Social Realism in Literature

By Madelene WIGHTMAN

A couple of weeks ago, I delivered a lecture on Social realism in literature at the Institute for Cultural and Ethnic Studies. The talk opened a number of lively discussions around the topic. The purpose of this article is, in the first instance, to outline the lecture for those who did not attend.

Secondly, to address and clarify some of the misconceptions which occurred during the lecture. Thirdly, to add some other important points which I did not expand upon during the lecture due to time constraints.

When studying Social realism in literature, it is important to first clarify the difference between Socialist Realism and Social Realism as the terms are so close.

Socialist Realism is the school of realist art that had as its end, the furtherance of goals of socialism/communism. It held that successful art should depict and glorify the proletariat's struggle toward social progress. Socialist Realism became the officially approved form of art of the Soviet Union. Since all means of production belongs to the state, so did art (as it was a powerful means of propaganda). The tendencies toward Socialist Realism began in the late 19th century. Maxim Gorky's novel Mother is considered to be the first true work of Socialist Realism. By modern standards, it was a pretty awful piece of literature! Social Realism, however, is not an official art and so allows subjectivity. It was originally an artistic movement that depicts the daily struggles of the working class.

Social Realism verses Critical Realism

The principal source of the subject matter of works of Social Realism is made up of problems linked with life, the work, thoughts and actions of the people who are either trying to construct a socialist society or who are struggling for their rights in capitalist, rather than socialist, countries.

Social Realist literature does not depict people from a Critical Realist perspective. Critical realism puts oppressed and exploited people at the centre of its works, people for whom we must have pity, people who rebel only as individuals, those who are incapable of changing their lives and of building a new society. The literature of Social Realism, however, portrays the people as a great, organised force; the creative and moving force of history. This literature shows that the broad masses are those who play the decisive role in historical events. The movement developed largely as a reaction against Romanticism.

The Romantics

The Romantics were ambivalent towards the "real" social world around them. They were often politically and socially involved, but at the same time they began to distance themselves from the public. High Romantic artists interpreted things through their own emotions, and these emotions included social and political consciousness, one that reacted strongly to oppression and injustice in the world. So artists sometimes took public stands, or wrote works with socially or politically oriented subject matter. Yet at the same time, another trend began to emerge, as they withdrew more and more from what they saw as the confining boundaries of bourgeois life.

In their private lives, they often asserted their individuality and differences in ways that were to the middle class a subject of intense interest, but also sometimes of horror. ("Nothing succeeds like excess," wrote Oscar Wilde, who, as a partial inheritor of Romantic tendencies, seemed to enjoy shocking the bourgeois, both in his literary and life styles.) Romanticism affirms intuition and other modes of knowledge as equal or better.

Scientific also assumes the principle of progress through science. Philosophically this belief may be underpinned by empiricist or mechanical materialist thought. Social critical policy and Social Realism embodies the tension between technocracy and populism and between scientific and romantic criticism.

Short history of Social Realism

George Eliot's Adam Bede is an example of Victorian literature aiming to reflect Social Realism. As you will be aware, Victorian society was rigid in many ways, including having a bias against women. A woman seeking to move freely in the world of employment was often mocked and ridiculed. Females were expected to work in the house and live in confined circles. In this novel George Eliot represented a character called Dinah Morris who was a Methodist preacher. When she becomes a preacher, she is indirectly ridiculed and criticised by the community. Yet Dinah Morris is beautiful in appearance and people listen to her preaching as they are attracted to her.

It soon becomes apparent that the congregation only go to listen to her because they want to see her face. Many of those attending Dinah Morris's preaching were hypocritical, under the mask of religious devotion. Eliot was very much concerned with moral issues in the novel Adam Bede in the sense that morality is such ladder from which man can lead to the better life. Eliot didn't believe in art for art's sakes but in art for morality's sake. She spoke especially about virtue and vice.

Virtuous characters should be rewarded for their moral conduct and who have moral weakness was followed by punishment and suffering.

Danish writer, Georg Brandes, was an influential Danish literary critic. His interpretations of such writers as Henrik Ibsen, were credited with bringing Scandinavian literature into mainstream European culture. 'A Doll’s House' by Henrik Ibsen showed how hardship aged/changed Christine Linde, who having just returned to her hometown, tells Nora all about her unfortunate life. Married without love, and widowed for the past three years, Christine experiences the hardships of a woman who was forced to make her own way. She has independently faced life's challenge, although she too sought protection by marrying for the sake of financial convenience. Her harsh experience as a widow who was forced to earn her own livelihood stands in sharp contrast to the insulated and frivolous life which Nora leads. Having learned, (through suffering), the value of truthful human relationships, Christine is the first person to recognize that Nora's marriage is based on deception.

This early Social Realist novel, which shows women’s suffering through Nora and Christine, reveals the true impact of people such as Torvald. It shows the lack of serious relationships in marriages and how appearances were more important than substance. Naturally there were numerous other early Social Realist novels produced around this time by many people. Yet a study into these for the purpose of this article would be redundant.

At this point in the original lecture, I introduced early Sri Lankan Social Realist novels. However, that topic deserves a whole feature dedicated to it and I do not wish to do any injustice to the movement or the authors by trying to include it in this short feature.

Why is a historical study of Social Realism in Literature even relevant today? Is it not completely outdated as a movement?

This is a good question and one which, I am sure, some of the attendees at my recent lecture asked themselves. It is interesting to remember that that originally people were outraged by Social Realism in Literature. This meant that at that time it was a ‘hot topic’/’new and daring, movement’ and was easily distinguishable from the previous types of allegorical story telling.

