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This introduction situates the contributions to the New Agenda in the context of an apparent resurgence of the term 'provincial' and 'provincialism' in Britain since the Brexit debates and the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. It takes the resurgence of provincial thinking as an invitation to explore the cultural history of provincialism in Victorian Britain and the unexpected part it played in the formation of Empire. By revaluing the cultural formation of provincialism through this historical lens the articles in this New Agenda help us see the roots of its power now and the alternative possibilities latent within it. Although provincialism emerged as a fraught and politically charged term during the nineteenth century it was also a means to expand access to print and material cultures to those previously excluded. At the same time as provincialism became a pejorative term in the hands of liberal critics such as Matthew Arnold, nineteenth-century Britain was powered by industry, intellectual enquiry, and newspapers emanating from non-metropolitan towns and cities. The provincial press and provincial fiction are crucial ways in which Victorian Britain represented itself as an entity composed of distinctive constituent regions and imagined itself as an imperial power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modernism's Others explores how a transformation in traditions of realist representation laid the grounds for the emergence of the multicultural and avant-garde constructions of modern American literature. At the heart of this investigation is the way the "right to privacy" articulated at the end of the nineteenth century reshaped visions of separate spheres, differential rights, and public duties. It examines a moment at which writers placed, at the heart of literature's ethics and its epistemology, the right to not be known. Tracing the career of this idea from its roots in late nineteenth-century realism through the emerging canons of modernist and multicultural literature, this project explores the interplay between new categories of legal right, new categories of social analysis, and new measures of literary value. "Selling somebody out" slouches into American literature, more or less, on the heels of Bartley Hubbard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article resurrects the literary source of the phrase banana republic : O. Henry's only novel, Cabbages and Kings (1904), which was inspired by his experiences in Honduras after fleeing from charges of embezzlement. Set in a fictitious country called Anchuria, the narrative grew out of two short stories titled "Money Maze" and "The Phonograph and the Graft." O. Henry is seldom considered in discussions of US realism at the turn of the twentieth century; nevertheless, I argue that Cabbages and Kings parodically deploys a mode of "banana republic realism" that sheds light on the role of media technologies in the processes of imperial expansion and financialization. Given Lisa Gitelman's claim that media are "integral to a sense of what representation itself is ," how do the ties between media and money impinge on the claims of realism—especially in enclave economies where the same corporation cultivating the export commodity might also control currency and communication technologies? With an eye to debates about realism in our own era of cryptocurrencies and algorithmic trading, the article points to the banana republic as a privileged site for understanding what happens to realist representation at moments when media become increasingly integral to the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What I will aim for in answering the title question is extensional adequacy, that is, I will try to formulate an account that captures as much of the extension as possible of what we ordinarily think counts as a portrait. Two philosophers have recently and independently from one another embarked on the same project. Cynthia Freeland's theory of portraiture, as it is developed in her book, Portraits and Persons, is discussed in Sections 1 and 2 of this paper. Sections 3 and 4 offer a critical exploration of Paolo Spinicci's phenomenological study of portraiture. Finally, in Sections 5 and 6, I present an alternative account of portraiture, one that will hopefully address all the objections raised against the two competing theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this chapter I review some works that are exemplary of what might be called the ontological turn in media studies, one that tends towards a more originary and philosophically complex understanding of the media. In particular, I look at recent works connected with the so-called 'New Materialism', Object-Oriented Ontology, and Speculative Realism, and discuss how they offer a new context in which to think about the media. One of my concerns is to show that such thinking does not merely affect how we understand such phenomena, but has ramifications for how it is used in academic discourse. In particular, the widespread use of blogs by thinkers connected with Speculative Realism and the New Materialism, and the considerable familiarity many of them have with new technologies and networks, often as programmers or games designers, means that these kinds of intellectual endeavours are both shaping and being shaped by developments in media. One result is that media studies is no longer a kind of offshoot of Literary Studies and Sociology, but has become instead a form of philosophical thinking, concerned with fundamental materialities and ontologies. This reflects the fact that the world can no longer be understood outside of the media, or, to paraphrase Derrida, 'il n'y a pas hors-média', even if the range of those who can mediate the world extends to the nonhuman and even the non-living. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assuming there are fictional objects, what sorts of properties do they have? Intuitively, most of their properties involve being represented-appearing in works of fiction, being depicted as clever, being portrayed by actors, being admired or feared, and so on. But several philosophers, including Saul Kripke, Peter van Inwagen, Kendall Walton, and Amie Thomasson, argue that even if there are fictional objects, they are not really represented in some or all of these cases. I reconstruct four kinds of arguments for this unexpected conclusion; they concern the semantics of names, pragmatic force, creation, and representations' qualitative content. But I find all the arguments flawed. I then argue for the contrary, employing a new perspective: representation of fictional objects begins with the works of fiction that originate them. A work of fiction represents its 'native' objects because our culture bestows that property on it (and on other works of fiction). I sketch conditions for such property bestowal and argue that they are satisfied in this case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented on the role of anonymity in the social and historical significance of dead people associated with the U.S. Civil War. Particular focus is given to the treatment of the Civil War dead in the genre of American literary realism. According to the author, realist writers such as Harold Frederic and Thomas Nelson Page cautioned readers against cultural melancholia and the fetishization of the Civil War dead. Photography of the dead is also discussed.

