What kinds of theoretical issues does realism present us with?

Résumé du document

?Realism' is a cultural movement that became predominant in the middle of the XIXth century. It is an aesthetic mode which aimed at showing life "as it is". Realism, in literature, refers to the insistence of representing reality without embellishment. Leading realist writers were Honoré de Balzac, Gustave Flaubert and George Eliot or Tolstoy. The genre most closely associated with realism is ?the novel'. The work of realist writers was related to the tradition of the Enlightenment as realism sought to attain rationality and a scientific precision. Realist writers focused their work on commonplace subjects like psychological misery, madness or the bourgeois (middle class).

Extraits

[...] Flaubert limits the perspective of the book to a character's point of view, Emma: this choice is an expression of the author's omnipotence and presence. As a result, realist verisimilitude is just an effect achieved through the use of literary conventions and stylistic techniques. Besides, the possibility of an observational truth about the world has been questioned in the twentieth century. Since the realist framework and the belief in an observable truth are questioned, realist novels legitimacy to write about the objective world can be challenged. [...]

[...] In Zadie Smith's novel, On beauty stage, the author makes a description p.9 “Zora eating a kind of toasted pocket filled with cheese, pointed to the television”(1). This is not a mere reflection of reality, but a reconstruction of it. The author chooses the relevant elements for his description, orders them and describes the scene. If it was reality itself, any reader would have in mind the same image of the scene; however there are many different ways to represent this scene in one's mind. [...]

[...] Thus, what kinds of theoretical issues does realism present us with? Is realism only giving to readers an “illusion of reality”? Critiques claim that realist novels never achieve to reflect reality but only construct a subjective representation of reality. Realism in literature is confronted to issues such as the original subjectivity of the writer, the construction of a reality depending on a system of meaning which varies from a person to another, and the conservatism of realism. During the twentieth century, realist novels have repeatedly been questioned by modernist critiques. [...]

[...] As a result, an exact and objective reproduction of reality is almost unattainable: there can never be a total adequacy with reality because descriptions are expressions of the author's voice. For example, Balzac is a royalist, coming from a bourgeois family. He is therefore likely to describe reality differently from a writer coming from another social class; however, reality is the same for both of them, and the description should be the same. There cannot be invisibility of the writer's personality in his writings. Furthermore, realist texts deploy writerly conventions that have no equivalent with experiential reality: use of punctuation, denotations like said” in dialogues. [...]

[...] Moreover, critiques stress the productive function of language: “neither meaning exists positively in its own right” As a result, realist texts cannot give a unitary vision or reflection of reality. Realism has also been accused of being conservative, because of its desire of “moral certainties”. In spite of these theoretical critiques, realism managed to reach a wider social range, considering readers and characters represented, than earlier literature genres. The achievement of realism could be best perceived if we consider the writer's force to render the world in an impersonal manner, rather than evaluating realist novel according to its degree of exactitude with reality. [...]