Lecture 13. Realism and critical realism

LECTURE 13. REALISM AND CRITICAL REALISM
Plan:

1. 
   The Period of Realism and Naturalism
   
2. 
   Literary Features of Realism
   
3. 
   Major Authors and Works (France , Russia , Germany )
   

As a movement following and reacting against romanticism, realism along with naturalism was active in Europe in the period between the middle and the end of the 19^th century, a period coinciding with the Victorian Age in England (1837-1901). In America, however, the period was extended to the first few decades of the 20^th century. During this period, France went through the Second Republic and the Second Empire, with Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III or “Napoleon the Little”) leading his country into

the Crimean War (1854-1856), the Italian struggle for unification (1859-1860), and the Mexican War ((1863-1867) and ending his own regime with the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871). During this period, too, Bismark used the victory of his country in the Franco-Prussian War to complete German unification and helped William I establish the German Empire and seize the French provinces of Alsace and Lorraine.
In 1861, the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed. During the Franco-Prussian War, Victor Emmanuel marched on Rome, defeated the pope’ s French forces, and unified Italy. In Russia, there had been a sharp cleavage between the conservative Slavophils and the liberal Westernists. The reign of Nicholas (1825-1855) was quite despotic, and that of Alexander II (1855-1881) had liberal reforms, including emancipation of the serfs in 1861. Alexander III gave Russia a relatively calm reign. However, widespread discontent was found and clamor for socialistic revolution was heard in Russian society towards the end of the century. During this period except for some years of interregnum, Spain was still under the reign of the French House of
Bourbon. From 1814 to 1905, Sweden was in union with Norway under monarchic government. In 1861 the Civil War broke out in America and it lasted till 1865. After a period of reconstruction and growth, the U.S. was able to defeat Spain in the Spanish-American War (1898) and emerge as a world power.
During this period, the West witnessed not only great political changes but also great social and economic changes. The Industrial Revolution which had begun in England spread over the Continent and across the Atlantic, transforming Western living conditions radically. As railroads and steamships made transportation much easier than before, many Western countries saw rapid urbanization along with growth
in population and advances in medicine and hygiene. As the middle classes with their increasing accumulation of wealth became stronger and stronger in political power, the aristocracy declined noticeably. Meanwhile, the industrial laborers began to be felt as a political power as well, and the struggle between the capitalists and the laboring classes also began to appear. Later in this period, as economic crisis came
with mass unemployment, jingoism arose in many countries.
The social and economic changes were accompanied by shifts in scientific and philosophical outlook. Darwin’ s theories of evolution, it is recognized, had a devastating impact on the religious faith of the Western world. Comte’ s positivism promoted the application of scientific methods (observation and experimentation) to the study of society while Taine’ s determinism promoted the consideration of hereditary and environmental factors in history and literature. Bentham and Mill’ s utilitarianism promoted the idea of taking “utility” or “the happiness of man” as the one and only measure of right and wrong, and the idea brought about great reactions to it. Finally, Marx and Engels’ dialectical materialism and economic determinism drove the world towards communist socialism. All these new thoughts regarding nature and society helped, no doubt, push literature to the realistic or naturalistic tendency that concurred with the invention of photography (in 1839).