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Realism and the Humanities

Decent Essays

Realism in and of itself is a broad subject, and has many different areas that can be discussed. The Realism Movement directly challenged Romanticism and the romanticists, because it was more interested in showing how things were, rather than feelings, beauty, and subjectivity that the romantics favored. Many things were gained from the movement, and its effects still stay around today. This is obvious in various works, like Chekhov and Ibsen, and in artwork that is still revered today. The Realism Movement impacted many different areas in literature and the arts, and spanned many countries and centuries, affecting and changing how these things were, and are still, viewed by the people.
Realism was first established in France during the late eighteenth/ early nineteenth century to describe literary and visual works where the aim was to create something that accurately showed the world as it was. Nineteenth century Realism was a response to nineteenth century Romanticism, which caused many novelists to focus on the lives and suffering of middle class citizens (“Realism.” The Bloomsbury Dictionary of English Literature). Realism, though, is not just that simple, because there are different types. For example, the realism that existed in America was different from realism in Europe, but also literature in general.
American Realism focused on the rough parts of life, rather than showing life exactly as it was, because during the Civil War writers were unable to see anything

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