REALISM

[`rɪəlɪzm]

реализм

realism: translation

▪ political

▪ gritty, stark

▪

the stark realism of Loach's films

▪ literary

▪ magic, magical, psychological, social, socialist (all literature)

▪

a complex novel of psychological realism

▪

social realism in French film-making

▪

the Soviet adoption of socialist realism in art

▪ degree, level

▪

The computer animation offers an unprecedented level of realism.

▪ dose, element

▪

They should temper their enthusiasm with a healthy dose of realism.

▪ add, bring, lend

▪

Clever lighting and sound effects brought greater realism to the play.

▪ achieve

▪

Children can get frustrated when they are unable to achieve realism in their drawings.

▪ realism about

▪

the band's realism about their chances of success

▪ realism in

▪

realism in Dutch art

▪ a sense of realism

REALISM: translation

   Historical authenticity refers to how closely a director attempts to replicate the historical details of the film’s period. Thus, authenticity is often superficial. Realism, on the other hand, refers to how closely a director interprets life. True depth of character, arguably, is universal and timeless. Questions arise, then, as to which elements make the greater film—authenticity or realism. To go to extremes, a film like Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man (1995) pays little attention to historical authenticity but probes deeply into human character and the philosophical implications of postmodern life, while a film like Wyatt Earp (1994) maintains scrupulous historical authenticity but plays more like a documentary film than a dramatic exploration of the human experience.RED RIVER (1948). John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Joanne Dru, Walter Brennan, Dimitri Tiomkin (music), Howard Hawks (director). John Ford had been using John Wayne in his Cavalry Trilogy after World War II, so Howard Hawks decided to give Wayne a try as well in this big-budget Western that set the standard for the great classic Westerns of the 1950s. The film represents perfectly the values underlying classic Westerns. The film opens in 1851 and tells the story of the building of a cattle empire along with the first cattle drive from Texas to Abilene, Kansas. Thomas Dunson (Wayne) leaves a wagon train, and his wife (he plans to get her later), to pursue his selfish ambitions. The next day he sees smoke and learns that savages have burned the wagon train and killed his wife. Dunson’s response is puzzling. It is almost as if there is always another day. So he heads to Texas across the Red River and steals land to start a ranch, taking with him a young boy named Matt (played by Clift when the character is older) who escaped from the Indiansat the wagon train. Agents of the land’s legal owners—Mexicans with a land grant going back several generations— attempt to protect the property, but Dunson kills them and solves his problem. Dunson’s right to claim the land from the Mexicans due to his superior power is unquestioned in the film. Years later, Dunson herds cattle to market, opening up a new trail. He runs into problems at every turn. Matt, though he has been loyal to Dunson all his life, wisely and justifiably mutinies against him, along with the other men. Howard Hawks probably assumed his audience would consider Wayne’s character normative and his actions in stealing land and mistreating his men totally acceptable. Today, however, we look back on these attitudes with curiosity.

   As the story continues, Matt enters a superfluous relationship with Tess (Dru), primarily so that she can bear him sons. The original audience probably considered this an appropriate motive as well. Dunson and Matt fight in the end, and Matt defeats Dunson. That should be the end, but, Dunson takes his beating and pronounces Matt a man. Again, Wayne’s character is put forth as the norm, as the ultimate exemplar of masculinity. Thus, we must assume that whatever qualities Matt shows in his mutiny are subsumed in his desire to be a man, whether to please his father figure or to please his homoerotic other half. The original audience would have seen this as a great narrative of rugged individualism, of Manifest Destiny, of authority winning out, of masculinity subduing weak femininity. Postmodern viewers, however, see a side of the characters that the original audience would deny. The music by Tiomkin, particularly the haunting “Missouri” in the middle, lends majesty to the film, while WalterBrennanadds levity through his comic sidekickrole. The romance between Matt and Tess is hot and heavy, though complicated by her willingness to have Matt’s sons.

Realism: translation

   Inspired by the French writers Honore de Balzac (17991850) and Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880), the literary style called realism was a major force in Scandinavian letters from around 1840 through the 1880s, but particularly in the 1870s. The term denotes an attempt to describe life as it is, without idealization or the subjectivity of the romantics, against whom the realists reacted. The best early example of realism in Scandinavian literature is arguably the novel Det gåran (1839; tr. Sara Videbeck, 1919; Why Not?, 1994) by the Swedish writer Carl Jonas Love Almqvist (1793-1866), which discusses the position of women in the family and in society, one of the major topics of the realists. In Norway Camilla Collett treated a similar theme in her seminal novel Amtmandens Døttre (1854-1855; tr. The District Governor's Daughters, 1992). Also in Norway, the peasant stories of Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1832-1910) anticipated the prose writings of the 1870s through their use of everyday language.

   Realism coexisted with late romantic idealism in Scandinavian literature throughout the 1840s, 1850s, and 1860s, but in 1871 the Danish critic Georg Brandes (1842-1927) decisively called for a literary practice that would use literature to debate modern problems and issues. Most progressive writers in Scandinavia took up this challenge. Brandes s countryman Jens Peter Jacobsen produced two realist novels that adhered to the new program, Fru Marie Grubbe (1876; tr. Marie Grubbe, 1917) and Niels Lyhne (1880; tr. 1919, 1990), while the Swedish writer August Strindberg (1849-1912) wrote a great novel, Roda rummet (1879; tr. The Red Room, 1967), which offers a panoramic view of life in Stockholm.

   Brandes's influence was at least as great in Norwegian literature.Many of the plays of Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) from the 1870s and early 1880s come to mind, for example, Samfundets støtter (1877; tr. The Pillars of Society, 1888) and Et dukkehjem (1879; tr. A Doll's House, 1880), which deal with such favorite realist topics as corruption, the role of women, and outmoded ideas. Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson vigorously advocated for Brandes's view of the purpose of literature and practiced it in his plays En fallit (1875; tr. The Bankrupt, 1914), Redaktøren (1875; tr. The Editor, 1914), and Kongen (1877; tr. The King, 1914). The novelist Jonas Lie wrote Tremasteren "Fremtiden " (1872; tr. The Barque"Future," 1879), Norway's first novel about business matters, and later Familjen paa Gilje (1883; tr. The Family at Gilje, 1920), which is set in the 1840s and debates the right of women to make their own life choices.

   Elements of realism have persisted in Scandinavian literature up to the 21st century.

   See also Aho, Juhani; Bregendahl, Marie; Blicher, Steen Steensen; Branner, Hans Christian; Ekman, Kerstin; Faldbakken, Knut; Heinesen, William; Høeg, Peter; Hoel, Sigurd; Hoem, Edvard; Jæger, Frank; Jakobsdottir, Svava; Kyrklund, Willy; Lagerkvist, Pär; Lehtonen, Joel; Madsen, Svend Age; Møller, Poul Martin; Nexø, Martin Andersen; Noren, Lars; Solstad, Dag; Stangerup, Henrik; Svendsen, Hanne Marie; Thorup, Kirsten; Undset, Sigrid; Vesaas, Tarjei; Winther, Christian.