How real is realism?
Gérard de Nerval’s “bizarre arrangements of life”
The article examines the early history of the term ‘realism’
in nineteenth-century France and its unusual deployment in Gérard de Nerval’s
narrative prose, where it signals the strange, dream-like character of certain
experiences, in particular the oddity of common situations and feelings described by
authors like Charles Dickens and Gustave Flaubert who were admired by many for their
sincere, precise and comprehensive descriptions of social life. The multicolored
depiction of common experiences, improvisation, and randomness that we find in
Nerval’s works are also part of Flaubert’s realist practice; both give life to their
narratives by emphasizing dreams, transitory impressions and fleeting
sensations.