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interest in or concern for the actual or real, as distinguished from the abstract, speculative, etc.
the tendency to view or represent things as they really are.
Fine Arts.

treatment of forms, colors, space, etc., in such a manner as to emphasize their correspondence to actuality or to ordinary visual experience.
Compare (def 4), (def 2).
(usually initial capital letter) a style of painting and sculpture developed about the mid-19th century in which figures and scenes are depicted as they are experienced or might be experienced in everyday life.

Literature.

a manner of treating subject matter that presents a careful description of everyday life, usually of the lower and middle classes.
a theory of writing in which the ordinary, familiar, or mundane aspects of life are represented in a straightforward or matter-of-fact manner that is presumed to reflect life as it actually is.
Compare (def 1b).

Philosophy.

the doctrine that universals have a real objective existence.
Compare , .
the doctrine that objects of sense perception have an existence independent of the act of perception.
Compare (def 5a).

Contemporary Examples

The tone veered wildly between camp, melodrama, realism, and messy amalgamations of the three.
The 7 Most Ridiculous Moments From ‘Smash’ Season 1 (VIDEOS) Kevin Fallon February 4, 2013

Out in the crowded hallway, broadcasting on the online Tea Party News Network, founder Scottie Hughes injected a note of realism.
CPAC Defiant in Obama Era Howard Kurtz March 13, 2013

realism justifiably says that they must renounce violence, but when they adopt passive resistance they must renounce that too.
Daniel Gordis Has It Backwards Mark Baker December 10, 2012

realism means they must acknowledge that the occupation has ended because a government report has named it something else.
Daniel Gordis Has It Backwards Mark Baker December 10, 2012

Is it the realism that will extend a temporary occupation into a never-ending system of control and discrimination?
Daniel Gordis Has It Backwards Mark Baker December 10, 2012

Historical Examples

Primarily a pictorial record, more on the side of action than of realism, except for post-trailing period.
Guide to Life and Literature of the Southwest J. Frank Dobie

realism of the most ghastly truthfulness, as to a corpse in the grave, it certainly is.
Holbein Beatrice Fortescue

The virtue of idealism is as necessary as the virtue of realism; and every great writer shows his greatness by combining the two.
Social Rights And Duties Leslie Stephen

The word ‘Truthfulness’ may seem to suggest the realism of some modern writers.
The Legacy of Greece Various

I have implied a distinction between decoration and realism that I have not clearly defined.
Oscar Wilde Arthur Ransome

noun
awareness or acceptance of the physical universe, events, etc, as they are, as opposed to the abstract or ideal
awareness or acceptance of the facts and necessities of life; a practical rather than a moral or dogmatic view of things
a style of painting and sculpture that seeks to represent the familiar or typical in real life, rather than an idealized, formalized, or romantic interpretation of it
any similar school or style in other arts, esp literature
(philosophy) the thesis that general terms such as common nouns refer to entities that have a real existence separate from the individuals which fall under them See also universal (sense 11b) Compare Platonism, nominalism, conceptualism, naive realism
(philosophy) the theory that physical objects continue to exist whether they are perceived or not Compare idealism, phenomenalism
(logic, philosophy) the theory that the sense of a statement is given by a specification of its truth conditions, or that there is a reality independent of the speaker’s conception of it that determines the truth or falsehood of every statement
n.

1794, from real (adj.) + -ism; after French réalisme or German Realismus; from Late Latin realis “real.” Opposed to idealism in philosophy, art, etc. In reference to scholastic doctrine of Thomas Aquinas (opposed to nominalism) it is recorded from 1826. Meaning “close resemblance to the scene” (in art, literature, etc., often with reference to unpleasant details) is attested from 1856.

An approach to philosophy that regards external objects as the most fundamentally real things, with perceptions or ideas as secondary. Realism is thus opposed to idealism. Materialism and naturalism are forms of realism. The term realism is also used to describe a movement in literature that attempts to portray life as it is.

An attempt to make art and literature resemble life. Realist painters and writers take their subjects from the world around them (instead of from idealized subjects, such as figures in mythology or folklore) and try to represent them in a lifelike manner.