ABSTRACT
In Unit 4, Recognizing genre, we looked at the possibility of listing characteristics of particular genres. In the traditional view, the characteristics of realism revolve particularly around its subject matter and its message or moral intentions. The subject matter of realist novels is generally concerned with what is considered in the West to be ‘ordinary life’ – centring on the home, on work and on human relationships. Most of the events described are not about heroic deeds but are, rather, the seemingly ordinary events within the lives of ordinary people, their emotions, their relationships, etc. One of realism’s aims is to present ordinary people as complex and multifaceted. Although realist texts are about individual characters and their lives, their message – often developed in terms of a secular, socially based morality – is supposed be true for all readers.1
