Tres teorías, tres realismos: Zola, Galdós, James

Abstract

These three author’s lifespans and historical contexts coincide, and they are thus subject to similar influences. This article analyses their response to this shared experience in terms of the theory and practice of realism. Zola’s genetic realism is based on the relationship between the writer and his surroundings, understood to be possible to observe and faithfully reproduce. James’s formal realism centers on the literary: the work of art constitutes a reality unconnected to the referent, a textual reality. There remains, lastly, the reception of the work, the reader’s perspective. Galdos’s literary thought can be seen in this context as moving towards an intentional realism, a conception of realism as an effect or as a response which should be experienced, not as a mere copy or purely immanent creation. This is a realism that is never an essence, but exists solely in its action.