Romantic realism
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Romantic Realism is an aesthetic term that usually refers to art that deals with the themes of volition and value while also acknowledging objective reality and the importance of technique.
In modern times, the term has been strongly associated with writer/philosopher Ayn Rand. (See quotes below.) The term may have been used earlier (by Joseph Conrad) but that has not been substantiated. Many Objectivists who consider themselves artists apply this term to themselves. Rand defined Romantic realism as a portrayal of things and people "as they might and ought to be." "Might be" implied realism, as contrasted with mere fantasy. "Ought to be" implied a moral vision and a standard of beauty and virtue. This combination is based on the idea that heroic values, and similar themes, are rational and 'realistic,' as a Romantic Realist wouldn't believe in a necessary dichotomy between 'romanticism' and 'realism.'
The term has long standing in literary criticism. Fyodor Dostoyevsky is described as a Romantic Realist in Donald Fanger's book, Dostoevsky and Romantic Realism: A Study of Dostoevsky in Relation to Balzac, Dickens, and Gogol (1998, Northwestern University Press). Joseph Conrad's relationship to Romantic Realism is analyzed in Ruth M. Stauffer's 1922 book: Joseph Conrad: His Romantic Realism (reprinted by Kessinger Publishing, December 2004). Liam O'Flaherty's relationship to Romantic Realism is discussed in P.F. Sheeran's book: The Novels of Liam O'Flaherty: A Study in Romantic Realism (1976, Wolfhound Press).
As far as both their personal interests as well as objective comparisons go, a majority of romantic realist artists are more similar to romanticism than realism in what they produce. Romantic realism is often considered, more or less, a branch of romanticism.
Artists of Romantic Realism include:
- Aleksandr Petrov (animator)
- Michael Newberry
- Ayn Rand (novelist)
- Nick Gaetano (who created the cover art for the 35th anniversary editions of Ayn Rand's books)
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[edit] Quote
"I am a Romantic in the sense that I present men as they ought to be. I am Realistic in the sense that I place them here and now and on this earth."
—Ayn Rand, quoted in "The Essentials of Objectivism," included in Signet's 1992 edition of her novel Atlas Shrugged
"The Fountainhead represents a form that has always been extremely successful in novels, on the stage and on the screen, but which has become very rare because it's the most difficult of all forms: Romantic Realism. The method of romantic realism is to make life more beautiful and interesting than it actually is, yet give it all the reality, and even a more convincing reality than that of our everyday existence. Life, not as it is, but as it could be and should be. That is what the public likes, wants and is starved for. "But this cannot be achieved without a very clear understanding of what it is, how it's done—and a very conscious policy in doing it. The general school of writing and movies nowadays aims at cheap journalistic realism--—trying to represent life "just like the folks next door." Any touch of that approach would destroy The Fountainhead. "The characters of The Fountainhead are not average people. They are unusual people who do unusual things. To make them convincing one must keep them strictly consistent with their own peculiar natures. Then the audience will accept them."
—Ayn Rand, quoted in The Letters of Ayn Rand, p. 243-4
"If I were to classify Night of January 16th in conventional literary terms, I would say that it represents, not Romantic Realism, but Romantic Symbolism." "This means that its events are not to be taken literally; they dramatize certain fundamental psychological characteristics, deliberately isolated and emphasized in order to convey a single abstraction: the characters' attitude toward life. The events serve to feature the motives of the characters' actions, regardless of the particular forms of action—i.e., the motives, not their specific concretization. The events feature the confrontation of two extremes, two opposite ways of facing existence: passionate self-assertiveness, self-confidence, ambition, audacity, independence—versus conventionality, servility, envy, hatred, power-lust. "I do not think, nor did I think it when I wrote this play, that a swindler is a heroic character or that a respectable banker is a villain. But for the purpose of dramatizing the conflict of independence versus conformity, a criminal—a social outcast—can be an eloquent symbol."
—Ayn Rand, quoted in the Introduction to her play Night of January 16th
"'Romantic Realism,' in short, is not a paradox and can be made to seem one only by forgetting the historical relation between the terms—the fact that nineteenth-century realism evolved out of romanticism." —Donald Fanger, from his book Dostoevsky and Romantic Realism.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Donald Fanger: Dostoevsky and Romantic Realism: A Study of Dostoevsky in Relation to Balzac, Dickens, and Gogol, Northwestern University Press, 1998.
- Ayn Rand, The Romantic Manifesto: A Philosophy Of Literature, Signet, 1975.
- P.F. Sheeran: The Novels of Liam O'Flaherty: A Study in Romantic Realism, Wolfhound Press, 1976.
- Ruth M. Stauffer: Joseph Conrad: His Romantic Realism, Kessinger Publishing, December 2004.
[edit] External links
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