REALIST VS. NON-REALIST ATTRIBUTES

I  In a representational work of art:

Realist attributes:  create the impression that a work (painting, novel, etc.) is representing the real world as it is now or was some time in the past, that it is not fictional.

Non-Realist attributes:  create the impression that the work is not representing the real world as it is now or was some time in the past, that it is fictional.

Most works combine some realist and some non-realist attributes.
In many works, either realist or non-realist attributes dominante.
Few contain all of realist or all non-realist attributes..

II Realist attributes are merely signs:     Realist signs in a representational work have at least two significations:  1) they signify (represent) literally an object or event (denotation); 2) and they signify figuratively that their representation of object or event is accurate (connotation).  The object or event signified by a representation is never the same as the real object. 

III Realist signs (connotations) are purely conventional:   Realist signs are part of a code (a collection of signs) that society accepts as a reliable guide to realist representation:

A.  Conventional Realist Techniques (or signs) that make a representation appear to represent reality objectively (when in fact it simply constructs reality):

a. A realist representation suggests that narrator, character, film maker or photographer etc. has actually perceived the objects he is describing or the actions he is narrating with his words, photos, or film.  Creators of representations often use verbs like "to see," or "to hear," photographic images, cinematographic images, or recorded sounds, to suggest that their representations refer to a real world which they have objectively perceived through one of their five senses  -- sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste.  In this way they suggest that they are giving us empirical evidence in support of their representations of reality.

b. describe, narrate, photograph, or film (etc.) a lot sensory detail -- using many nouns, adjectives, adverbs, visual details or auditory details.  Sensory details of types of things that we often see and hear in reality work to persuade the reader that the creator's words, photos, or cinematographic representations are grounded in objective, personal observation.

 c. Statements by narrator, characters, representations in general that compare specific, perceived scenes to an overall scene invite the reader/viewer to construct in her imagination the whole scene of which the perceived details (described, narrated, photographed, filmed, or recorded) are a part.   This effect is strengthened by the use of proper names, images, or sounds that identify real places linked to the whole scene;

 d. Realist representations invite the reader, viewer, or listener to believe that the scene is a typical part of contemporary society as a whole.  They do so:   1) by representing common human, social, national, or world actions or situations; 2) by naming a real historical period and real historical actions within a nation's or the world's history; 4) by representing common periods of the lives of all human beings; 5) by comparing specific scenes in the film to all of America or the world.

e.  Realist representation invites the reader, viewer, or listener to believe that the representation is part of a seamless continuity of exterior actions or events (which have been perceived objectively) in time.  This continuity is more important than a representer's or character's analysis of this reality.

 B.  Conventional realist signs vs. conventional non-realist signs

IV Some works with strong realist attributes:

The Odyssey
Courbet’s paintings
Lazaro of Tormes

Some works with strong non-realist attributes:
Abraham and Isaac story in Genesis
Symbolic (such as religious) paintings
Abstract paintings
Impressionist paintings
Expressionist paintings
Classical paintings

 V Representational vs. Non-representational discourses in Wordsworth and Pascal