Realism

In William Dean Howells' words, Realism is ' the truthful treatment of material'. But to the question 'what is truth', philosophy gives not only different answers, but also different kinds of answers, representing different approaches to the same question. That's why 'Realism' is also a term which can't be defined with merely few words. In fact 'Realism' is a notoriously treacherous concept. Vladimir Nobokov, comments on this in his post script to Lolita, as it is 'one of the few words which can mean nothing without quotes'. Many critics agree that when asking about the definition of 'Realism', it is reality itself which they bring into question. Reality is seen as something which has to be attained and this attainment is a continuous process that never allows the concept to stabilize or the word to offer a convenient mould of meaning.

In 18th century the words were considered to be 'the images of things'. For example, Melville in his Moby Dick gathers together every possible definitions and descriptions of a whale and what he shows is that you can never catch a live whale ----- 'You can only have a dead whale' ----- from the images of whale, as Tony Tanner comments in his book Realism, Reality and the Novel, published in 1969. Later this concept was modified in present language as the image of reality. But it should be remembered that this concept also makes it clear that language is the instrument to achieve reality, not just to create images, carrying with in its own material of truth.

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