Madame Bovary | Historical Context
Realism
The term realism first appeared in a Parisian periodical of 1826, as noted by Haig in his article on Flaubert in the Dictionary of Literary Biography. The journalist defines the term as a movement that would “lead to the imitation not of artistic masterpieces but of the originals that nature offers us.” Later in the article, the writer determines that realist works could in the future be considered “the literature of truth.” Realism became a popular form of painting, especially in works by Gustave Courbet, and literature in the mid-nineteenth century....
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