However, today in all modern societies, Social Realism is so intrinsic to our story telling that we have, perhaps, ceased to recognise it for what it is! Most, if not every, developed society on earth has its favourite soap operas. Examples include 'Coronation Street' and 'Eastenders' (UK), 'Neighbours' and 'Home and Away' (Australia), 'CSI' or 'The West Wing' (USA) to name just a few. Latin America, The Gulf States and South Asia all have numerous TV dramas and soaps, which depict one reality. That is to say that none of these stories show all realities, nor can they depict the subjective reality of every individual who lives in a similar environment to that of the characters. However, the fact remains that millions of people tune into these programmes every day and relate deeply to the characters.

‘Some series, such as ‘CSI’ or ‘The West Wing’ portray a reality that is actually so far removed from our immediate experience that we stop to ask if this too, really is Social Realism. I would argue that it is, given that the series’ seek to portray that which is, for certain sectors of society, a reality. 'The West Wing’ is based on real experiences of White House staff and presents an inside view of some of the dilemmas faced by US Presidents and their staff. CSI, Waking the Dead (UK) and numerous similar crime and forensic police dramas represent a real process. These are areas of expertise which the average person knows little of, yet these programmes portray the reality of a process that is also a personal reality for those involved in this process.

Again, what are Hollywood Blockbusters if not works of Social Realism? What makes them blockbusters and why do people go to see them time and again, remembering their stories for years? It is undoubtedly because the masses see something in these films which speaks deeply of their own lives, or their hopes, dreams, doubts and anxieties. The reason they are universally popular in a way that other films are not is that they speak to a lot of people in a lot of different ways. Less popular, successful films speak to a smaller group of individuals; i.e. they only to portray a couple of different realities.

As I have been writing this, I have asked myself why Steven Spielburg’s Blockbuster ‘Titanic’ was so popular and is shown on UK TV every Christmas. I had an acquaintance who once told me he had seen the film 17 times! There are clearly elements of the film that speak to people deeply. It could be that people enjoy watching a disaster unfolding with horrified fascination. After all, the sinking of the Titanic really happened and most of us can’t imagine the depths of suffering involved in the prospect of dying on a so called ‘unsinkable ship’. It is a Social Realist piece of ‘art’ first and foremost because it is about a real disaster.

Another way in which the film is socially realist is that it speaks of the huge division between rich and poor/ the privileged and underprivileged in Britain and America in the early 1900s. Yet another major element that appeals to people from every society is the love story. Personally, this was the part of the film that I found least convincing. After all, there was such a huge division between steerage and first class that in reality, the two would never have met. Yet it is perhaps the highly unlikely element that appeals to people so much. It is the idea that maybe somebody somewhere is experiencing this kind of unlikely situation; the audience wonder if this rather magical event actually reflects somebody’s reality. What is most unlikely is that buried deep in the human psyche is the hope, longing and belief that true love prevails and overcomes all obstacles. We deeply believe this to be a true possibility, so when it appears on screen, it confirms this belief.

Where does Science Fiction fit into Social Realism?

There are two types of Science Fiction, one which bears no relation to Social Realism and one which does. The first category of Science Fiction is myth-making. This includes stories such as Star Wars, the Green Lantern, Star Trek, Stargate, Battlestar Galactica (which is essentially about religion) to name only a handful. Obviously, myth-making science fiction has little or no relationship to Social Realism. However, the other type of science fiction is dystopian.Dystopian fiction is, in some respects, related to realism. It is one of those places where lines become blurred. This is because almost all deal with those things which are theoretically possible (though unlikely) in the future. They also feature possible future societies, where humans can live forever or where cyborgs have replaced us. Early examples of this are Brave New World (Aldous Huxley, 1932), 1984 (George Orwell, 1949), A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess novel, 1962)/Stanley Kubrick film.

‘Dr Who’ is an obvious example of Social Realism blended with Dystopic Sci-Fi which has been running from the 1960s to the present day. The Doctor’s assistants are typically living satisfactory, yet rather mundane lives in London before he finds them. Behind the mundane are aliens living with the human race and a Time Lord who looks like a (rather handsome) man, yet travels through time and space and who loves the human race. I would suggest that this is the key to the success of the story; the mixture of what is essentially Social Realist soap with a large dose of Dystopic Sci-Fi thrown in for good measure.

“Virtual Realism”?

It has been suggested that Social Realism is now firmly in the past and as such, bears no relation to the art, literature or film of today. The same people suggest that “Virtual Realism” has, in fact, replaced it. I assume that this refers to the brand of Dystopic Sci-Fi that I have mentioned above. However, I would suggest that this brand of story-telling only appeals to a small sector of the population. I also believe that the success behind it lies in the element of Social Realism found within it. For example, the reason ‘Dr Who’ has enjoyed new found success is largely due to the fact that the assistants keep falling passionately in love with a ‘man’ that they can’t have. This is something that most people can relate to and is therefore Socially Realist.‘The Terminator’ and its off-shoot (‘TheSarah Connor Chronicles’) are yet another example of this. Although they are futuristic tales of a possible global take-over by Skynet (possible but unlikely), they are about the plight of a few human beings burdened with what seems like an impossible task. Need I say more about the connection with Social Realism?

Conclusion

Far from being dead, buried and irrelevant, I believe that Social Realism in Literature continues to thrive and that it will last the course. I think that it will outlive Magical Realism, Dystopic Sci-Fi, Allegory and everything in between. This is because essentially it continues to be the means by which we explore our lives and tell our personal stories. It is the means by which we relate to others who superficially we appear to have nothing in common with. It is also the means by which we examine our hopes and fears and understand our motives and new possibilities for ourselves. Only Social Realism in Literature and film can achieve this in ways that none of the other genres mentioned here are able to.