An essay on material ecocriticism and the dirty theory is presented. It offers a review of environmental roles that are related to dirt in its mythical status or in the grimy reality as cited in literary works and examines the problems about gravity, survival on earth and the bacteria-laden environment. The author relates the possibility that material ecocriticism could embrace the gritty physically of dirt combined with its potential to inspire responsible care and reverence.

An essay on theories of material ecocriticism is presented. It offers a review of materialist theories from different perspectives and experiences and examines their conceptual stories on exploring new territories including one on the merger of material realities and discursive dynamics in a new configuration. The authors relate about merger of postmodern materialism with ecocriticism as well as stories about material ecocriticisms.

Some of the most compelling characters are morally ambiguous, but little research has examined these characters. This study (N = 313 ) empirically tests the effects of good, bad, and morally ambiguous characters (MACs) on audience responses. Findings of an experiment reveal that different character types are appealing for different reasons. Specifically, good characters are enjoyed because they are well liked; bad characters are liked the least, but they are equally as transporting, suspenseful, and thus cognitively engaging as other characters. MACs, on the other hand, are liked less than good characters, but they are nevertheless equally as transporting, suspenseful, cognitively engaging, and thereby enjoyable as good characters. The implications of these findings on various media effects theories are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses suspense realism and examines the motivation behind a theory of suspense. A definition is presented that considers the emotions that suspense realism can evoke in readers. The author argues that any theory of suspense realism would inherently contain a contradiction and that this view is suspense eliminativism, which does not allow that there is a separate emotion of suspense. The suspense theory of Robert Yanal is analyzed, particularly the misidentification of the suspense emotion. Other topics include the paradox of suspense, how to resolve repeater suspense with the necessity of uncertainty, the 1973 film "Don't Look Now," and the desire-frustration theory of scholar Aaron Smuts.

This article engages with Dai Sijie's representation of Eastern and Western identities, their relationships, and misreading in light of the reception, best-sellerization, and film adaptation of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. These various modes of commercialization add layers of cultural consumption and exploitation to the ones Dai sets up in his comparative approach between French Realist literature and Chinese culture. The reception of the novel stresses both the attraction of an exotic world and the universal qualities of Dai's homage to European literature. While the book was packaged as a universal story about reading, love and personal development, Dai problematizes such universal lessons and warns against the limitations of partial readings. Hence, the reception and promotion of the book are ironically contrary to the novel's own message. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes as its starting point the possibility of empirical and theoretical cross-fertilization between strategic culturalists and realists. Indeed, recent neoclassical realist writings indicate that there is currently a move away from the more abstract theorizing of Waltzian neorealism. In order to conduct detailed foreign policy analysis, these authors have included an increasing array of variables including nonmaterial factors. The paper argues that much can be gained from examination of the alternative explanations of state behavior provided by strategic culture and neoclassical realism. Yet the benefits of competitive collaboration depend upon the particular conception of strategic culture under consideration. The paper identifies four main conceptions of strategic culture and examines the type of collaboration with neoclassical realism that is possible for each one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ruskin, the most influential mid-Victorian aesthetician, has typically been affiliated by critics with one of two incongruous regimes of thought; late English romanticism or an emerging counter-paradigm of factual science. Unwilling to refine this opposition, criticism has failed so far to address the relationship Ruskin bears to a native British intellectual tradition of sceptical empiricism. Beginning by arguing that his early writing on aesthetics ought to be distanced from the cultural legacies of romanticism (intuitive psychology, transcendental order, mysticism), this article offers a re-examination of  Modern Painters (1843–60) as a work that intersects instead with the associationist tradition represented in the mid-century by writers like Alexander Bain and G. H. Lewes. Ruskin's realism, I argue, can be rethought in these terms as it dramatises a similar model of subjectivity to that found in their key psychological works; a model whereby the self must paradoxically be sacrificed before the object it seeks to know while also authenticating art's truthfulness through the testimonies of perspective and personality. Discussion ranges from visual art, including Turner and Canaletto, to the psychological theory of Lewes and Bain, to detailed analysis of the form and meaning of Modern Painters itself, uncovering the powerful critique of mimesis that its surprising philosophical inheritance implies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fictional realism, i.e., the view that because fictions exist, fictional characters exist as well, has recently been accused of leading to inconsistency generated by phenomena of indeterminacy and inconsistency in fiction. We examine in detail four arguments against fictional realism, and present a version of fictional realism which can withstand those arguments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By focusing on the draft quality of Echeverría's “El matadero”, its popular language and the death of the “unitario”, the article explores the work as a parable of on-going Argentine violence. “La fiesta del monstruo” by Jorge Luis Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares narrates the killing of a bookish Jew during the Peronist era. The two stories are linked through realism and history to suggest why violent confrontations erupt in history and fiction over many years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in December 2001, attention has turned to the issue of whether or not China is a responsible member of the organization and how compliant China is with WTO rules. This article discusses the difficulties faced by China, as a responsible rising power, in trying to adjust itself to global trading norms. It examines the theory of compliance in international relations from the perspectives of neo-realism, liberal institutionalism and social constructivism, and then tests these perspectives by examining the mechanisms used to gauge China's compliance, both bilaterally by the United States and multilaterally through the Dispute Settlement Mechanism and the Transition Review Mechanism of the WTO. The result is mixed: different opinions exist as to how compliant China has been but, on the whole, most monitors agree that China has tried hard to comply with WTO requirements in various areas, though much remains to be done. The most severe tests will come in the next few years when China's financial and service sectors will have to face fundamental changes to the way they operate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the characteristics of the Iranian cinema. Influence of the Italian neorealism on the Iranian cinema; Style of the cinematic images; Presence of open images in the closing scenes.

