Abstract

"Realism is one of the most common terms in the critical vocabulary, yet has been described as a 'monster with many heads desperately in need of disentangling'. Professor Furst's collection is ideally placed to help the student understand its complexities and the range of responses it has evoked. She begins with the reflections of such classic 'realist' writers as Balzac and Henry James which provide a context for a series of major twentieth-century readings. After this overture the curtain is raised with contributions from humanist, Marxist, structuralist, rhetorical, reader-oriented, psychoanalytic, deconstructionist and feminist criticism, including excerpts from an international range of critics such as George Lukacs, Roland Barthes, David Lodge and J. Hillis Miller. A substantial Introduction, Headnotes and a Glossary of Terms provide a wider context for the essays and explain terms that may be unfamiliar to the student. A selective annotated Bibliography provides a guide to further reading"--Back cover.