Realism and Henry James Essay -- essays research papers fc

Realism, in the broadest of definitions, is the faithful way of reality or verisimilitude. The realist is considered to be the philosophical extrovert . Within the mise en scene of American literature, realism spans the time period from the Civil War to the turn of the century. Some claim that American realism was the product of a country shaken by war combined with technological advances and increased consciousness of nationhood. Realism, according to Weinberg, denies the continuum of time as meaningful dimension of experience because time cannot be seen or touched . In essence, realism was a solution to the problem of the past. It made a religion out of newness and contemporaneity . However, some critics of realism take a leak criticized it as having been exposed as an insidious agent of the capitalistic-imperialistic-bourgeois hegemony .The advent of realism was much appreciated by writers everywhere for it was a response to the changing cultural needs. William doyen Howells, Mark Twain and Henry James are few of the pioneers of American realism. With time, Howells abandoned the idea of the past and worked solely in the representation of American life. Twain, however, was in a limbo between his bonds with the past and a promise to the present. At this time it was James, who reconciled the ties of history and with an intellectual commitment to the present. James wrote The Art of fabrication in 1884 in a critical response to Walter Besants lecture on the same topic. Jamess basic aim in this revue was to critically analyze Besants thoughts on fiction whilst putting forward what he believed the art and form of fiction to be. James contends that fictional writing is the representation of real life. In The Art of Fiction he claims that a novel is a proof of life and curiosity . At another point in this discourse he writes, The only reason for the existence of a novel is that it does attempt to represent life . This is synonymous with the definition of reali sm that I have stated above which claims that realism in literature is the representation of life. In the essay, James highlights the basis, which he believes, are essential for a piece of fiction to flex art. According to him, a piece of fiction should be informative and should not carry with it the load of moral judgments or analysis. The characters and their psychological process should... ...r, Everett. "William Dean Howells system of Critical Realism." ELH 16 (1949) 151-166.     Crowley, John W. "The Portrait of a Lady and The Rise of Silas Lapham The Company They Kept." (n.d.) 117-134.     Dicovery of a Genius William Dean Howells and Henry James. Ed. Albert Monrdell. New York Twayne, 1961.     James, Henry. "The Art of Fiction." Longmans pickup (1884).      James, Henry. What Maisie Knew. New York, 1909.     Pizer, Donald. "Late Nineteenth-Centur y American Realism An Essay in Definition." Nineteenth-Century Fiction 16 (1961) 263-269.     Rouse, H. Blair. "Charles Dickens and Henry James Two Approaches to the Art of Fiction." Nineteenth-Century Fiction 5 (1950) 151-157.     Salomon, Roger B. "Realism as Disinheritance Twain, Howells andJames." American Quarterly 16 (1964) 531-544.     Weinberg, Bernard. French Realism The Critical Reaction, 1830-1870. (Oxford, 1937) pp. 122-123.