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Problems with the term “Realism”1. Two meanings of the term:!

❖ Casual, everyday usage: “that film was realistic”!

❖ Aesthetic term referring to 19th century movement in art!

2. Difficulty of locating realism:!

❖ Where is it? Is it a feeling, a technique, an effect?!

❖ Henry James: “the air of reality”!

3. Realism is associated with many contested terms: !

❖ “factuality,” “truth,” “reality,” “realistic,” “real” !

4. Almost always defined in opposition to something: !

❖ idealism, romanticism, etc.

Where should art draw from?

Nature or Ideals?

• Realism draws from nature, everyday realities, scientific facts, etc. (i.e., from an empirical ground)!

!• As opposed to idealized forms, which

draw from aesthetic or transcendental categories (the beautiful, the spiritual, inspiration, etc.)

Keywords associated with Realism

❖ unromantic, clear-sighted, practical, rational, probable, facts and factuality, materialism, descendent (or non-transcendental), commonness and commonplace, the quotidian and the everyday, the middle and lower class, the sordid and harsh aspects of experience, life “as it is”

Realism is opposed to…more Keywords

❖ idealism, vision, transcendental, supernatural, exotic, romanticism, improbable, fancy, universal truth, heroism, life “as it should be”!

❖ More historically, realism was opposed to pious sentimentalities, sentimentalism, transcendental idealism, genteel timidities, romantic excesses

The Problem of Representation

❖ How can realist literature “reflect” reality?!

❖ Answer: “It can’t.”!

❖ Representations are never identical with what they represent!

❖ Words function differently than mirrors; they are material and technical signifiers

Mimesis: close artistic imitation of social reality“Realism is an interpretation of mimesis, and thus generates potentially contradictory definitions.”

Verisimilitude: the appearance of being true or real; likeness

or resemblance to truth, reality, or fact

Facts are not neutral

Claims to objectivity, impersonality, and neutrality are always political and ideological

From what angles can we engage realism?

•novels!•short stories!•sound recordings!•early cinema!•photography!•painting!•journalism!•poetry

form, genre, and media

style, technique, method

•What techniques do authors invent and deploy to produce “reality effects”?!!

•What kinds of cultural training have informed their stylistic techniques?

social, cultural, !and economic factors

•race!•gender!•class!•nationality!•immigration!•sexuality!•labor!•capital

realism as a !philosophical problem

•What is the relationship between realism on the page and reality outside the book?!

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•Recent turn toward new realist and materialist philosophies (object-oriented ontology, speculative realism, etc.)

realism as a !problem of recording

• What constitutes the “real” is determined by what a culture can technically capture, record, and reproduce. !!

•photography, film, and the phonograph

Occurrences, Events, !Experiences, Sensations

Notes, Records, !Inscriptions

Selection, Combination,!Remixing

Art, Aesthetics, !Representation

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