Realism
as Literary Style
Realism as defined by M. H. Abrams in A Glossary
of Literary Terms, sixth edition. Harcourt Brace College Publishers, Fort
Worth, TX
Realistic fiction is often opposed
to romantic fiction. The romance is said to represent life as we would
have it be ¾ more picturesque, fantastic, adventurous, or
heoric than actuality. Realism, on the other hand, is said to represent life as
it really is.
Realistic fiction is written
so as to give the effect that it represents life and the social world as it
seems to the common reader, evoking a sense that its characters might in fact exist,
and that such things might well happen.
Naturalism
The objective study of the behavior
of characters within a realistic setting.
An author will
typically create a realistic setting and then introduces a character into that
setting for the purpose of studying how that character behaves.
Determinism
Deterministic writing takes naturalism
one step further. Influenced by the writings of Charles Darwin, deterministic
writers held that the behavior of individuals is determined by, hereditary
traits and socio-economic forces. Individuals, therefore, lack the free will to
make the changes necessary to avoid the often tragic endings they meet.