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Examples Of Realism In Realism

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The present paper is a discussion of Anita Desai’s novel In Custody in the light of various dimensions of realism as pointed out by Raymond Williams, a dominion literary personality in his essay Realism and The contemporary novel taken from his book The Long Revolution. Here Williams makes a cultural inquiry in literary composition. The word realism is not new. In fact, literary realism is the trend, beginning with mid nineteenth century French literature and extending to late nineteenth and early twentieth century authors, towards depictions of contemporary life and society as it was, or is. Yet realism is not some specific object to be pinned down. In fact it is a way of describing certain method and attributes used in the development of experience. Williams sets out to drive some generalizations and gives his versions of realism keeping in mind the techniques used in the contemporary fiction. Williams fourfold classification of realism in contemporary novel, into social documentary, social formula, personal documentary and personal formula can be aptly applied to Desai’s novel In Custody which although being a fictional work is grounded to expose realities. It portrays the life experiences not only through the enrichment of the locales with natural beauty and the depiction of social, political, religious or economic dilemma or diversity in contemporary living but also by exploring the psyche of the character. …show more content…

Raymond Williams in his essay Realism and The contemporary novel reconsiders the various descriptions of realism and sets out to drive some generalizations on the methods and substance of contemporary fiction. Williams gives an insight on the existing variations of the term realism, his views on the development of the modern novel and lastly a possibly new meaning of

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