Defining Literary Realism: Core Characteristics and Novel Structure

Defining Literary Realism: Core Characteristics

Realism emerged as the dominant cultural movement of the nineteenth-century bourgeois society, rejecting the fantasy and idealism characteristic of Romanticism. The essential features of realistic literature include:

• Observation and Accurate Description of Reality

  This is the basic principle of Realism. The interest in observing reality parallels the observation methods characteristic of the experimental sciences. Writers often take documented field notes about characters or settings, or consult books to extract accurate information.

• Focus on Contemporary and Local Facts

  Against the evasion in space and time typical of Romanticism, realist authors write realistically about what they know. The focus shifts to the everyday, eliminating subjectivity and fantasy, and controlling the excesses of imagination and sentimentality.

• Frequent Purpose of Social and Political Criticism

  This critical intention varies depending on the writer's ideology. Conservative authors describe reality to show its degradation and demand a return to traditional values. Progressives also address social evils, arguing that these are due to the persistence of a conservative mentality that impedes progress toward a new world.

• Simple and Sober Style

  Realists reject Romantic rhetoric. Stylistic accuracy is the ideal, as the writer intends to mimic the work of the scientist.

• Preference for the Novel

  The literary genre par excellence was the novel, which, according to the realists, was best suited to reflect reality in its entirety. The typical features of realistic fiction are:

  • Plausibility in Realistic Fiction

    The stories are presented as fragments of reality. Improbable events, amazing facts, and unusual adventures disappear from the narrative.

  • Individual or Collective Protagonists

    The protagonists of the novels are either individuals or large social groups. In the first case, the focus is on the protagonist's psychological analysis; in the second, it is the description of environments. We therefore distinguish two types of novels: the psychological novel and the social novel (or novel of social atmosphere).

  • The Omniscient Narrator

    The narrator completely manages the threads of the story: they know what will happen, they know the thoughts of the characters, they intervene in the work with facts and judgments about characters, and they address comments directly to the reader.

  • Didacticism and Thesis Novels

    It is common for authors to intend their novels to impart a moral or social lesson to the reader. This is particularly true in so-called thesis novels, in which the writer wishes to demonstrate a general idea to which the plot, characters, and atmosphere of the play are subordinate.