From Ian Watt's The Rise of the Novel - 2

Pages 9-11 discuss what constitutes "realism" in the 18th century novel. We ended with stating that the question of the novel and the reality it imitates is an epistemological debate.

1. Somewhat paradoxically, in Philosophy "realism" traditionally refers to the notions of reality advanced by medieval scholars. -> one that was thought to exist in universals, abstractions (novelists, you remember, emphasized the particularity and diversity in human experience).
2. In novels general truths only ever appear post res - this indicates the beginnings of the "Modern" conception of reality.
3. "Modern realism [...] begins from the position that truth can be discovered by individuals through his senses." (Watt, Rise, 12)
4. This is of course ushered in by the likes of Descartes, Locke and later, Thomas Reid (mid 18th. century)
5. Philosophical realism is characterised as:

• critical
• anti-traditional
• innovating
• preoccupied with semantics
• and, particulars of human experience
• free from traditional assumptions
• => all these have analogies in the novel form. 

This was P12. They won't let me continue numbering (gah blogger) - so rest in later posts.

From Ian Watt's The Rise of the Novel

This book by Ian Watt was recommended by Supriyadi for the Novel and Modernity course. There are multiple copies available at the DL, although they have probably all been issued by now. E-book (in .doc format) available here.

This is a brief summation of what Watt contends in the first chapter. I would still ask you to read through the text - it's brilliant and not dense at all.

Realism and the Novel Form:

1. A few of the questions that this chapter presumes to answer: Is the novel really a "new" form? And are Defoe, Richardson and Fielding (DRF) responsible for its inception? How different was this form from previous Medieval prose or 17th century French prose?
2. DRF do not constitute a proper "literary school" - there is very little mutual influence observable. Can their contribution to the rise of the novel be explained by "sheer genius" and "accident"? What social conditions were conducive to it?
3. "Novel" - the term became an established literary epithet only by the end of the 18th century. - Realism becomes a distinctive feature. 
4. "Realism" - from réalisme that was used in 1835 to denote the vérite humaine (true to life, presumably) of Rembrandt's paintings. As opposed to the idéalite poetique or poetic idealism of most Neo-Classical art.
5. Becomes a specifically literary term in 1856 when used in Duranty's journal Réalisme.
6. The term gets connotations of the "low life" because of the alleged immorality of Flaubert and his ilk. 
7. Older texts (prose works) were linked to newer "realistic" works on the basis of their portrayal of the low life. egs. The story about the Ephesian matron is said to prefigure the genre because in it libido triumphs over wifely sorrow. The fabliau and the picaresque is similarly connected for presenting economic or carnal motives as overriding forces.
8. => Thus, one of the reasons Moll Flanders, Pamela and Tom Jones are "realistic" works is because Moll is a thief, Pamela a hypocrite and Tom Jones a fornicator (first Gigolo novel?)
9. BUT. This interpretation devalues the novelist's purported attempt of representing all varieties of human experience. They are not just an "inverted romance" (Watt, Rise)
10. The French Realists (Furetiére, Scarron, Lesage) claimed to present a dispassionate scrutiny of real life - this brings us to an important question - that of the correspondence between The Novel and the Reality it seeks to imitate.
11. This is a more epistemological (i.e. dealing with how knowledge is acquired, processed - a branch of philosophy) question.

(This was the summary of Pages 9-11 of the book. Rest will follow soon. The purple highlighting apparently makes it easier to remember later.)