one of the basic creative methods of literature and art, which focuses on truthfully reflecting real life and has strong objectivity. It advocates observing real life objectively and calmly, describing it accurately and delicately according to the original style of life, and strives to truly reproduce the typical characters in the typical environment. Literature and art in all countries of the world have realistic factors and characteristics in different degrees from the beginning, and have developed and changed with social and historical conditions. In the field of literature and art, realism and romanticism have a long history. However, as a more conscious literary school, realism usually refers to a major literary trend of thought and movement that replaced romanticism in European literature and art after the 193s. There is also an opinion that realism, as a school of literature and art, was formed in the Renaissance, or began in the ancient Greek era, and has gone through a series of development stages, namely, the so-called "ancient realism", "Renaissance realism", "Enlightenment realism" and 19th century realism.
the theoretical discussion of realism can be traced back to the ancient Greek theory of "imitation". Aristotle pointed out in Poetics that there are three different ways to imitate reality. The first way is to imitate things as they are. Aristotle not only affirmed the authenticity of art, but also pointed out that the reality imitated by art must be inevitable and universal, that is, to reveal its internal essence and laws. This is a simple and powerful demonstration of the basic characteristics of realistic literature and art. Humanist writers and artists in the Renaissance (alberti, Leonardo da Vinci, castel Vetro, etc.) persisted in and developed the view that "art imitates nature". On the one hand, they demand that art faithfully imitate nature and "take a mirror to look at nature", on the other hand, they are not satisfied with passively imitating nature and demand to create according to the laws of nature and idealize or typify the living materials, so they call literary and artistic works "second nature". On the basis of materialism, Diderot and Lessing, representatives of the 18th century Enlightenment, insisted on the realistic foundation of literature and art, affirmed the unity of beauty and truth, and emphasized the dialectical relationship between art and nature. Diderot and Lessing systematically discussed the principles of realistic creation in their works such as Salon, Painting Theory and Hamburg Drama Review, which promoted the rise of modern realistic literature and art. However, the clear division of the two opposing concepts of realism and romanticism and the proposal of these two terms began in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Schiller, the representative writer of the German "sturm und drang" movement, systematically summarized two basic tendencies in the development of western literature and art from ancient times to modern times in his famous article "On Simple and Sentimental Poetry": "Simple Poetry" which focuses on directly reflecting reality and "Sentimental Poetry" which focuses on expressing the ideal promoted from reality. He thinks that the difference between them is that the former reproduces reality, while the latter expresses ideal, the former emphasizes objectivity, while the latter emphasizes subjectivity, and affirms that these two creative tendencies can tend to be unified. Schiller used the term "realism" for the first time in the field of literature, defined its meaning as the opposite of "idealism", and pointed out that it was different from naturalism: naturalism dealt with "vulgar nature", while realism dealt with "real nature" showing "inherent inevitability". Goethe also pointed out: "The concepts of classical poetry (that is, realistic literature and art) and romantic poetry have now spread all over the world, causing many disputes and differences. This concept originated from Schiller and me. I advocate that poetry should proceed from the objective world, and think that only this creative method is desirable. However, Schiller wrote in a completely subjective way, thinking that only his creative method is correct. " (Goethe's Conversation) Goethe and Schiller clearly put forward the principle difference between realism and romanticism for the first time in the history of European literary thought, which had a great influence on the formation of the two major literary schools in Europe.
belinsky, the founder of Russian realistic literary theory, systematically summarized the development process of Russian literature and world literature, and further demonstrated the connection and difference between "realistic poetry" (that is, realistic literature and art) and "ideal poetry" (that is, romantic literature and art). He pointed out that in an ideal poem, "the poet transforms his life according to his own ideal"; In realistic poetry, the poet "reproduces reality according to all the authenticity and naked face of life". He affirmed that realism was "more in line with the spirit and needs of our times", and for the first time linked the creative principles of realism with the "naturalism" represented by Nikolai Gogol formed in Russian literature in the 184s. In 195s, Chernyshevski put forward the famous materialistic assertion that beauty is life, and on this basis, he affirmed that the purpose and function of art are to "reproduce reality", "explain life" and "judge life", which further laid and developed the theoretical foundation of realistic literature and art. However, neither belinsky nor Chernyshevski has used the term "realism". Dobrolyubov's contribution lies in establishing the principle of "realistic criticism", affirming that "the main value of a work of art lies in its truth in life" and taking it as "the yardstick for evaluating the value and significance of every literary phenomenon". He used the term "realism" when commenting on Pushkin's and Nikitin's poems, but its meaning refers more to the writer's realistic attitude towards life (so-called "realism of life") than to the creative principles and methods of reappearing life. Annenkov, a Russian critic, used the term "realism" for the first time to summarize the basic characteristics of Turgenev, Goncharov and other writers in his Notes on Russian Literature, but this term was not generally accepted by Russian literary critics until the 196s.
The term "realism" prevailed in European literary and art circles and formed a literary school named after it, which happened in France in the 195s. Around 185, French painter Courbet and novelist Champfleury used the term "realism" for the first time to indicate the new literature and art at that time, and Duranti and others founded a publication called "Realism" (1856-1857, 6 issues). The publication published Courbet's literary declaration, advocating that writers should "study reality", truthfully describe the daily life of ordinary people, and "do not beautify reality". This school of writers clearly put forward the new "mark" of realism to replace the old "mark" romanticism, regarded Diderot, Standal and Balzac as models of creation, and advocated that "the task of realism is to create literature for the people" and that the basic form of literature is "modern style novels". Since then, there has been a formally named school of "realism" in literature and art.
Realism, as a school of literature and art, followed romanticism and stepped onto the historical stage as a resistance to romanticism. Its formation has a process from spontaneous to conscious. In the first half of 19th century, many realistic writers in Europe did not draw a clear line with romanticism. They not only opposed the discipline of neoclassicism with romantic writers, but also followed some themes and techniques used in romantic literature in their creation. Some writers (such as Merimee, Balzac, Hoffman, Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, etc.) who opened the way for realistic literature in various countries turned from romanticism in their early creation to realism. The change of this literary trend of thought has profound social and historical reasons. The 193s and 194s were the period when the capitalist system finally defeated feudalism in several major western European countries. With the establishment and consolidation of the capitalist system, class contradictions and various social ills in capitalist society are increasingly exposed and intensified. "There is no other connection between people except naked interests and ruthless cash transactions." In the face of this cold social reality, "people finally have to look at their living status and their mutual relations with a calm eye" (Marx and Engels: Manifesto of the Producer Party). In addition, the development of natural science and the victory of materialism in the struggle against religion and idealism in the 19th century, as well as the wide spread of utopian socialism theory, also prompted people to break traditional concepts and fantasies and turn to observe the world with a more objective eye and study social realistic problems. Under such historical circumstances, more and more writers are dissatisfied with the subjectivist writing method that romantic literature indulges in subjective fantasy and personal rebellious spirit and ignores objective social reality. They inherited and developed the realistic tradition of Renaissance literature, especially the Enlightenment literature, and advocated calmly observing and evaluating all kinds of ills and contradictions brought about by bourgeois rule, truthfully and objectively describing the daily life of capitalist society at that time, and revealing the root causes of all kinds of social evils and ills by analyzing the relationship between characters and social environment. In this way, realistic literature, characterized by truthfully describing real life and exposing and criticizing social darkness, gradually replaced romanticism and became the dominant literary trend of thought in Europe.