes that dominate in Chekhov's writing are petty tyranny of government officials; the sufferings of the poor as well as their rudeness; unpredictability of feeling; the ironical misunderstandings and disillusionments. Many of the Chekhov’s stories don’t have a real plot, as for example, “The Huntsman." In this story, a peasant refuses to go home with his wife because he prefers the freedom of a sporting life and living with another woman. There is nothing in the story that actually changes the relationship between the husband and wife. Details of the scene, the heat and stillness, reflect the hopeless stagnation of the couple's marriage. In his works, Chekhov maintained strict authorial detachment. His stories “Grisha,” “The Witch,” “Easter Night,” “Heartache,” and “The Kiss” all demonstrate Chekhov's ability to show life from within the minds of his characters, describing significant details and experiences without preaching or moralizing. Chekhov’s life has greatly influenced his depiction of peasant life, for example in “Peasants” and “In the Ravine.” Chekhov refused to idealize his peasants as many other writers did. In “Peasants,” the author shows the reality of low-class life with all its brutality, greed, and sordidness.
Chekhov has been often criticized for choosing not to pass judgment. To his critics the writer has answered: "To think that it is the duty of literature to pluck the pearl from the heap of villains is to deny literature itself. Literature is called artistic when it depicts life as it actually is.... A writer should be as objective as a chemist."
Conclusion
The work of all these writers, who were mentioned, illustrates the main principle of realism, that writers must not select facts in accord with defined aesthetic, ethical or moral believes, but must write down their observations impartially and objectively. Concerned with the faithful representation of life, which frequently lacks form, the realists tended to downplay plot in favor of character and to concentrate on middle-class life and preoccupations, avoiding larger, more dramatic issues.
In “The Novel and its Future,” George Parsons Lathrop said, “Realism sets itself at work to consider characters and events which are apparently the most ordinary and uninteresting, in order to extract from these their full value and true meaning. It would apprehend in all particulars the connection between the familiar and the extraordinary, and the seen and unseen of human nature.”
Sources:
Chase, Richard. The American Novel and Its Tradition. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1957.
Everett, Carter. Howells and the Age of Realism. Philadelphia and New York: Lippincott, 1954.
Smith, Nicole. ““Sister Carrie” by Theodore Dreiser: Naturalism, Capitalism and the Urban Sea”. Accessed on June 07, 2011 from.
Yarmolinsky, Avrahm, editor. Letters of Anton Chekhov, translation by Bernard Guilbert Guerney and Lynn Solotaroff, Viking, 1973.
Some of the writers felt that realism focused too much on external reality. Henry James, for example, was one of the authors who turned to a psychological realism, which laid more emphasis on intricate work of the human mind.
Realism in France
As it has already been mentioned, realism started in France in the middle of the nineteenth century as a reaction to romanticism. The first major works of realism began with the novels of Gustave Flaubert and the short stories of Guy de Maupassant.
Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, a realistic portrayal of bourgeois life, was one of the cornerstones of Realism. Flaubert managed to turn journalism into art, carefully depicting all his characters and settings in great detail. Flaubert does not judge his character Emma Bovary, a bored, middle-class housewife, for her lifestyle and for having love affairs with two men. The author only describes her feelings and behaviour in objective and impersonal tone: “What exasperated her was that Charles did not seem to notice her anguish. His conviction that he was making her happy seemed to her an imbecile insult, and his sureness on this point ingratitude. For whose sake, then was she virtuous? Was it not for him, the obstacle to all felicity, the cause of all misery, and, as it were, the sharp clasp of that complex strap that bucked her in on all sides.” Flaubert’s approach to writing was that the novelist should not judge, teach, or explain but remain neutral.
Honoré de Balzac is one of the most prominent representatives and is often considered the grandfather of literary Realism. In his series of novels, The Human Comedy, Balzac tried to depict various aspects of contemporary French society between the years 1789 and 1848, portraying thieves, prostitutes, aristocrats and political leaders. The title of the book is chosen in contrast to Dante's Divine Comedy, which had described everything but the earthly human reality. Obsession with details and long description of settings is characteristic of both Balzac and Flaubert, making their writing almost tangible.
Realism in the United States
Realism in American fiction lasted from 1865 to the turn of the century. The Civil War just, reconstruction and urbanization, industrialization and technological advances were changing American society. Mark Twain and William Dean Howells were the pioneers of realism in the United States. The novelist Henry James, one of the greatest realists, developed a subgenre, the psychological novel, which is concerned with motivation and behaviour of the characters.
