REALISM

S.BENNANI
Lesson Objectives
 Introducing students to the movement
 Putting the students in the context of the

movement
 Introdcuing students to some of teh leading

figures of the movement and their works.

Suggestions of further readings.
REALISM
Definition of Realism
 Realism is an artistic movement that embodies the portrayal
of the real. It has started in the mid 19th century in France
but climaxed and spread after the First World War.
 According to Britannica, “Realism, in the arts, is the
accurate, detailed, unembellished depiction of nature or of
contemporary life. Realism rejects imaginative idealization
in favour of a close observation of outward appearances. As
such, realism in its broad sense has comprised many artistic
currents in different civilizations.”
Roots of Realism 1

-Aristotle’s concept of mimesis is the ground to this movement; Both Plato and Aristotle
saw in mimesis the representation of nature, including human nature, as reflected in
the dramas of their period.
“Aristotle thought of drama as being "an imitation of an action" and of tragedy as
"falling from a higher to a lower estate" and so being removed to a less ideal situation
in more tragic circumstances than before.”
-Realism started approximately with the invention of photography
-Realism evolves around the idea of depicting the world as it is not as we want it to be.
-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 were agreed
in their position.
-French authors reject the artificiality of both Classicism and Romanticism . 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.
Roots of Realism 2
Realism was stimulated by several intellectual developments in
the first half of the 19th century. Among these were the anti-
Romantic movement in Germany, with its emphasis on the
common man as an artistic subject; Auguste Comte’s Positivist
philosophy, in which sociology’s importance as the scientific
study of society was emphasized; the rise of professional
journalism, with its accurate and dispassionate recording of
current events; and the development of photography, with its
capability of mechanically reproducing visual appearances with
extreme accuracy. All these developments stimulated interest in
accurately recording contemporary life and society.”
(www.britannica.com )
The Rise of Realism in the USA 1860-1914

 The US Civil War (1861-1865) between the slave owners of the South and
the abolitionists of the North was defining moment in US history. After the
war, there was business boom and slaves were soon replaced by cheap
workers coming the New World from Asia and Europe.
 “From 1860 to 1914, the United Stated was transformed from a small
young agricultural ex-colony to a huge, modern, industrial nation. A debtor
nation in 1860, by 1914 it had become the world’s wealthiest state with a
population that had more than doubled, rising from 31 million in 1860 to
76 million in 1900. By World War I, the United States had become a major
world power.” (VanSpanckeren 47)

 The sense of alienation was inevitable after the end of the war and the
industrialization of the country. Bad housing and sanitary conditions,
exploitation and low pay were unavoidable as well.
Point of focus
 Realist writings tend to focus on the description of the
real. Characters are more important that the plot itself
that can be open in realist literature. 

 We cannot speak of American Realism without

referring to canon works:
Author and Works

 Stephen Crane
*The Red Badge of *Courage(1894)
(An American civil war story of a young soldier who
flees from the battle but later feels ashamed and looks
for a wound to be his ‘red badge of courage’)
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets(1893)
(A novella about a young girl who dies mostly because of
the society’s injustice)
Theodore Dreiser
 Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy
(depicts the damage of economic forces and
alienation on the weak or vulnerable
individual)
Mark Twain

The Aventures of Tom Sawyer

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
(Twain’s masterpiece is about the boy Huck
who helps the runaway slave along the
Mississippi River in a series of adventures.)
Jack London
 Jack London’s Martin Eden
Charles Dickens

*Oliver Twist 1837

*A Christmas Carol 1843
(The hero, Mr.Scroodge, is visited by 4
Christmas ghosts and he is being able to see
how people around him live and what they
truly think of him.)
*David Copperfield 1850
*Great Expectations 1861
George Eliot (Pseudonym for the femal writer Mary Ann
Evansx)

 *Middlemarch 1874
Thomas Hardy

*Jude the Obscure (1895)

*Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891). (The novel
traces the life of, Tess, a young girl who
suffers as she challenges the sexual morals
of her Victorian society.)
Tasks/Further Readings
Tasks
1-Read Mark Twain’s The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn
2-Do some further readings about Realism, its
leading figures and its most important works.

 Further readings:
Kathryn VanSpanckeren. Outline_of_American
Literature.