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Realism
 ‘It is logical that literary realism should have been- give or take a few decadescontemporary with the regnum of “objective” history’
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E
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the conservative ideology of N&S
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’ —Sally Shuttleworth
 Watt views realism as an ‘authentic report of human experience’
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 Realism as a mirror image
 ‘realism does not reside in the kind of life it presents, but how it presents it’ pg
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It doesn’t always represent psychological
‘inner life’- Virginia Woolf
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e
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 Beaumont on Lyotard- definition of realism obscures fact it’s fiction
 The concept of ‘mirror image’ doesn’t explain life’s complexities
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life is boring as shit and literary realism can’t be boring
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Defense of realism
 Against Fyre- Mikhail Bakhtin- within the novel there is a process, changes
occur
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She
isn’t static
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Arguably like her other novel
Mary Barton it’s wrapped up with a clear message (everyone can work
together) but the future trade union/establishment relationship isn’t clear, nor
is it clear exactly how or why M and Thorton came together eventually
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The novel begins when all individual
character plots have come together, and then it rewinds one by one to uncover
their pasts
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Sorcerer also takes us back into the past, it’s a
recreation, theres distance
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 Matthew Beamont (on Eliot)- she ‘emphasizes the materiality of writing’, selfconscious of her artistry in constructing realist novels
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66-7 reflecting on Edith’s new life, comparing it to her own miserable life
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She goes on to hope for ‘some brightness,
either internal or external
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There’s a lot of artificial plot and patterning in N&S
for instance the use of POV, the way Gaskell finds a ‘third space’ in binaries
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g
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The owners and workforce come
together when the gap between ethics and economics is bridged
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 Condition of England novels often industrial novels- during the mid-century 38% of
workforce in a factory and 100,000 children under 14 worked in factories
 Critics argue that the progression of ‘condition of england’ novels from the simple
evil factory owner vs innocent worker to a more mutually complex
relationship/situation means that the genre becomes more ‘realistic’ of lifes
complexities
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g
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Migration
 In YOTR the social/geographical boundaries are undermined- for instance Randeep’s
positive description of Leicester as ‘It was all so — he thought hard — so civilized
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The colonised is migrating to the land of the
former colonisers
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Technology allows easier/faster
movement and so geographical landscape becomes relative (e
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what Higgins
considers the north is different from Margaret)
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E
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through free indirect discourse‘They sang it again and again, clapping in time
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The singing
stopped, though the laughter on their faces remained
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’ (227)
The narrative here leads us to believe Avtar looks ‘clownish’
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’ its clear this is Avtar’s opinion, he’s convincing himself he looks
stupid
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And in N&S
‘The girls, with their rough, but not unfriendly freedom, would comment on her dress,
even touch her shawl or gown to ascertain the exact material; nay, once or twice she
was asked questions relative to some article which they particularly admired
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Here we’re led to believe the girls are rough and forward- but this is Margaret’s
opinion
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From the workmens’ POV they could just be trying to
be friendly- this could be a class divide

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