Theodor Dreiser is an exceptional American writer, journalist, and a pioneer of naturalism in the American literature. Though, not only is he known as a contributor to the literary naturalism. Dreiser’s precise descriptions and analytical observations, as well as characters that are portrayed to be the product of their environment, integrated harmoniously with and contributed greatly to American literary realism.
Dreiser’s works show the emergence of capitalism and desire of consumption being two leading forces behind people’s actions, as opposed to the earlier important, outdated sentiment. His characters usually change in class and status over the course of the narration, and fall for the risk of being trapped in the machine of the cruel society. “Sister Carrie” is a text grounded upon the conventions of realism, though built with the addition of interesting traits of naturalism. According to Nicole Smith, the characters in the novel are “creatures not only of the natural world, but also of the environment”. The environment of capitalism, urbanism, and class inequalities. In fact, naturalism is usually set in an urban setting, where the characters are wisps in a sea that are brought from shore to shore, by forces stronger than them, like capitalism. If to believe the above to be the textbook definition of naturalism in literature than “Sister Carrie” should be seen as a perfect example of it.
Realism in Russia
In Russia, realism was represented in the plays and short stories of Anton Chekhov and novels of Leo Tolstoy. Tolstoy’s two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are considered among the greatest novels of all time and masterpieces of realist literature.
Anton Chekhov portrayed the Russian life of his time, and he is regarded as the outstanding representative of the late nineteenth-century Russian realist school. Chekhov himself was born in a small town and was familiar with the realities of lower-middle-class and peasant life, whose feelings and tragedies he reflected objectively and unsentimentally in his writings. Themes that dominate in Chekhov's writing are petty tyranny of government officials; the sufferings of the poor as well as their rudeness; unpredictability of feeling; the ironical misunderstandings and disillusionments. Many of the Chekhov’s stories don’t have a real plot, as for example, “The Huntsman." In this story, a peasant refuses to go home with his wife because he prefers the freedom of a sporting life and living with another woman. There is nothing in the story that actually changes the relationship between the husband and wife. Details of the scene, the heat and stillness, reflect the hopeless stagnation of the couple's marriage. In his works, Chekhov maintained strict authorial detachment. His stories “Grisha,” “The Witch,” “Easter Night,” “Heartache,” and “The Kiss” all demonstrate Chekhov's ability to show life from within the minds of his characters, describing significant details and experiences without preaching or moralizing. Chekhov’s life has greatly influenced his depiction of peasant life, for example in “Peasants” and “In the Ravine.” Chekhov refused to idealize his peasants as many other writers did. In “Peasants,” the author shows the reality of low-class life with all its brutality, greed, and sordidness.
Chekhov has been often criticized for choosing not to pass judgment. To his critics the writer has answered: "To think that it is the duty of literature to pluck the pearl from the heap of villains is to deny literature itself. Literature is called artistic when it depicts life as it actually is.... A writer should be as objective as a chemist."
Conclusion
The work of all these writers, who were mentioned, illustrates the main principle of realism, that writers must not select facts in accord with defined aesthetic, ethical or moral believes, but must write down their observations impartially and objectively. Concerned with the faithful representation of life, which frequently lacks form, the realists tended to downplay plot in favor of character and to concentrate on middle-class life and preoccupations, avoiding larger, more dramatic issues.
In “The Novel and its Future,” George Parsons Lathrop said, “Realism sets itself at work to consider characters and events which are apparently the most ordinary and uninteresting, in order to extract from these their full value and true meaning. It would apprehend in all particulars the connection between the familiar and the extraordinary, and the seen and unseen of human nature.”
Sources:
Chase, Richard. The American Novel and Its Tradition. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1957.
Everett, Carter. Howells and the Age of Realism. Philadelphia and New York: Lippincott, 1954.
Smith, Nicole. ““Sister Carrie” by Theodore Dreiser: Naturalism, Capitalism and the Urban Sea”. Accessed on June 07, 2011 from
Yarmolinsky, Avrahm, editor. Letters of Anton Chekhov, translation by Bernard Guilbert Guerney and Lynn Solotaroff, Viking, 1973.
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If you need a custom essay, dissertation, thesis, term paper or research paper on your topic, EffectivePapers.com will write your papers from scratch. We work with experienced PhD and Master's freelance writers to help you with writing any academic papers in any subject! We guarantee each customer great quality and no plagiarism!
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