#Catherine_Belsey_s_Idea_of_Expressive_Realism

#Catherine_Belsey_s_Idea_of_Expressive_Realism
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Catherine Belsey de nes Expressive Realism as the theory that literature re ects 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.
Expressive Realism can be divided into two parts. The rst part deals with 19th century, especially
the 2nd half of the 19th century, (Victorian age). The most famous critic of this time is Ruskin. This
age is also the age of industrial capitalism. The industrial revolution occurred in Europe through
rapid development of industry. This industrial development was beginning of the modernism through
industrialisation. Expressive Realism exists in the period of industrial capitalism in the writings of
Ruskin.

Expressive Realism is in uenced by the Aristotelian concept of art as mimesis . It is evident that
Aristotle does not by mimesis mean that art should be a literal or photographic representation of
reality. In representation of reality material from life has to be selected and carefully organised. Thus,
imitation in literature will evidently and inevitably be the imitation of real life. So the rst historical
component of Expressive Realism is mimesis by Aristotle as Imitation of reality in literature or
art.

The 2nd historical component of Expressive Realism is Representation. The concept of

representation in Expressive Realism is derived from the critical concept of the Romantics that
Poetry (imaginative literature) is the spontaneous over ow of powerful feelings or emotions.

The idea of representation as given by the Romantics can be summed up in the following lines
where Wordsworth in his Preface to Lyrical Ballads says: The sum of what was said is that the
poet is chie y distinguished from other men by the greater promptness to think and feel without
immediate external excitement .

By the mid-nineteenth century, Expressive Realism became widely established theory not only in
literature but also in painting and especially in landscape painting, through the works of the major
post Romantic theorist like Ruskin. According to Ruskin, the artist must both represent faithfully the
objects portrayed and express the thoughts and feelings that evoke in him or her.

Catherine Belsey critically examines both concepts of Expressive Realism, she is of the view,
Whereas truth to nature is universally pleasing the representational aspects of art will delight
everyone. The expressive aspects are apparent only to the few . So, in the imitation of reality,
although reality will be portrayed by the artist but every reader will not be able to appreciate the
powerful over ow of emotions on a similar level as expressed by the author.
In Ruskins point of view, both parts of Expressive Realism i.e. the imitation of reality and its
representation are not different quantities, they in fact, are art is mimetic and expressive and Ruskin
goes on to again that the two qualities are in fact, not two but one. Whenever truth is represented to
the reader, it will remain same for all of them and they will appreciate the imitation of reality in the
form of a piece of art, just at that level as the author has done. But Catherine Belsey says that it is
not possible for all readers to appreciate the imitations of reality on the same level as the author has
appreciated and represented.

Another dif culty in Ruskins view as presented by Catherine Belsey is the difference of perception
from author to reader or artist to spectator. Although reality is in front of all of them but how they
perceive it, makes the real difference. Belsey says Already, however, Ruskin glimpses the problem in
his empiricist idealist position. The facts of nature are there for everyone to see and to be plainly
expressed; some people perceive these facts more keenly and if they are artist, portray them
invested with a nobility not apparent to every one, represent them differently.

Catherine Belsey here means to say that truth itself cannot be perceived and imitated by all authors
in like manners. They may perceive truth according to their own level of perception and mental and
emotional capacities. So, the work of art may be read in different ways by different spectators.

By the 1960s Expressive Realism had to face many challenges, among those C. Belsey mentions
some of them for instance Russian formalism and semiotics. Following the brief idea of difference
from Expressive Realism, Russian formalism rejected the unsystematic and critical approaches,
which have previously dominated critical studies.
The formalists were interested, therefore, in the representational or expressive aspects of literary
texts. To Formalists, Representation or imitative quantities are not very important, what matters to
them is the literariness of the text, and what philosophical or literary ideas are conveyed in the text.

Likewise the Semioticians insisted that the word itself, as it relates to the human mind, consists
entirely of sign, since there can be no unmediated relationship with reality. To Semioticians, the
representation also does not matter, unless we do not study the signs of language.

The rst critic in 20th century is Barbra Hardy who directly and indirectly takes an expressive realities
stance. For example she writes. The novelist, whoever he is and whenever he is writing, is giving
form to a story, giving form to his moral and metaphysical views and giving form to his particular
experience of sensations, people, places and society.

Leavis approach is important in this regard that it is not formulated in a speci c theory or in
organised structure. In this evaluation of Henry James works, he adopts an approach which is
expressive realists approach. For example he writes about the novels of James as having the
quantity for the vivid concreteness of the rendering of this world of individuals centres of
consciousness we live in , i.e. in felt life are present both the concepts of imitation and
representation, when applied in literature.

Catherine Belsey further elaborates that the text is seen as a way of arriving at something interior
to it: the convictions of the author or his or her experience as part of that society at that particular
time. To understand the text is to explain it in terms of the authors ideas, psychological state or
social background. Thus, the felt experience of author becomes crucial in his imitations of reality
and in its representation, which is a result of his felt experience.

So Ruskin and F. R. Leavis, are of the same view that the author is presenting to the reader a
particular idea with a belief that the reader will perceive it in the same way as author has tried to
convey. That is why the autobiographical note is given for the readers before the text so that the
reader can easily relate to the idea, which the author has tried to project in his text.

Catherine Belsey concludes that the expressive realist portion has been subject to a series of
challenges and in some cases by theories which have since become authorities in their own right. In
this way, it has become apparent that expressive realism presents a number of problems not easily
resolved within the framework of common sense.
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