Description
Module description
鈥淭here is a very dangerous thing in literature,鈥 wrote one of Balzac鈥檚 critics in 1847, 鈥渁nd that is the excess of truth.鈥 Like many critics of the mid-nineteenth century, this one worried that novelists were unveiling things one might simply not want to see. What he called the 鈥渋ncessant, merciless observation鈥 of the 鈥減hysiological鈥 novelists came increasingly to be labelled by other critics as a 鈥渞ealist鈥 vision that endangered literary and social values.
Twentieth century critics--among them Luk谩cs, Auerbach, Barthes, and Jameson--have given us retooled notions of what served, in the nineteenth century, as a label of denigration. We take for granted today that the nineteenth century novel tradition includes something we might call 鈥渞ealist鈥 and that the visual avant-garde of the mid-nineteenth century might best be grouped under that label.
This module sets out to re-examine those premises, by looking at the material conditions for the definition of 鈥渞ealism鈥 in the nineteenth century. Through readings of contemporary press criticism of the novel and painting, we will try to reposition the concept of realism. Through discussions of nineteenth-century theories of vision we will elaborate a different framework for thinking about the realist gaze. Student presentations will develop new ways of thinking about nineteenth-century observation and the visual and literary realms it engaged.
Topics to be considered: Realism as a critical concept; 鈥渞ealism鈥 in Stendhal and Delacroix and the tragedies of history; Balzac and vision; the social novel; women 鈥渞ealists鈥?; the reception of Courbet and Manet; censorship and the realist novel; naturalism, the morgue, and the ends of realism; and photography鈥檚 real. Novels by Stendhal, Balzac, Sue, Flaubert, and Zola. Painting, photography, 19th-century criticism, and contemporary theoretical texts also to be considered.
Preparatory Reading and Required Texts:
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Suggested *background reading* before our course: Flaubert, Madame Bovary (bring a copy of the "Proc猫s," included in any modern ed., to our first class)
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Stendhal, Le Rouge et le noir (Garnier-Flammarion or Livre de poche)
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Eug猫ne Sue, Les Myst猫res de Paris (Gallimard Quarto, ed. Lyon-Caen; or the 4-vol. Charles Gosselin 18431844 edition via Gallica), Premi猫re-Sixi猫me Parties
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Honor茅 de Balzac, Cousine Bette (ONLY Folio edition, ed. Pierre Barb茅ris)
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Gustave Flaubert, L'脡ducation sentimentale (any modern edition)
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脡mile Zola, Th茅r猫se Raquin (Gallimard Folio Classiques or Gallimard Folio Plus)
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Paintings by Eug猫ne Delacroix (esp. Libert茅 guidant le peuple, Mus茅e du Louvre)
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Gustave Courbet (see Gustave Courbet, Exh. Cat. Grand Palais/Metropolitan Museum, 2008), and 脡douard Manet (see Fran莽oise Cachin, et al., Edouard Manet, Exh. Cat. Grand Palais/Metropolitan Museum, 1983).
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Photography by Bruno Braquehais and Auguste Bell
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Secondary Reading
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Critical texts will include excerpts from Auerbach, Watt, Luk谩cs, Barthes, Bersani, J. Hillis Miller, Franco Moretti, Fredric Jameson, as well as readings from the following:
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Linda Nochlin, Realism
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Michael Fried, Courbet's Modernism
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T. J. Clark, The Painting of Modern Life
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Jonathan Crary, Techniques of the Observer
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Margaret Cohen and Christopher Prendergast, Spectacles of Realism
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Margaret Cohen, The Sentimental Education of the Novel
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Elizabeth Anne McCauley, Industrial Madness: Commercial Photography in Paris, 1848-1871
Please note: This module description is accurate at the time of publication. Amendments may be made prior to the start of the academic year.
Module deliveries for 2024/25 academic year
Last updated
This module description was last updated on 19th August 2024.
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