Realisms

The word realism is used with different meanings in many fields - philosophy, art, and literature, for example, each have movements or schools characterized by the name 'realism'.

In the visual arts and literature, realism is a middle 19th century movement which started in France. The realists sought to render accurately everyday characters, situations, and dilemmas. Realism began as a reaction to romanticism, in which subjects were treated idealistically.

The movement is anticipated by the work of the French author Stendhal, but the "father" of realism is generally thought to be Honore de Balzac. His Comedie Humaine is a panoramic view of 19th century France in over 70 novels. Gustave Flaubert clearly defined the movement with his brilliant novel of the bourgeois Madame Bovary. Balzac and especially Flaubert influenced to a high degree the later realists and naturalists: Guy de Maupassant, Joris Karl Huysmans, and, in England, George Eliot.

By 1890, many began to reject realism, thinking it too external and superficial. Modified versions, however, were employed by such authors as Thomas Hardy, who realistically presented extreme pessimism, and Henry James, who sought to understand his characters psychologically.

At the turn of the 20th century, realism as a dominant movement in France gave way to symbolism and neo-romanticism.