Realism and Revolution

Sandy Petrey explores the emergence of nineteenth-century French realism in the light of the concept of speech acts as defined by J. L. Austin and as exemplified by the history of the French Revolution. Through analysis of the techniques of...

Sandy Petrey is Professor of French and Comparative Literature at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

'There are no facts, only interpretations.' This principle of epistemology, which has been fundamental in numerous strands of cultural theory since the period Mr. Petrey considers here, is strikingly explored in Realism and Revolution. The book is a forceful and persuasive rereading not only of classic texts but of classic readings of these texts. It suggests a way of transcending a long and rigid opposition between two fundamental strains in contemporary criticism, based in linguistics and in history or sociology respectively."