This course tackles one of the longest-standing themes in literary study: the question of literature's relation to real life. Much of the seminar will be devoted to close reading of novels from the main era of realism in literature, the second half of the 19th century, but we will also consider the status of realism in contemporary fiction. And throughout the course, we will explore realism as both a technique and a philosophy, as a series of literary practices that create the illusion of verisimilitude, and as a kind of writing that claims an intimate knowledge of lived experience. |