This document discusses realism and naturalism in literature. It defines realism as aiming for truthful representation of reality, while naturalism takes realism further by emulating scientific methods. Key characteristics of these movements are descriptive detail, contemporary subjects, and colloquial language. The document examines major figures like George Eliot, Émile Zola, and Henry James, outlining their works and theories on realism and naturalism.

2. Realism and Naturalism
 Definition
 Main Characteristics
 Main Figures
 George Eliot
 Émile Zola
 Henry James

3. Realism and Naturalism

4. Definition of Realism:
 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.

5. Definition of Naturalism:
 Naturalism can be
viewed as a more
extreme form of
realism.

6. Definition of Naturalism:
 Naturalism explicitly
endeavors to emulate the
methods of the physical
sciences, drawing heavily on
the principles of
causality, determinism, explan
ation, and experimentation.

7. Realism and Naturalism

8. Main Characteristics:
1. the use of descriptive and evocative
details.
2. avoidance of what was
fantastical, imaginary, and mythical
3. adhering to the requirements of
probability, and excluding events which
were impossible or improbable
4. inclusion of characters and incidents from
all social strata, dealing not merely with
rulers and nobility

9. Main Characteristics:
5. focusing on the present and choosing
topics from contemporary life rather than
longing for some idealized past
6. emphasizing the social rather than the
individual (or seeing the individual as a
social being)
7. refraining from the use of elevated
language, in favor of more colloquial
idioms and everyday speech, as well as
directness and simplicity of expression

10. Realism and Naturalism

11. George Eliot (1819–1880)
 One of the most succinct yet poignant
statements of realism was made by the
major Victorian novelist George Eliot.
 Her novels include The Mill on the Floss
(1860).

12. George Eliot (1819–1880)
 The principles of her realism:
1. the artistic pursuit of truth, a truth based on direct
experience of the world.
2. experience is complex and must not be reduced to
expression in preconceived categories; the
representation of experience must be
authentic, refusing to pander to current prejudices
and popular taste.
3. moral basis: we should accept people in their
actual, imperfect, state, rather than holding them up
to impossible ideals.
4. her view of beauty: beauty lies in no secret of
proportion, but in the secret of deep human
sympathy

13. George Eliot (1819–1880)
 Eliot cleverly presents her realism not merely
as pertaining to literary technique but as
encompassing an entire way of looking at the
world: the pursuit of truth, the reliance on
one’s own experience, the acceptance of
people as they are, the perception of beauty in
ordinary things were all aspects of this vision;
and they were all underlain by a religious
disposition which itself was humane and
based on human sympathy rather than
endless doctrine and the imposition of
unrealistic ideals.

14. Émile Zola (1840–1902)
 Zola was the leading figure of French
naturalism.

15. Émile Zola (1840–1902)
 Perhaps more than any other major
literary figure, Émile Zola registered in
his fiction and his critical theory the
rising tide of scientific advance in the
later nineteenth century.

16. Émile Zola (1840–1902)
 Zola’s essay The Experimental Novel
(1880) attempted a justification of his
own novelistic practice, and became the
seminal manifesto of naturalism

17. Henry James (1843–1916)
 Though Henry James was an American
novelist, the experience underlying
James’ creative and critical work was
international in scope.

18. Henry James (1843–1916)
 It is in his essay “The Art of Fiction”
(1884) that James most succinctly
expressed his critical principles as well
as a justification of his novelistic
endeavor.

19. Henry James (1843–1916)
 James’ central thesis is that the novel must be
free, its freedom is first worked out in relation
to the kind of novelistic realism on which
James insists: “The only reason for the
existence of a novel is that it does attempt to
represent life . . . as the picture is reality, so
the novel is history” (166–167). In attempting
to represent life, the novelist’s task is
analogous with that of the painter; and in
searching for truth, the novelistic art is
analogous with philosophy as well as history.
This “double analogy,” says James, “is a
magnificent heritage” (167).