Saturday, January 21, 2012

Realism

Realism is a very interesting movement in literature and art. I think that realism's boundaries are pretty well described for painters and other artists, as their portraits are almost like photographs of the scene that is being replicated. Photographs themselves are usually almost the exact same as their subjects.
But, literature is a completely different story. I don't think that a writer can ever be perfectly objective. In theory, realism sounds like a logical step after romanticism. They tried to accurately produce their world in front of their eyes, but isn't the world different through everyone's eyes. I mean even two people standing side-by-side will tend to pick up on different things that they see. I just don't think that realism can every be truly real. Anyways, I like impressionism much better, since the artists agree that it is simply an impression.

3 comments:

alyb said...

I agree that a writer can never create a story that is truly a work of realism. They would definitly be influenced by their own opinions. However i do find the impressionistic art more beautiful. The lack of harsh line and the paint strokes appeal to me much more than the realism art.

ParkerC said...

Based off of our Fleming book, I couldn't really see a differnece in a lot of the realism and impressionism, except if they where extremes in either category. The ideas of the painted are definetly different but I think you could get different impressions from realist art

sara pendleton said...

I think that something can be considered realism without being totally a depiction of reality; for instance fiction can be real even it its completely fictional. When you write nonfiction, you choose what to put in and leave out. I don't think this stream-lining of facts is necessarily any less real. I would also argue that even writers like Faulkner, Steinbeck, and J.D. Salinger employ realism even though they mostly write fiction; just because it's fiction doesn't mean it's any less realistic. I mean a realistic painter can choose to add an extra pear to or subtract a few shadows from a still life for example; it's still a realistic painting but it's not a photographic rendering. Yeah, I don't know, I think that complete and utter fiction can be truly realism. When you write a memoir or autobiography or even biography they call it "creative non-fiction" meaning you have some creative licence but it's still non-fiction.