Realism in literature is a direction whose main feature is a truthful depiction of reality and its typical features without any distortion or exaggeration. This literary movement originated in the 19th century, and its adherents sharply opposed sophisticated forms of poetry and the use of various mystical concepts in works.
Signs of direction
Realism in 19th century literature can be distinguished by clear signs. The main one is an artistic depiction of reality in images familiar to the average person that he regularly encounters in real life. Reality in works is considered as a means of a person's knowledge of the world around him and himself, and the image of each literary character is worked out in such a way that in it the reader can recognize himself, a relative, colleague or acquaintance.
In the novels and short stories of realists, art remains life-affirming, even if the plot is characterized by a tragic conflict. Another sign of this genre is the desire of writers to consider the surrounding reality in its development, with each writer trying to detect the emergence of new psychological, social and social relations.
Features of this literary movement
Realism in literature, which replaced romanticism, has the attributes of art, seeking the truth and finding it, seeking to transform reality.
Literary characters in the works of realist writers made discoveries after much deliberation and dreams, after analyzing subjective attitudes. This feature, which can be distinguished by the author’s perception of time, determined the distinctive features of realistic literature of the early twentieth century from traditional Russian classics.
Realism in XIX century
Representatives of realism in literature, such as Balzac and Stendhal, Thackeray and Dickens, Jord Sand and Victor Hugo, most clearly reveal the themes of good and evil in their works, while avoiding abstract concepts and showing the real life of their contemporaries. These writers make it clear to readers that evil lies in the lifestyle of bourgeois society, capitalist reality, people's dependence on various material values. For example, in Dickens’s novel Dombey and Son, the owner of the company was heartless and callous not by nature. It’s just that such character traits came to him because of the availability of a lot of money and the ambition of the owner, for whom the main life achievement becomes profit.
Realism in literature is devoid of humor and sarcasm, and the images of the characters are no longer the ideal of the writer himself and do not embody his cherished dreams. From the works of the 19th century the hero practically disappears, in the image of which the author's representations are visible. This situation is especially pronounced in the works of Gogol and Chekhov.
However, this literary trend is most clearly manifested in the works of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, describing the world as they see it. This was expressed in the image of characters with their own strengths and weaknesses, a description of the mental torment of literary heroes, a reminder to readers of harsh reality, which cannot be changed by one person.
As a rule, realism in literature also affected the fate of representatives of the Russian nobility, as can be judged by the works of I. A. Goncharov. So, the characters of the heroes in his works remain controversial. Oblomov is an upright and gentle person, but because of his passivity, he is not able to change his life for the better. Similar qualities are possessed by another character in Russian literature - the weak-willed, but gifted Boris Paradise. Goncharov managed to create the image of an “antihero” typical of the 19th century, which was noticed by critics. As a result, the concept of “Oblomovism” appeared, referring to all passive characters, the main features of which were laziness and lack of will.