Framing the Realist Novel

Framing the Realist novel develops a theory of framing the realist novel with a distinction made between internal framing devices and the external frames of ontology and ethics. An encompassing methodological frame of critical rationality is developed. What the realist novel is is discussed in chapter one and a distinction is drawn between the historical period in the second half of the nineteenth century and realism that pervades realist narrative more generally. Chapter three applies the theory of frames developed to three novels: Bronte's 'Wuthering Heights'; Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness' and Coetzee's 'The Lives of Animals'.