American Literature / Unit 11 AML 1001 short lesson, about 20 seconds
What Realism Claimed and Against What
Captions available
The idea
Realism set out to show life as ordinary people actually live it, against the romance's improbable heroes and rescues. Its writers chose commonplace subjects, plausible motives and consequences that follow from character, and they treated the novel as a way of telling the truth about a society.
In practice
Ordinary lives, plausible consequences.
Where people slip
Realism defines itself against the romance.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
- Nothing. This is a starting point.
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