The document discusses the complexities of the term 'realism' in literature and art, highlighting its two primary meanings and its contested nature against idealism and romanticism. It explores challenges in representing reality, noting that representations cannot fully capture what they depict, and introduces concepts like mimesis and verisimilitude. Furthermore, it addresses various societal factors that influence realism, such as race, gender, and class, while considering realism as both a philosophical and technological problem.

1. Realism & Representation!
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2. 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.

3. 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.)

4. 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”

5. 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

6. 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

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

8. Verisimilitude: the appearance
of being true or real; likeness
or resemblance to truth,
reality, or fact

9. Facts are not neutral
Claims to objectivity, impersonality, and neutrality
are always political and ideological

10. From what angles can we engage realism?

11. •novels!
•short stories!
•sound recordings!
•early cinema!
•photography!
•painting!
•journalism!
•poetry
form, genre, and media

12. style, technique, method
•What techniques do
authors invent and
deploy to produce
“reality effects”?!
!
•What kinds of cultural
training have informed
their stylistic techniques?

13. social, cultural, !
and economic factors
•race!
•gender!
•class!
•nationality!
•immigration!
•sexuality!
•labor!
•capital

14. realism as a !
philosophical problem
•What is the relationship
between realism on the
page and reality outside
the book?!
!
•Recent turn toward new
realist and materialist
philosophies (object-
oriented ontology,
speculative realism, etc.)

15. 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

16. Occurrences, Events, !
Experiences, Sensations
Notes, Records, !
Inscriptions
Selection, Combination,!
Remixing
Art, Aesthetics, !
Representation

17. This slideshow by Craig Carey is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
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08.24.2014