Co je realismus ve fikci (některé koncepce v angloamerické literární vědě)

This study provides analysis and summaries of some of the leading theoretical conceptions of realism in literature in its relation to the ‘real world’, as formulated by American and English critics 1960 to present, including Lillian R. Furst, Harry E. Shaw, George Levine, Michael Riffaterre, Nelson Goodman, and Hayden White — introducing some of them to the Czech milieu for the first time. While several are formulated in clearly apologetic terms, representing realism as an important poetics on par with others (e.g. modernism), most of the theorists here attempt either to rid realism of its dependence on direct mimesis and highlight its creative potential, or else emphasize the realists’ ontological claim to truth in art. In its second half, the study also deals with the main problems of literary history that are linked to, or associated with, these theories, namely, with so-called ‘modern’ realism from its historical beginnings (Erich Auerbach), with the problematic relation between realism and the historical novel, and with the internal classification of 19th century realism and/or plurality of realist poetics.