"Our primary mode of storytelling, whether in novels or films, has been to portray a realistic account of events. The modernism of Joyce and Woolf in the early 20th century challenged this approach by offering subjective perspectives and stream-of-consciousness writing. Now a new anti-realism is taking this attack further. Influenced by postmodern philosophers like Derrida and Baudrillard, a range of novelists including VanderMeer and Tamsyn Muir, and filmmakers, Yorgos Lanthimos and Oscar winner Guillermo del Toro, call into question the reality of the real, using fragmentation, metafiction and absurdity. This new anti-realism is not about escapism. As Frida Kahlo said, “I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.”
Has realism limited us for centuries, forcing a focus on observations and rejecting the unseen, and the mystical? Will abandoning the norms of literary realism help us embrace realities outside of the Western, scientific, Enlightenment perspective? Or will realism always dominate due to its incomparable ability to frame narratives and offer insight into our lives?"
| Our primary mode of storytelling, whether in novels or films, has been to portray a realistic account of events. The modernism of Joyce and Woolf in the early 20th century challenged this approach by offering subjective perspectives and stream-of-consciousness writing. Now a new anti-realism is taking this attack further. Influenced by postmodern philosophers like Derrida and Baudrillard, a range of novelists including VanderMeer and Tamsyn Muir, and filmmakers, Yorgos Lanthimos and Oscar winner Guillermo del Toro, call into question the reality of the real, using fragmentation, metafiction and absurdity. This new anti-realism is not about escapism. As Frida Kahlo said, “I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.” Has realism limited us for centuries, forcing a focus on observations and rejecting the unseen, and the mystical? Will abandoning the norms of literary realism help us embrace realities outside of the Western, scientific, Enlightenment perspective? Or will realism always dominate due to its incomparable ability to frame narratives and offer insight into our lives? |
