ABSTRACT
We saw in Part I that during the twentieth century the tradition of realist writing came under criticism from first a modernist and then a postmodernist perspective. At the centre of these critiques is an accusation that literary realism practises a form of dishonesty, veiling its status as art to suggest it is simply a copy or reflection of life. In so doing, its critics claim, it shores up the complacency of assumed notions and prejudices about the world rather than producing challenging new forms of knowledge. In Part II, I aimed to show that the development of the realist novel during the nineteenth-century was characterised by continuous experimentation with narrative techniques, by democratisation of subject matter and often by confrontation with authority. Yet the very success of realism as a form means that we do now rather tend to take it for granted. One of the main aims of Part III, therefore, is to look more closely at the intrinsic, formal aspects of realist writing in order to appreciate more fully the artistic achievement of creating the effect of ‘being just like life’.
