Question

What are the specific differences between “social realism” and “socialist realism”? Connect each one with its correct geographical origins. Then provide specific examples of each to support your response.

Answer 1

There is difference between social realism and socialist realism. According to Galsworthy, “the word ‘realist’ characterizes that artist whose temperamental preoccupation is with revelation of the actual spirit of life, character and thought with a view to enlighten him and others”. The main difference between social realism and socialist realism is between ‘is’ and ‘should be’. Social realism means the depiction in literature of social reality as it is; there should be a point one to one correspondence between the society depicted in literature and the real actual society.

Socialist realism means the depiction of the social reality not as it is but as it should be: idealized. The second kind of approach is typical Marxist approach to literature. The theory of Socialist Realism was adopted by the Congress of Soviet Writers in 1934. Approved by Joseph Stalin, Nickolai Bukharin, Maxim Gorky and Andrey Zhdanov, 84 Socialist Realism demanded that all art must depict some aspect of man's struggle toward socialist progress for a better life. It stressed the need for the creative artist to serve the proletariat by being realistic, optimistic and heroic. The doctrine considered all forms of experimentalism as degenerate and pessimistic.