Reprint of ‘Realism: Model or Mirage?’ FromRomance Studies, 1(1) (Winter 1982): 1–17

This reprinted essay, written in 1982 by the co-founder of Romance Studies, examined different ways of considering realism, from Balzac, Stendhal, and Baudelaire to Flaubert, Zola, Robbe-Grillet, and Barthes. In it, Nelson questioned the assumptions underlying la nouvelle critique’s denial of realism.