Realism (Critical idiom, 9)

At the opening of this book Grant gives a long list of different kinds of realism beginning with critical realism, durational realism, dynamic realism, external realism.... and going on to ... satiric realism, socialist realism, subjective realism, super- subjective realism, visionary realism. He indicates how complex and over- used the concept is. And he uses for an epigram a phrase of Wallace Stevens,' Realism is the corruption of reality', to indicate just how confusing the situation is in making a definition of what 'realism' means as a literary concept. In this work he traces the origin of the term in philosophical discourse, indicating that by the time it went into 'general circulation' in the nineteenth century it was associated with materialism, but that its origin has it connected with the scholastic doctrine that 'universals have a real existence independent of the objects in which they are found'. He then goes on to trace historically the meaning the term has for various literary creators and critics.including Dr. Johnson Zola, and Joyce. In his conclusion he cites Harry Levin as saying the 'exploration of realism is ultimately subsumed under the larger question of the relationship between life and art'. He considers too the various virtues of 'correspondence and coherence theories ' of truth in regard to realism. Thus he provides , if not an overall theory or definition of the concept, illuminating insights as to how it has been used and perhaps over-used historically.