Abstract
This article elaborates on a model to assess the evolution of formal realism in the novel since its inception up to the modernistic turn starting in the last decade of the nineteenth-century. I argue that realism in the novel is connected to a central philosophical issue: representation. Yet the very concept of "representation" became a point of difficulty in literature and in modern philosophy, seeing one cannot compare linguistic representations with reality itself as a test for accuracy because what we mean by "reality" already involves issues of representation. To better understand this puzzle, I examine two explanatory-models - one focusing on the critical development of literary conventions, the other on psycho-sociological developments - concluding that none of them can, alone, explain the impulse toward realistic representation and the evolution of key formal literary techniques that led to the modernistic turn.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 9-23 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Revista De Letras |
Volume | 55 |
Issue number | 1 |
Publication status | Published - 2015 |
Keywords
- Narrative techniques
- Philosophy and literary criticism
- Representation in the novel
- Self-overcoming realism