Development of Style and Form

19TH-CENTURY REALIST NOVEL

One character: focus of the novel – usually life story

Mimetic form – diary, travelogue, letters etc.

Prose seen as inferior to poetryNot really a literary form but rather a cheap entertainment for (mainly) women

EARLY NOVELS

Novel s become more sophisticated

Narration: omniscient narrationdialoguesmany protagonists (not just one)wide social backgrounddiscursive distance: irony and satire

19TH CENTURY

revealing unknown worldspenetrating mindcharting social relations

POLITICAL FUNCTION

1. Original plots – not universal stories

2. Characters as special people – recognizable individuals, not symbolic figures

3. Importance of when it takes place4. Importance of where it takes

place

IAN WATT: FORMAL REALISM

1. Domestic subject matter.2. Characters are ordinary people presented as complex.3. Moralistic in its appeal.4. Language does not draw attention to itself.5. Events are arranged in the chronological order.6. The narrative reaches a clear resolution.7. The narrator does not draw attention to herself or

himself.8. Detailed description of the events characters and

setting.9. Realist operators – the inclusion of arbitrary detail.10. Appeal to the cultural code supposedly shared by the

recipients of the text.

REALIST TEXT