Amy Kaplan argues in the introduction to her book, The Social Construction of American Realism, that the fate of American realism is constantly changing in the eyes of critics because of the influence of the romance thesis developed in Richard Chase's The American Novel and Its Tradition. Chase claims that European realism is effective because of the rich social awareness and struggle among classes, and that Americans, obsessed with the melodramatic journey for some meaning in life, "do not write social fiction" (2). Chase gives his thesis weight by using Henry James' assertion that Americans, who are on the whole unobstructed by social restraint, lack the "complex social machinery to set a writer in motion" (2). Based on this theory, Kaplan argues that our concept of American realism, while a presumptuous task in itself, is nevertheless confined by Chase's romance thesis, and that by denying the social context of various realist texts we substantially limit the depth of critical inquiry.

Instead of rewriting the history of realist criticism, Kaplan explains that her interest is more in exploring the purpose of American realist novels, and the dichotomy between realist representation and fiction. Her position is that American realism does represent social life. Realism changes and effects the social position of the author, it creates debate about inherent subversive qualities purposefully or not purposefully intended by the author. It provides a critique of the urgency to record something essential when life is changing so rapidly. She examines the work of three authors she feels have been misrepresented by critics who fail to explore the complex relationship between the drastic transformations in society brought on by commercialism and specifically its relationship to mass culture and class: William Dean Howells, Edith Wharton, and Theodore Dreiser.

Howells, as Kaplan explains, is the "leader of the [realist] charge" (15). He concerned himself mainly with the war against the sentimentality and fictitious representation of life, and worn ideals that the romance novels encouraged. He was not concerned so much with developing a depiction of real life, but a common sense between every man. Howells seeks the man underneath the money; the "common" man. The word common, Kaplan points out, is significant in both senses of the word -- common, as in ordinary, and common as in shared. The interesting thing about Howells is that he felt there was no common identity, so he constructed one. This, Howells thought, was a productive fiction as opposed to the fictionality and exposure of mass journalism. His fiction opposed the idea that culture could be created through the common bond of consumerism, as opposed to his main "nemesis," a journalist named Bartley Hubbard, who wrote for its selling power and providing the gossip-thirsty public with a sensationalized story. Kaplan follows her analysis of Howells by a critique of his story, A Hazard of New Fortunes.

The section on Wharton is Kaplan's most beautiful section of her book, and definitely makes the book worth reading. Kaplan explains that Wharton was criticized for being too manners-oriented; however, it is only because people missed the subversive "narcissistic" elements at work within the structure of the novel, as well as the social rebellion against traditional myths that frame women's writing as well as women's role in society. Kaplan points out that Wharton's books became best sellers, but this was not the intention of Wharton, because by being labeled as such she was put in the same category as other sentimental women writers. The difference, though, was that Wharton sought herself in these novels; she looked for the "I." Kaplan contends that her writing can be compared to the role of woman in the home. Instead of rebelling against the position of domesticity, Wharton sought to masculinize the home by exerting herself onto the objects of the house. In this sense, she changes the idea of women's work from "consumption" to "construction" (78). Kaplan continues her analysis in a close reading of Wharton's The House of Mirth in which Wharton makes a spectacle of the unreal society by exposing the fact that the upper class establish their identity through the eyes of the lower class. Their lives are, in other words, constructed by means of fashion and lifestyle to create a fictitious separation in self worth.

The section on Dreiser is obviously appropriate for discussion in this class, because Kaplan provides a close reading of Sister Carrie. The interesting thing about this section is that Dreiser uses sentimentality to establish his realist text. Kaplan contends that the sentimental voice in the work acts to address the contradictions in a capitalist economy, wherein people instill faith in material goods that will tragically never fulfill the people's needs (151). The sentimentality, and the fact the Dreiser found it imperative to manipulate the market are grave differences opposed by Howells. Kaplan addresses these problems with four solutions -- the most accepted one being Dreiser's "lucid portrayal of social conditions - represented best by Hurstwood's decline" (142). This particular section is also extremely important, because Kaplan addresses the fact that realist writers always have unsatisfactory endings (including Sister Carrie, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Red Badge of Courage, etc.). She ends with a most insightful explanation that, "Realistic novels have trouble ending because they pose problems they cannot solve, problems that stem from their attempt to imagine and contain social change" (160).

Unless you are an English graduate student, or just somebody who enjoys the pursuit of incredibly dense readings, Kaplan's book is probably not the most appropriate selection when choosing books for reading by the poolside. It is, however, a very smart book, and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in American literature or studying the various forms of the novel for oral examinations. Kaplan's position is so well written and argued that she actually makes the venture addicting and definitely fulfilling.