Satire in an age of realism

Resource Information

The work Satire in an age of realism represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Massey University Library, University of New Zealand. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Satire in an age of realism

Statement of responsibility

Aaron Matz

Creator

• Matz, Aaron, 1975-

Subject

• Ibsen, Henrik, 1828-1906 -- Appreciation -- England
• Gissing, George, 1857-1903 -- Criticism and interpretation
• English fiction -- 19th century -- History and criticism
• Conrad, Joseph, 1857-1924 -- Criticism and interpretation
• Satire -- History and criticism
• Realism in literature
• Eliot, George, 1819-1880 -- Criticism and interpretation
• Hardy, Thomas, 1840-1928 -- Criticism and interpretation

Language

eng

Summary

"As nineteenth-century realism became more and more intrepid in its pursuit of describing and depicting everyday life, it blurred irrevocably into the caustic and severe mode of literature better named satire. Realism's task of portraying the human became indistinguishable from satire's directive to castigate the human. Introducing an entirely new way of thinking about realism and the Victorian novel, Aaron Matz refers to the fusion of realism and satire as 'satirical realism': it is a mode in which our shared folly and error are so entrenched in everyday life, and so unchanging, that they need no embellishment when rendered in fiction. Focusing on the novels of Eliot, Hardy, Gissing, and Conrad, and the theater of Ibsen, Matz argues that it was the transformation of Victorian realism into satire that granted it immense moral authority, but that led ultimately to its demise"--Provided by publisher

Member of

• Cambridge studies in nineteenth-century literature and culture

Dewey number

823/.80917

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

• dictionaries
• bibliography

Series statement

Cambridge studies in nineteenth-century literature and culture