UC Riverside

This project explores the intersection between nineteenth-century British and Russian realist novels and philosophical accounts of how we realize the world through perception and cognition. Using an interdisciplinary methodology that combines Wittgensteinian philosophy with comparative reading practices, I argue that fiction is real insofar as it acts as a performative space that refracts the world through a purpose-driven interpretive and affective framework that allows readers to realize internal change. Treating readings as `moments of realization,' which participate in, reflect upon, and transform lived realities, I advocate reading practices that deploy critical self-reflection to promote ethical self-development.

The first chapter argues that realism's seemingly objective descriptive style is significant not for the accuracy of its mimetic picture, but rather for organizing the world into an intersocially available space conceived in Kantian terms. Moving from an objective to subjective perspective, the second chapter explores the basis of psychological realism as a self-directed means for articulating one's position within society to oneself. The third chapter connects these outward and inward gazes to the development of becoming subjects who realize internal change in response to fiction. Finally, the fourth chapter raises ethical questions that arise as a result of this becoming-oriented approach. Woven through these reflections are extended dialogues with the historical and literary contexts of the realist movement designed to promote interdisciplinary discussion.