American Realism - what can we learn from different definitions?

Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 2,7, University of Koblenz-Landau, language: English, abstract: This paper is written for a seminar titled "American Realism in Context"; It argues on the question how we can define "realism"; analyzed essays by Levin, Fluck, Becker, Zola and others will show their point of view; a view on the definition according to Plato and Aristotle follows; the conclusion will try to give an overview and a final answer to the paper's question; one chapter argues about what "reality" has to do with realism and to what extent it can be compared.excerpt conclusion "There exist lots of definitions of what "realism" is. To differ all theses I will analyze some author's statements directly... ; Levin: According to Levin the novel is the ..." ; Fluck: Realism is also a kind of fiction but the word "fiction" is redefined in his essay. With his statement that "fiction" cannot be replaced by ..." ; Becker: Becker says in his essays Documents of Modern Realism that realism... ; Émile Zola: I mention him because he is considered to be the founder of "naturalism". This is a literary field... ; Donald Pizer: According to Pizer realism is "the literature of the normal and representative" . He refers to Frank Norris who says ..."