Question

Which had the greatest influence on the development of Realism?

Answer 1

Realism is a widely used term in the arts. In literature, it came into being as a response to Romanticism. While Romanticism focused on the inner, spiritual side of human nature, and was skewed toward the exceptional and Sublime, Realism focused on the mundane, the everyday. Realism focussed on the ideology of objective reality and revolted against exaggerated emotionalism of Romanticism. It was more "democratic" in orientation, interested in the life of the majority, not the elite. As an artistic strategy, it was an attempt to focus literature on the objective, the concrete; the physical and social milieu was depicted in painstaking detail to convey the ethos of the society. Characters were portrayed in their social setting, which shaped their actions and their choices. Realism is often referred to as an attempt to portray things "as they are," but in fact, it was itself another artistic strategy, employing verisimilitude for artistic ends.