ON REALISM, DEFOE AND THE RISE OF THE NOVEL The word “réalisme” was first used as an aesthetic description in 1835 to express or denote a human truth that crities saw in the work of Rembrandt in opposition to the “ideality” or “idealness” of neo-classical painting’. It was later accepted and consecrated as a literary term per se with a specific meaning, when and after a literary journal , Réafisme, had been launched and edited by Duranty. Later, the term “realism” 1, PHILOSOPHICAL BACKGROUND Modern realism begins from the position that truth can be discovered by the individual -ame to be used primarily as the antonym of “idealism”. through his/her senses (originating from Descartes and Locke), Philosophical realism has been critical, anti-traditional, and innovating. Its method has been the study of the particulars of experience by the individual investigator, and has given a particular importance to semantics ( that is to the problem of the nature of the correspondence between words and reality). These features of philosophical realism have analogies to distinctive features of the novel form, eg. analogies to. the kind of correspondence between life and literature since Defoe and Richardson, For Descartes, nothing can be accepted on trust. Pursuit of truth was now conceived of as a wholly individual matter, independent of the tradition of past thought. The novel was seen as a form of literature that fully reflects this individualistic and innovating reorientation(Cartesian). For example: + - the plots of classical and renaissance epic were based on past history or fable. Now the novel challenged this literary traditionalism by focusing on truth to individual experience which has to be always unique and therefore new”, Realism then denotes a “belief in the individual apprehension of reality through the senses”(15), For Locke, it is the senses which “at first let in particular ideas and furnish the empty cabinet” of the mind, For him, the real intellectual task is to move from particulars to "The terms were « vérité humaine » as opposed to « idéalité postique ». Cf'lan WATT, The Rise of the Novel, 1957, pp.10-11. Other quotations will refer to this edition. ? The term « original » in the Middle Ages first meant “having existed from the first” (cf, “orginele” in French), ‘now came to mean in the 18° century : “underived, independent, first-hand” . Ibid, p.15 1universals, i.e. , that it is the knowledge of universals alone that constitutes the “ultimate and immutable reality” (16), Until the 17" century, primacy of universals from which man had to go towards particulars( U. to P.) . From the 18" century onwards, Uv) 2. THE NOVEL FORM Defoe would seem to be the “first of our writers who visualized the whole of his (28) ichardson and Fielding to initiate that power it was the opposite (from P. to narrative as though it occurred in an actual physical environment” The pursuit of verisimilitude led Defoe, of “putting man wholly into his physical setting” which in fact constitutes the distinctive capacity of the novel. In the novel, the function of language is much more largely referential than in any “other literary forms, that in fact the novel “works by exhaustive presentation rather than elegant concentration”. This fact alone can perhaps explain why the novel is “the most translatable of the genres.” (33). The primary convention then of the novel is its full (and authentic) report of human experience: supplying the reader with names, places, time, character particulars, etc, Modem society (18" century onwards) has become “uniquely individualistic” , that is the individual has become autonomous. There are 2 historical causes that explain the emergence of modern society and individualism A. The ris ¢ of modern industrial capitalism led to an increase in / of economic specialization. This, combined with a social structure that is less rigid and less homogeneous, on the one hand, and a less absolutist and more democratic system helped increase the freedom of choice. The traditional social structure now in total collapse. Pp Protestantism : Christianity was seen for many centuries as a faith associated with slaves and the poor (81). It is only with the advent of Protestantism , writes Ian WATT, Calvinism in particular, that the faithful began to forget the idea that work was God’s punishment on earth, On the contrary, Cavinism tauht them to consider that by working hard on earth and by the “untiring stewardshipof the material gifts of God” (81) was indeed a paramount religious and ethical duty. (For more see 66-103). Therefore, it was no longer the family nor the church, but the individual (67). He/she and alone was now responsible for determining his/her own economic, social, polit religious roles or places By the 18" century, Defoe and others were clearly showing a new “generation” of heroes of “economic individualism” Defoe’s novel (R.C.) shows or offers a “unique demonstration of the connection between individualism in its many forms and the rise of the novel” (69). R.Crusoe can be seen as a homo economicus; for “economic man “ symbolized the new outlook of individualism, Most of all of Defoe’s “heroes” are embodiments of economic individualism. All these heroes pursue money but pursue it methodically, that is keeping in mind the profit and loss book-keeping®. Defoe’s “odysseys” are no longer similar to those of the Greek heroes but simply those related to wealth. Primacy of the economic motive now. Though R.C is often placed as a travel and adventure type of novel, the hero R.Crusoe is not in fact a typical traveler or adventurer. Though the novel's plot is based on travel or adventure, it is a different sort of travel altogether. It is one with special motives. His territory is no longer the local or national ones, but the whole world‘ And if women are absent from the novel, it is because sex was seen by Defoe as the enemy, a menace to “ the individual's rational pursuit of economic ends.** Sex must therefore be placed under particularly strict contro! in the ideology of industrial capitalism (74). And that is why R.Crusoe marries only when he gets back home, that is when his financial position has been fully secured. 3 which Max Weber considered to be the distinctive technical feature of modem capitalism (Watt:69). * Thid. p. 74. R.Crusoe can thus be considered as the prophet of colonialism just as D Quixote could be seen as the prophet of Israel. » Sex, for Weber, is one of the strongest non-rational factors in human life and is also one of the strongest potential menaces to the individual’s rational pursuit of economic ends.