Realism is defined by avoiding the question of reality and serves ruling power

Evidence

Realism, whose only definition is that it intends to avoid the question of reality implicated in that of art, always stands somewhere between academicism and kitsch. When power assumes the name of a party, realism and its neoclassical complement triumph over the experimental avant-garde by slandering and banning it—that is, provided the “correct” images, the “correct” narratives, the “correct” forms which the party requests, selects, and propagates can find a public to desire them as the appropriate remedy for the anxiety and depression that public experiences. — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 482

Categorization

• DEFINE: Lyotard’s essential redefinition: realism is not mimesis but evasion of the reality-question inherent to art.
• XREF: This political-academicism account maps onto both Soviet socialist realism and Nazi aesthetics — a useful concrete anchor for the Lyotard-Jameson contrast. — connects to: Realism is a form of paranoia that dehumanizes both nature and peoples — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 153; Realism’s function is to preserve consciousness from doubt, not to copy reality — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on…, 475; Realism both critiques and reinforces the status quo’s exclusions — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 438 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Realist political theory adopts the powerholder’s viewpoint #expands (0.90)
• The fundamental form of power is defining reality #corroborates (0.85) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 387
• Political realism is an inherited skill of ruling classes, not universal knowledge #corroborates (0.82) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 621
• Realism both critiques and reinforces the status quo’s exclusions #expands (0.80) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 438
• Corrective realism accepts terms set in advance by stereotype-makers #expands (0.78) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 162
• Counterhistory functions to disinter truths that power has deliberately concealed #complicates (0.75) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 89