Talks about literary realism in the novel 'The Street,' written by Ann Petry. Treatment given by Mark Seltzer of the novels of Henry James; Analysis of various passages; Critique of the interface between sight and knowledge in relation to race; Character analysis.

Melodrama and politics converged in Neorealism, and via melodrama the influence of the movement extended far beyond debates about a more documentary brand of cinematic realism. A comparable convergence held for opera, and in particular for Verdi, a flexible icon of identity politics, whose direct application to the actuality of postwar Italian history was contested by Bertolucci, for one. This article explores Neorealism and opera as identity issues in postwar Italian Cinema, tracing stages of their interrelationship from Roma città aperta via Bertolucci through to La notte di San Lorenzo. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article explores the relevance of German poet and playwright Bertoldt Brecht's writings in relation to the unfolding of new theories of culture and cultural production as developed in the West in the 1970s. It cites some challenges to recover Brecht's original attitude toward socialism and his search for a cultural equivalent to such a commitment to socialism. It discusses the politics of form as well as the state of film theory in the 1970s. The article also examines Brecht's realism which involves a certain theory of signification.

The article presents an analysis on the connection between Victor Shklovsky's idea of ostranenie or making-strange and Bertolt Brecht's Verfremdung. Shklovsky was a formalist who abhors Marxism, and later constructed the notion of making-strange art-as-a-device for the advancement of the revolution. Brecht's Verfremdung is technique aimed at jolting the consciousness of artist, writers, as well as editors and making them aware of contradiction in society. Details concerning the similarities of the two concept is presented, followed by discussion on the role of art for social aim.

Presents the essay "Crabbe's So-Called Realism," by Gavin Edwards.

Focuses on the concept of realism that dominated the discussion of English poet George Crabbe by literary critics and social historians regarding his descriptions English life in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Concepts of Crabbe on historical reality as the characteristics of a narrative text; Objections to the concept of realism; Reviews on the narrative poem "The Confidant" and "The Frank Courtship."

The article criticizes the books "Ethan Frome" and "Summer" by Edith Wharton. It outlines the characters and the narration of the story in "Ethan Frome." It examines the marriage of the guardian and his foster child in the "Summer" and its representation in American marriage. The author comments on the absence of realism in the books.

A literary criticism of the book "Lenz" by George Büchner is presented. It outlines the characters and explores the symbolic significance of these characters. It examines the relevance of literary realism to human experience as defined by the imperative of human empathy and offers discussion on the tradition of enlightenment and empathy. An overview of the story is also given.

A bibliography on the subject of modern language studies is presented, which includes the books "Reason and the Nature of Texts" by James L. Battersby, "German Linguistics" by Christopher Beedham and "Poetic Realism in Scandinavia and Central Europe, 1820-1895" by Clifford Albrecht Bernd.

A bibliography on the subject of literature, which includes the books "Idea of Prose" by Giorgio Agamben, "American Realism and the Canon" edited by Tom Quirk and Gary Scharnhorst, and "Women Travel Writers and the Language of Aesthetics" by Elizabeth A. Bohls.

The article discusses the concept of artistic realism discussed by Roman Jakobson in his attempt to disentangle the confusion in the use of term realism. According to the author, Jakobson describes realism as an artistic trend that aims to reproduce reality as faithfully as possible that aims to accomplish the maximum of verisimilitude. It is suggested that Jakobson isolated certain procedures that happened in the nineteenth century literary texts described as realist also present in other traditions like the inclusion of superfluous details.