Realist fiction: Social Realism

1. Realist fiction:Social Realism ENG 201 Introduction to Literature Prof. Everson

2. Realist fiction A form of fiction that presents average or common people experiencing events that could happen in real life. Sometimes are based on “true stories”: especially crime or extreme event type of stories Set in contemporary (same) period of author’s writing. Is contrasted to other genres: romance, fantasy, myth, legend, fairy tales, science fiction, and historical fiction. Young children (ages 2-6) need help to distinguish between realistic fiction and fantasy .

3. Realist fiction – a modern genre Ian Watt in The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding (1957) argues that the Western “novel” developed through a mode of writing called realism which became the dominant way of writing fiction in modern capitalist era (18th century and on) – and many critics claim that realism and realist fiction still dominates today. Watt argues that with the modern realist form plot and characterization changed: the “plot had to be acted out by particular people in particular circumstances, rather than, as had been common in the past, by general human types against a background determined by the appropriate literary convention” (15) Question: What are some examples of popular fiction (TV shows, comic books, movies, commercials, etc) that use a realist mode? Do you think realism still dominates today?

4. Social Realism • a subgenre (type) of realist fiction • associated with social movements, especially social justice movements in the United States – such as workers’ rights, Civil Rights, women’s rights, human rights, animal rights, environmentalism, etc. • Should not be confused with “socialist realism” which was a specific type of social realism that was promoted as the official style for communist Russia (USSR).

5. An international movement in literature and art that began in the 1930s to the 1950s – mostly in response to the Great Depression and then aftermath of World War II. U.S. American writers and painters inspired by the Mexican muralist painting of Diego Rivera (and others) in the 1920s-1930s. Themes: social and racial injustice and economic difficulties by showing real people’s struggle to survive; Main characters: working class people (trabajadoras) or marginalized people (ethnic minorities, homeless, disabled etc.) as heroic; Purpose: to valorize the poor and working class; to expose the greed or indifference of the rich and powerful people Social realism - definition