This thesis develops and refines a term used initially by Bill Buford to refer to works of
contemporary realism. Dirty realism characterises a strain of realism first appearing in American
and Canadian writing during the 1960s and increasing in prominence through the 1970s, 1980s,
and early 1990s. The study focuses on the scholarship surrounding both the term and the works
of particular authors, and applies the theories of Fredric Jameson and Michel de Certeau to
develop a basic critical vocabulary for engaging the fiction and poetry of Charles Bukowski,
Raymond Carver, Richard Ford, and Mark Anthony Jarman, as well as other writers treated with
less intensity, such as David Adams Richards, Helen Potrebenko, Al Purdy, and Bobbie Anne
Mason. In particular, the dissertation attempts to develop a critical terminology through which
to discuss dirty realist texts. The most prominent of such terms, the "hypocrisy aesthetic," refers
to dirty realism's aesthetic of contradiction, discursive variance, and offsetting of theory against
practice. The chapters of the dissertation deal with the emergence of the hypocrisy aesthetic
through a study of literary genealogy, history, and theory.
The second chapter, "Dirty Realism: Genealogy," traces the development of major
currents in twentieth-century American realism, particularly naturalism. Arguing for dirty
realism as a variant of naturalism, the chapter traces the transmission of ideas concerning
dialectics, determinism, and commodity production from Theodore Dreiser and Frank Norris,
through James T. Farrell and John Steinbeck and ending with an extensive discussion of Charles
Bukowski's Factotum.
The third chapter, "Dirty Realism: History," addresses the impact of the Cold War on the
development of dirty realism. Referring to major critics on the period, this section of the
dissertation follows the development of hypocrisy as a form of discourse eventuated by Cold
War contradictions, particularly between that of democratic freedoms proclaimed abroad and the
atmosphere of suspicion and paranoia on the domestic scene (as—in the USA—in the HUAC
hearings chaired by Senator Joseph McCarthy).
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/11068 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Dobozy, Tamas |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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