Introductory
Catherine Belsey, in her Critical Practice, strives to pinpoint the location of the meaning of a text being criticized. Expressive Realism places the author at the centre of the text and makes him the only source of meaning of the text for a reader. New Critics, who went ahead to challenge Expressive Realism also became an extension of Expressive Realism. Before diving deep into the theory of Expressive Realism, it is essential to know what realism actually is.
Realism and Classical Realism
Realism was a literary movement of the 19th century, set in direct response to Romanticism to portray and describe people, their feelings and emotions as they actually are in real life, without fantasizing it.
Classical Realism, according to Belsey, aimed at propagating a specific version of ideology in a capitalist system from 19th to 20th century. That ideology would be pumped through [text]books, electronic and print media and it would become the only source of meaning for the people as the material was available in abundance and in a language a significant majority of the people knew and were familiar with.
Expressive Realism
A combination of two words, "Expressive" and "Realism" hint at the realism perceived or expressed through text. Expressive Realism is a fusion of two concepts, the concept of Aristotle of art as mimesis is combined with the concept of Romantics of art as an expression of the emotions of a person. The chief characteristics of Expressive Realism are as below:
- Expressive Realism puts a great deal of emphasis on honesty and immediacy, and rejects the inclusion of implausibility and ideology.
- Expressive Realism favours the notion that literature is a reflection of life.
- Expressive Realism deems literature as authentic when it correctly describes social relationships or highlights the inner experience of a person's struggle for identity.
Catherine Belsey defines Expressive Realism as thus,
The theory that literature reflects the reality of experience, as it is perceived by one individual, who expresses it in a discourse which enables other individuals to recognise it as true.
As is evident from the definition of Expressive Realism by Belsey, author is the centre of meaning in the theory of Expressive Realism.
Challenges to Expressive Realism
The inclusion of Aristotelian as well as Romantic concepts of mimesis and expression of emotions respectively in the theory of Expressive Realism lead to many challenges and even rejections by the critics of the twentieth century.
New Critics
The first notable challenge to Expressive Realism came from New Critics like Thomas Stearns Eliot and Cleanth Brooks who claimed that the meaning of a text lied in the text itself, not in the author. New Critics were of the view that it was neither desirable nor possible to look for the intentions of an author while scanning the text. They were keener on finding the meaning of a text by peering through conventional elements of close-up readings like themes, symbols, images, rhyme, meter, characterization and plot etc. However, Belsey rejects the idea of text as a source of meaning as text is written in a language and every language has its own system of meanings, always going through the phases of evolution and a shift of meanings is observed with the passage of time. Personally, the idea of text as a source of meaning is not a challenge to Expressive Realism as the text itself is an outcome of the author's own creative process, involving observation, organization and then framing them into text.
Northrop Frye
Northrop Frye, an influential Canadian literary critic of the 20th century, also rejects the idea of the projection of realism in literary texts. He suggests that the depiction of realism is undesirable and disdainful. He considers the literature based on realism as immature and asserts that imaginative elements tend to appeal to more readers. Frye also asserts that a writer's aim is to produce a structure of words for words themselves, thus rejecting the authority of author's own expression as concluded by Expressive Realism. Frye's stance is valid on the grounds of linguistics but his approach is limited to linguistics only as he ignores historical as well as cultural background which are linked indirectly to Expressive Realism.
Reader Response Theory
Reader Power or Reader Response Theory is considered as a serious threat to the authority of author in Expressive Realism. As is evident from the name, the Reader Power Theory constitutes the (well-informed) reader as an authority for the interpretation of text. This theory distinguishes the reader as an active agent who "imparts real existence" and completes its meaning after interpretation. The reader makes use of the stylistic devices to construct the meaning. His psychological involvement is also an important factor behind a reader's quest to figure out the meaning. This theory also failed in challenging the authority of an author as a reader's own miscalculation of the result of an event can be contradictory to the actual outcome, as intended by the author. And the signifying system of each living society of different time is different than the other.
Post-Saussurean Linguistics
In Post-Saussurean Linguistics, language is classified as a system in which an individual produces the meaning. A child learns to differentiate different concepts through socially controlled signified (a signified in linguistics means the actual thing a signifier is referring to. For example, the signifier "smartphone" refers to a signified which is an electronic device with large touch screen which enables us to connect globally). This further proves the point that language, in an individual already exists as a child is already provided with a signifying system particular to that society. Language not only contains signifying systems, but also images, social behaviours, gestures. But most importantly, language is the "most practical way of communication". Thus, Belsey concludes,
From this post-Saussurean perspective, it is clear that the theory of literature as expressive realism is no longer tangible, because, since realism reflects the word constructed in language.
Conclusion
Expressive Realism favours the projection of reality but that reality is personal and is milited to the people of a particular society and time only. It is difficult, if not impossible to approach the realism as expressed by the author but a reader or a critic has to make himself aware of the language of the society in which the author lived while linking the historical, cultural and economic background of his society in his work being scrutinised.
