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A discussion aimed at clarifying the meaning o f the terms Realism and Naturalism and their usage in the English and Italian literature o f the second half o f the 19“‘ centuiy is bound to examine the French developments o f the new literary taste. The term Realism is commonly used to refer to Balzac and Flaubert’s literature; whereas the term Naturalism is associated with the ideas and works o f later intellectuals, especially o f Zola. In fact,

Balzac and Flaubert did not develop a literary theoiy which explained the features and | aims o f the new tendency. It was Hippolite Taine who provided the theoretical criteria for

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the only critical explanation o f the two terms; some critics use the term Realism to refer to

every artistic work aiming at an impartial representation o f reality, and the term

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Other critics use the two terms interchangeably. In any case, the term Realism has a |

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broader meaning than Naturalism; the former indicating the new artistic tendency j

characterised by the will to provide the reader with an objective representation o f reality, i the latter being associated with the method French intellectuals adopted in order to i achieve this aim. As Hippolite Taine pointed out in an essay published in 1858 in the

Journal des Debats, the features o f the naturalistic approach to literature were the belief in i scientific determinism, the courage to deal with sordid subjects, and, therefore, the j

movement is the preface to the novel Germinie Lacerteux by the brothers Goncourt. It is a declaration o f the naturalistic beliefs which has a certain importance, since it was written by two novelists who considered themselves Naturalists. In the preface they warned the readers that they would find the novel different from the ones they were used to reading. They pointed out that Germinie Lacerteux was going to be a true novel, that it would deal with low topics, and they defined it as a clinical study of love. Thus, the emphasis on the main features o f Naturalism was laid. Zola and the other Naturalists will be less general and more categorical on certain matters, especially on the relation between literature and science, but the Goncourt s’ preface clearly stated the main principles o f Naturalism. It was the Naturalists’ intention to provide their readers with a faithful and objective description o f a slice o f life (tranche de vie). They talked o f a scientific approach to literature; Zola put forward the idea o f the novelist as a scientist analysing data in his laboratory. The science taken as example was medicine; in fact, Claude Bernard’s Introduction a’ 1’etude de la medicine expérimentale (1865) had been the basis for Zola’s theoiy o f the experimental novel. In order to be objective the description o f a slice o f life did not have to stem from any preconceived ideas, it did not have to be based on prejudices, but on actual experience. For the Naturalists the reliance on documentation and observation, to obsei^ved facts was important. In terms o f content, the Naturalists believed that, in order to be truthful, an account o f reality must not deal with those topics which were not considered conventional literary subjects. In other words, they did not think the novelist’s task was to please and amuse their readers with beautiful pictures o f the fashionable world, concerned only with its positive elements. The novelists had rather

to deal with low subjects, to show their readers the ugly side o f reality. We must not forget the link between the establishment o f the naturalistic school and the will to denounce and protest against the negative aspects of contemporary society.

The other basic concept o f Naturalism was the belief that life was influenced by physiological laws and by the environment. We can mention as an example clarifying his concept the focus Zola lay on the twin forces o f heredity and environment in his cycle Rougon-Macquart. This revolution in literary taste naturally implied also an experimentation as far as the narrative techniques were concerned; these had to be changed according to the objective representation o f reality. This meant that the narrator must not intrude in the course o f the narration; the author had to withdraw leaving the characters to act out their destinies without any comment. The intention was to eliminate as much as possible any barriers between the reader and the narration. In few words, they shifted from the panoramic to the dramatic narrative method. This was the situation in France, and as it was it influenced the European literature o f the time, but one cannot fail to notice that in each country the response to the new literary taste was different according to the different cultural and social situations.

If we move to consider the English literature o f the period we notice a general tendency towards truth o f observation and portrayal o f commonplace events, settings and characters, which can be linked to the new realistic taste. But it is not to be found the emphasis laid by French Naturalists on the scientific detachment as one o f the criteria for

achieving an objective representation o f reality, which meant, in terms of narrative techniques, that English novelists allowed authorial interferences in the course o f the narration. The Victorian literature was characterised by the belief that art offers an insight into the transcendental dimension o f reality. In other words, English Realism was based on ideas o f moral sympathy, which means that from a technical point o f view the narrator is allowed to intrude in the course o f the narration to give moral advices, as it happens in George Eliot’s novels. I think it is therefore more appropriate to use the term Realism, rather than Naturalism, in the following discussion about George Eliot’s involvement with the new literary taste.

The Italian literary response to the new tendency was also different from the French one. The Italian intellectuals o f the time accepted the new criteria o f objective representation o f reality, o f the depiction o f commonplace events and characters, but they were not interested in the scientific principles proclaimed by French Naturalists. The Italian approach to the new taste was characterised by the experimentation o f new technical devices novelists could use in order to achieve a faithful representation o f reality and by a concern with the life o f people belonging to the lowest social strata . In this case also I will use the term Realism rather than Naturalism, unless I use the word Verismo, which was created by the Italian intellectuals themselves to refer to their artistic experience.

In this discussion I will point out those aspects o f George Eliot and Giovanni Verga’s art which can be considered realistic, and I will analyse the similarities and differences in their approach to the new literaiy tendency,