COML 6070 - Realisms: Critical, Mimetic, Speculative

(crosslisted)
(also ENGL 6954)

Fall. 4 credits.

T. McEnaney.

If, as one recent manifesto puts it, a “reality hunger” drives much of our contemporary cultural production, what kinds of histories anticipated this moment? In this course we will read various attempts to define realism, and question why critics and writers have turned to realism at specific historical junctures, and in particular aesthetic, political, and social debates. We will also take up materials that have been called neo-realist, dirty realist, magical realist, or hysterical realist. What do these adjectives tell us about the competing demands placed on realism in different geopolitical contexts? How do debates about what constitutes the “real” transform with respect to different media? How do the recent “speculative realisms” challenge the distinctions between representation and being inherent in mimetic theories?