O Realism it was one of the main artistic movements of the 19th century. In Literature, the initial milestone of this art took place with the publication of the book Madame Bovary, in Gustave Flaubert, in 1857. In Portugal, Antero de Quental and Eça de Queiroz are the main realist writers, and, in Brazil, Machado de Assis is considered the founder of that strand.
Features
Realism was born in the mid-nineteenth century as a kind of reaction to artificialism romantic, which was seen as a representation of the bourgeois elite of the time that left aside the reality gives middle class and of the poor in the societies. Therefore, in Realism, some Principles fundamental, such as:
objectivity;
correctness and clarity in language;
materialism;
emotional containment;
anthropocentrism;
slowness of narrative;
narrator's impersonality;
influence of fundamental theses of the period, such as positivism, marxism, evolutionism and determinism.
Historical context
Two historical facts were fundamental for the creation and growth of the realist movement in the arts: a
French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. The influence of these landmarks occurred, because as a consequence of both, the growth of the power of the bourgeoisie in society arose. With this, cities started to have more and more people, who migrated from the countryside in search of better living conditions through work in the factories and businesses.Realism portrayed it (with an objectivity that flirts, in some cases, with the historical documentation) O daily of these new cities dominated by the bourgeoisie. The life of the poor and middle class population became the subject of narratives, in which (in certain works) a strong tone of irony and social criticism.
Read too: Rachel de Queiroz
Realism in Brazil
Realism, in Brazil, had as starting point The work The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas, by Machado de Assis, released in 1881. Unlike European realist works, Machado's narratives do not seek documentary objectivity in his novels and, in general, use narrators in first person.
This, it is noteworthy, was not common in Europe, since the third-person narrator would better convey the ideal of impartiality of the realist novels of the old continent. In Machado's narratives, we perceive, therefore, not a faithful description of reality, but a deepening of issues of order psychological.
Machado de Assis portrayed the mores, thoughts, moral precepts and ethical gives society Brazilian carioca (Rio de Janeiro was the capital of Brazil). Their narratives are marked by a strong ironic tone and several digressions (writing technique in which the author interrupts the flow of the narrative to build a reflection on what was being told).
In this sense, it is worth reading one of the most famous excerpts from the novel The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas, the end of the chapter "From the negatives":
This last chapter is all negative. I didn't reach the celebrity of the plaster, I wasn't a minister, I wasn't caliph, I didn't know marriage. The truth is that, along with these faults, I had the good fortune of not buying bread with the sweat of my brow. More; I didn't suffer Dona Plácida's death or Quincas Borba's semi-dementia. Adding some things and others, anyone will imagine that there was no shortage or leftover, and, consequently, that I came out even with life. And you will imagine poorly; because when I got to this other side of the mystery, I found myself with a small balance, which is the ultimate negative from this chapter of denials: — I had no children, I did not transmit to any creature the legacy of our misery.
The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas,
Machado de Assis.
In this excerpt, we perceive the description of the character's end of life in a rather pessimistic way — Brás Cubas achieved practically nothing of what he intended during his life. The last sentence, “I didn't have children, I didn't transmit to any creative the legacy of our misery”, is one of the most famous of the writer and exemplifies very well the ironic style of Machado de Assis.
Read too: All about Machado de Assis
realism in art
As in Literature, several artists from other areas also dialogued with the realist aesthetic. Among them, it is worth knowing:
Gustave Courbet
Edouard Manet
Modest Brocos
Benedict Calixto
Summary
The main historical facts and publications involving Realism are:
French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution, which produced a rural exodus and the rise of the bourgeoisie as a social elite;
The publication of the novel Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert, inaugurated Realism in Literature;
The publication of the novel The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas, by Machado de Assis, inaugurated Realism in Brazil.
*Image credits: Sergey Kohl / Shutterstock
