Realism

From your in-class responses:

Some of the works you put in the “unrealistic” category:
Borat, Harry Potter, Reality T.V., Grey’s Anatomy, Sopranos, Big Love, Danielle Steele novels, The Day After Tomorrow, 24, Accepted, Snakes on a Plane, "Life as a Dream”

Realistic works: Law and Order, The Wire, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Gandhi, Shopgirl, Don’t Tell Mama, Titanic; Exodus, Fight Club, Pride and Prejudice; The Queen, The Simpsons; The Family Guy; Push


You gave different reasons for why works struck you as “unrealistic”—many works, like Harry Potter, are generically “fantasy”; they deal explicitly with magic and other supernatural events, that is the “impossible”: examples include Heroes and most Science Fiction; The Lakehouse;

Other examples mentioned works with plots that are highly improbable but not “magic”: Snakes on a Plane, 24; James Bond, Déjà Vu.

Others mentioned works which purport to depict something much closer to life as it lived by real people, but where the characters’ personalities, words and actions, or lifestyles, fail to persuade us that these could be real people. Many of these stories feature highly dramatic or “soap opera” events that depart from the experience of day-to day living. examples: the Sopranos, Grey's Anatomy, Danielle Steele;

A few mentioned works that make strong claims to represent reality, claims which can’t be supported after critical scrutiny: reality T.V., Soviet propaganda; a show like "Big Love" that purports to give an inside look into a particular sub-group. Borat could possibly be put in this category.

Your choices of “realistic” works were more wide-ranging. Some emphasized works that depict actual historical events and people such as Titanic, Gandhi, The Queen;

Others noted works that depict “real” serious social problems, such as Fight Club or Push;

Many of you suggested that your choice created a persuasive picture of a social context; depict characters facing “real life” conflicts or challenges, create pictures of human beings that convince us: Catcher in the Rye,

Some of you pointed to works like the Simpsons that challenge and discredit overly rosy or stereotyped versions of people or families; or like Curb Your Enthusiasm emphasize highly flawed characters.

I would add a few points:

As I am using them, the words “Realism” and “realistic” cannot refer to reality, only to representations. We use the word "realistic” to characterize how close something is to reality. Reality or lived experience cannot be close to or resemble itself—it simply is. Realism is best used as a term of literary criticism, denoting either a set of artistic practices, genres, or historical period.

Works that strike us as strongly realistic often seem highly original and vice versa. A major reason works strike us as “unrealistic” is that they feature events or characters that “only happen on T.V.” or in books; the events are too exciting, the characters are too glamorous or heroic, their houses are too beautiful, their emotions are too volatile and interesting. When a work successfully departs from a formula or the ‘usual” we often perceive it as realistic—I would compare the show “Numbers,” which despite its math gimmick resembles most other cop/FBI shows I have ever seen and thus feels preposterous, and shows like “The Wire” or “NYPD Blue” which for complex reasons never feel like any other cop show. It is important to be aware that often the innovation is in form rather than in content: innovations in creating plot lines, dialogue, even camera angles and cutting.


One recurring trick of realism is to emphasize the “ordinariness” of people; often this involves depicting them as highly flawed but not villains, as in Larry David, or as having “real-world” jobs and problems as in Shopgirl. There is a very strong tendency to feature middle class characters--for reasons you should think about, they appear the most ordinary. As I said in class, the episode in which Crusoe spends a year making a boat that he discovers he can’t move is strongly realistic: it departs sharply from the kinds of heroic or tragic mistakes that fictional characters usually make. It does not hold back from making the character appear foolish but the depiction cannot be described as satiric—instead we find ourselves using words like “human” to describe his behavior. That is an effect of Defoe’s realism.

Most important point: I think it is crucial to remember that the episode in Crusoe is as fictional as anything in a Harry Potter movie; likewise, with “Numbers” and “The Wire”: none of these depicts events that actually happened. So you must ask yourself, how does a writer or director create such a strong impression of reality in us? As critical readers it is important to move beyond simply comparing works to “real life.” “Realism” depends much more on the style of depiction—on the artist’s choices--than on the subject matter being depicted. Depending on the treatment, works that depict historical events can feel totally fake, while stories featuring purely fictional characters and even improbably events can feel realistic.