definition of * What is Realism?

* What is Realism?

                The word  Realism has been used in confusingly varied applications. Realism is used specially in two ways: 1) to denote a literary movement of the 19^th century especially in prose and 2) to designate a recurrent way of representing life in literature. Realistic fiction often opposed to Romantic fiction. Realism describes a common tendency to represent real life in fiction and painting. It is also associated with the rise of the 19^th century novel particularly in France.  Realism represents life as it is.

              The Realist writers do not care for idealism. Realism is generally associated with representation of the everyday life of the Middle class characters. Realism is selective in the material and prefers the average, the commonplace, and the everyday life. The characters are usually of the middle class or the working class who live through ordinary experiences of childhood, love marriage, parenthood, and death. We find the moral behavior of man in society rather than the mere representation of the material reality.

                Realism's most important influences have been on fiction and theater. It had profound effects on Russian and American writers. The real problems of life, the real feelings and realistic approach to life are writers are not afraid of depicting ugliness of life. They are against sentimentalism and emotionalism. In France it is Zola, in Russia Tolstoy Gorky and in America Howells and in England Shaw etc are the realism writers Flaubert  Madam Bovary is a Famous realist novel.

*   What is  Naturalism?

                Naturalism is a literary movement that emerged in France, America and England during the late 19^th early 20^th century. Naturalism expresses a post Darwinian view of life. Naturalism portrays human beings as higher animals lacking free will. Their lives are controlled by the natural forces. Naturalism rejects the idealized portrayals of life and attempts complete  accuracy, objectivity, and Frankness in depicting life. Emile Zola is the chief proponent of Naturalism in France. He insisted that the novelists should analyze his subject with minuteness. Naturalism is an outgrowth of Realism and shares with it the devotion to accurate description of life in society. Unlike Reality, Naturalism is grounded in a philosophy of its own.

                A Naturalist novelist displays a scientific objectivity in the description, characters in these novels and plays are typically the middle class people, motivated largely by such cannibalistic drives as sex, hunger and fear. In philosophy, Naturalism is a doctrine that everything exists is a part of nature. Though Naturalistic writing if scientific and impersonal it is less selective and more inclusive. Naturalism presents the pessimist picture of life. It has been criticized from the beginning for being gloomy and sordid.

                                          -Baldaniya Vanita Velabhai.