Introduction to Literary Theories and Criticisms (Enla 422), 2011

Technically, realism refers to a late-19th-century literary movement—primarily French, English, and American—that aimed at accurate detailed portrayal of ordinary, contemporary life. Realism is a loose term that can refer to any work that aims at honest portrayal over sensationalism, exaggeration, or melodrama. Habib (2005) explains that Realism was by no means a uniform or coherent movement; a tendency toward realism arose in many parts of Europe and in America, beginning in the 1840s. He further illustrates the major figures of the period by mentioning: Flaubert and Balzac in France, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy in Russia, George Eliot and Charles Dickens in England, as well as William Dean Howells and Henry James in America. The most general aim of realism was to offer a truthful, accurate, and objective representation of the real world, both the external world and the human self (See also Abrams 1999. To achieve this aim, realists resorted to a number of strategies: the use of descriptive and evocative detail; avoidance of what was fantastical, imaginary, and mythical; adhering to the requirements of probability, and excluding events which were impossible or improbable; inclusion of characters and incidents from all social strata, dealing not merely with rulers and nobility; focusing on the present and choosing topics from contemporary life rather than longing for some idealized past; emphasizing the social rather than the individual (or seeing the individual as a social being); refraining from the use of elevated language, in favor of more colloquial idioms and everyday speech, as well as directness and simplicity of expression (Habib, 2005:471).Quoting the words of two scholars, Habib notes to us realism historically can be viewed as a way of thinking that continues to this day – has been not just a literary technique but a vast historical phenomenon with economic, ideological, philosophic, and religious ramifications. This is neatly indicated in Fredric Jameson’s statement that “the realistic mode . . . is one of the most complex and vital realizations of Western culture, to which it is . . . well-nigh unique.” Lilian Furst describes realism as a product of “a pervasive rationalist epistemology that turned its back on the fantasies of Romanticism” (Habib, 2005:474).

Realism can be seen as a reaction against romanticism, an interest in scientific method, the systematizing of the study of documentary history, and the influence of rational philosophy all affected the rise of realism. According to William Harmon and Hugh Holman, "Where romanticists transcend the immediate to find the ideal, and naturalists plumb the actual or superficial to find the scientific laws that control its actions, realists center their attention to a remarkable degree on the immediate, the here and now, the specific action, and the verifiable consequence" (A Handbook to Literature, p: 428). Broadly defined as "the faithful representation of reality" or "verisimilitude," realism is a literary technique practiced by many schools of writing. Though many critics have suggested that there is no clear distinction between realism and its related late nineteenth-century movement, naturalism, the latter one can be seen as an intensification of the former.

Habib (2005:472) clearly explains naturalism and its resultant feature as follows. Naturalism is the ancient term for the study of nature and it explicitly endeavors to emulate the methods of the physical sciences, drawing heavily on the principles of causality, determinism, explanation, and experimentation. He further says that some naturalists also drew on the Darwinian conception of nature and attempted to express the struggle for survival, as embodied in the connections between individuals and their environments, often portraying the physiologically and psychically determined dimensions of their characters as overwhelmed by accidental circumstances rather than acting rationally, freely, and heroically upon the world. Hence, as Habib adds, naturalism can be viewed as a more extreme form of realism, extending the latter’s scientific basis still further to encompass extremely detailed methods of description, a deterministic emphasis upon the contexts of actions and events, upon the hereditary psychological components of their characters, and by refusing to accommodate any kind of metaphysical or spiritual perspective. The pioneers of naturalism include literary historian Hippolyte Taine (1828– 1893) and Émile Zola.