What is realism?
Realism is a literary genre that portrays life as it is, with characters and situations that are true to life.
Creating Realism: Bringing Life to Fiction
Realism is a literary genre that seeks to create honest representation of life, by exploring characters, situations, and settings that are true to life.
Realistic writing avoids the romanticism of surrealism and focuses instead on capturing the complexities of the everyday world.
Realist writers aim to create narratives with truthful depictions of society and its people, and often base their stories on careful observation of human behavior, settings, and dialogue.
Realism is a powerful tool that can help writers engage their readers with vivid, relatable characters and authentic voices, while also exploring contemporary issues and themes that speak to the human experience.
Realism has been used by many writers over time to create works that depict everyday life and society in all its forms and complexities. Here are two examples of its use in literature:
An epic portrayal of Russian society during the Napoleonic Wars, War and Peace combines historical accuracy with powerful depictions of human relationships and emotion.
Set in Ohio in the 1940s, The Bluest Eye explores issues of race and identity through the story of a young black girl who longs for blue eyes and a sense of acceptance in a world that devalues her based on the color of her skin.