Essays on Realism

According to realism, the world is in a state of anarchy due to the lack of a governing body or dominant power. States are the prime actors on the international stage. They solely engage with each other in order to maintain security and power. The...

Who would think that an arbitrary ballet dance rehearsal could turn out to be such a fascinating work of art? The painting “The Rehearsal” by Edgar Degas, created in 1878, portrays a ballet dancer’s scene taking place in an urban ballet studio. Degas, having been...

Introduction Politics have always been a recurring theme in art from the Medieval period to the Modern period. People across history have used the canvas and other mediums as a communication tool among the masses, to express approval or disapproval of those in power and...

The piece of art chosen to analyze is by Diego Rivera and it is named ‘The Making of a Fresco Showing the Building of a City”. In this painting, the Rivera painted a scenery in which it shows the many workers it takes to complete...

Godan was authored in Hindi in the year 1936 by Munshi Premchand (1880-1936), one of the pseudonyms of Dhanpat Rai. The novel was translated into English in the year 1957 by Jai Ratan and P. Lal. Premchand was born in a village near Varanasi on...

Nature is an important feature of poetic realism, an offshoot of German realism in the late 19th century. Gottfried Keller, the author of the novel Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe (Romeo and Juliet in the Village), is a Swiss writer who belongs to this...

During the modernist era, artists gradually moved away from realism towards themes of illusion, consciousness, and imagination. In the visual arts, realism evolved into cubism and expressionism. This movement is paralleled in literature, as illusions and a feeling of flux replaced the realist themes of...

Perspective – this is what makes the drawings seem realistic; even after knowing the anatomy and the structure of the human figure, figures or images might not seem realistic unless you can relate the various parts of the figure to the eye level or to...

Edgar Degas played a prominent role in the 19th century Art. Along with paintings, he also contributed to prints, pastel drawings and photography. Degas produced the biggest amount in range of works out of all Impressionists. Loss of eyesight made him go through distinctive style...

Diego Rivera was a highly respected figure in the 20th century, especially when it came to art. He was a famous character, not only known to Mexicans, but to people of all races that even to this day he continues to inspire. He worked as...

Realism has been developed over centuries and it is not a clear-cut theory; it has been divided into structural realism and classical realism. Thucydides and Thomas Hobbes have been the main initiators in developing this theory, with their highly acclaimed work in the History of...

At first glance, Ibsen’s A Doll’s House seems to allude to feminism, speaking of the differences in the roles of men and women. The surges in feminism and the subjective perception of readers resulted in many people drawing feminist motifs from the text as they...

The end of the second World War in the 1940s meant the beginning of an era that was wrought with major socio-political and cultural changes for Italy, one of which was the fall of Mussolini and the fascist regime. In a post-war Italy that was...

Appeared to change its historical unified situation with Egypt assessing the downstream benefits and risks of the GERD. This could be understandable for the great need of Sudan to the generated electricity from the Ethiopian dam, specially after the separation of South Sudan where most...

Baroque Art The baroque painting consists of a range of styles varying from Classical Religious Grandeur, Realism and Easel Art maturing during the beginning of 1600 and continuing throughout the mid 18th century. Therefore this new movement saw the proliferation of major themes of Baroque...

Harry T. Moore, in the afterword to William Dean Howells’s The Rise of Silas Lapham, says, “Much of the criticism of Silas Lapham has been directed at the love-story subplot” (345). Critics of Howells are quick to point out the Romantic elements in this otherwise...

In Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From The Goon Squad, each chapter brings with it a different point of view that adds new dimensions that build upon the story arc. To emphasize characters’ thoughts and feelings and to offer different perspectives of recurring characters, Jennifer Egan...

In the digital era, children are exposed to digital devices and the internet practically at birth through iPods, iPads, and iMacs–an element of modern childhood completely foreign to the parents raising these children. In the chapter “Pure Language” from A Visit From the Goon Squad,...

Oscar Wilde said, “The nineteenth century, as we know it, is largely an invention of Balzac’s”. From 1822 until his death in 1850, Honoré de Balzac produced a vast body of work, including numerous short stories, essays, journalistic pieces, and several plays. His most famous...

Introduction Green, brown, red, and blue are colors that at an early age humans have learned to associate with certain objects. When thinking of grass or leaves, our minds tend to paint them the color green. Over the years art and its influences have changed...

In “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World,” Gabriel Márquez uses magic realism in the most effective way. Magic realism is the literary technique that applies fantasy to ordinary events. Márquez incorporates magical realism into “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” to show themes...

The jaw dropping book “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, has been described as racist, yet at the same time is believed to be one of the greatest works of American fiction. Throughout the book, readers begin uncovering how a man’s ethics and activities conflict with...

Japanese culture differs significantly from culture in the Western world. In Ruth Ozeki’s novel A Tale for the Time Being, these differences are prevalent as Nao visits bathhouses, discovers manga, and witnesses the significance of suicide in her country. But perhaps most importantly, Nao learns...