1 - Realism

People' s Democratic Republic of Algeria
Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research

University Echahid Hamma Lakhdar, El-Oued
Department of English Language
Literature / Second Year
Teacher: Dida Nassireddine
[email protected]
2023/2024
Realism 1850- 1900:
The development of realism:
Realism is an artistic movement that began in France, in the 1840s and spread to
many parts of Europe and America. The emergence of realism coincided with remarkable
developments such as the publication of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859); the
reign of Queen Victoria in 1837; the 1861–1865 American Civil War (the abolition of
slavery); and imperialism.
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, founded in 1848 by a group of English painters,

poets, and art critics, is also credited with the creation of realism. This group aimed to
revive art qualities such as moral seriousness, directness, and minute representation of
detail. For example, Gustave Courbet's painting "The Stone Breakers" ushered in the
development of realism, which sought to represent reality and contemporary culture as
accurately as possible. Among the pioneers of realism are Honore´ de Balzac, Gustave
Flaubert, Emile Zola in France, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy in Russia, George Eliot, Thomas
Hardy, Anthony Trollope, and Charles Dickens in England, and William Dean Howells
and Henry James in America.
The realists endeavoured to apply a scientific approach to literature. They aimed

for a "truthful, accurate, sincere, and objective representation of the real world, both the
external world and the human self" (Habib 471). They rejected all the principles of
Romanticism, including idealisation, escapism, nominalism, historical retrospection,
imaginary worlds, subjectivity, the unusual, and the fantastic. Instead, it focused on the
immediate, the here and now, everyday life, the common, middle-class society, social
change, objectivity, experience, pragmatism, utilitarianism, mimesis, positivism,
relativism, and epistemology.
1. Positivism is “the view that all valid knowledge must be based on the methods of
empirical investigation and verifiability”.
2. Mimesis is a Greek word for “imitation”. It was first used by Aristotle to describe how
tragic plays where it referred to “the actors’ direct imitation of words and actions”
(Morris, 5). Mimesis means the representation of external reality, which is related to
verisimilitude. Verisimilitude means “the appearance of being true or real; likeness or
resemblance to truth, reality or fact” (Morris, 5). Writers strive to present fiction as a
mirror that reflects reality without distortion: reality as it is, not as it should be. In her
novel, Adam Bede, George Eliot identifies one of the key objectives of realism as being
"to give a faithful account of literary realism in nineteenth-century Britain of men and
things as they have mirrored themselves in my mind" (Morris, 80).
3. Epistemology is the study of how human beings acquire knowledge, its nature and
origin.
4. Pragmatism is an approach that evaluates theories or beliefs in terms of the success of

their practical application.
5. Utilitarianism is the belief that actions are correct if they are useful, benefit a
majority, or maximize the happiness of the greatest number of people in society.
6. Relativism is the doctrine that knowledge, truth, and morality exist in relation to
culture, society, or historical context, and are not absolute.
The objectives of realism;
To achieve this objective, realists used a number of strategies:
1. Descriptive and evocative details
2. Avoiding the fantastical, imaginary, and mythical
3. focusing on all probable events, and excusing the impossible and improbable ones.
4. The presentation of characters and incidents from all social classes, not only the
nobility.
5. It emphasises the present or contemporary life rather than idealising the past.
6. It sees the individual as a social being.
7. The refrain from the use of elevated language, favouring colloquial idioms, everyday
speech, directness and simplicity.
8. The possibility of total objectivity
9. On a moral basis, accept people in their current, imperfect, state.
10. in-depth psychological characterization (Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and

Punishment, Dickens’ David Copperfield, Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary (1857)
11. Addressing themes of socioeconomic conflict (Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens),
12. emphasis on direct experience and induction (truth through repeated experience).
13. In America, regionalism and local colour fiction
14- Causality (foreshadowing and facts)
15. Fixed identity
16. The omniscient narrator’s fixed moral position
17. The importance of direct observation and facts, chronological plots, continuous
narratives relayed by omniscient narrators, and 'closed endings'
18. The literary text expresses the author’s psychology, biography, and age.
19. Beauty is perceived in "ordinary" things and events.
20. Realists "show" their readers rather than "tell" them.
21. Focusing on the "plausibility" of events.
22. Shifting from the use of Allegorical names to particular, fa
References:
Morris, Pam. Realism. Routledge, 2004.
Habib, M. A. R. A History of Literary Criticism: from Plato to the Present. John Wiley &
Sons, 2008.

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People' s Democratic Republic of Algeria

Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research

Literature / Second Year

Teacher: Dida Nassireddine

The development of realism:

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, founded in 1848 by a group of English painters,

The realists endeavoured to apply a scientific approach to literature. They aimed

4. Pragmatism is an approach that evaluates theories or beliefs in terms of the success of

The objectives of realism;

To achieve this objective, realists used a number of strategies:

1. Descriptive and evocative details

2. Avoiding the fantastical, imaginary, and mythical

6. It sees the individual as a social being.

9. On a moral basis, accept people in their current, imperfect, state.

10. in-depth psychological characterization (Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and

11. Addressing themes of socioeconomic conflict (Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens),

13. In America, regionalism and local colour fiction

14- Causality (foreshadowing and facts)

15. Fixed identity

16. The omniscient narrator’s fixed moral position

19. Beauty is perceived in "ordinary" things and events.

20. Realists "show" their readers rather than "tell" them.

21. Focusing on the "plausibility" of events.

22. Shifting from the use of Allegorical names to particular, fa

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