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...

Of the three theories, nuclear war is least likely to occur using a liberal approach. Liberalism is an approach in which moral and political positions are based on the pursuit of liberty and equality for all before law. Although there are many different branches and...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

At the end of the 18th century, a movement spread throughout the world known as the Romantic Era. The works of authors, artists and musicians were influenced by emotions and imagination. The characters in the literature during that period of time depend on the large...

Due to the insufficient views of reality in society in Italio Calvino’s “Baron in the trees”, Calvino reinforces the power of imagination as an antidote to crisis. The power of acknowledgment of realism in Calvino’s own world in 20th century Italy – one where fascism...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 “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 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...

Texts which illustrate a realistic view of the modern world, through weaving fantasy, myth and elements of the supernatural into a mundane life setting, conform to the key features of Magical Realism. Being an extension to the literary movement of Postmodernism, Magic Realism was part...

The emergence of the term Magical Realism, that is inaccurately associated with Latin American literature, sometimes naively with Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, has its roots prior to its appearance in the American Continent. Bowers (2004) divides the chronological evolution of the...

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...

Some of the most appealing stories to read are those of magical realism. It adds a fantastical sense, to an otherwise regular story. It gives the story that flare needed to put it aside from others. It also can provide a deeper meaning, and the...

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 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...

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...