Urban Realism And Realism

In first half of the 19th century, under the pushing of industrialrevolution, Paris began the period that the city is developed and expandedrapidly. Meanwhile, the social life is turbulent: wealth was opposite topoverty, prosperity existed with corruption, civilization was consubstantialwith evil.As the writer of critical realism, de Balzac wrote all aspects ofcities to represent the characters of financier, freedom artist, reporter,poor people, prostitute, cop, lawyer etc and their destiny breeding on "soil" of the city. He is also condemned the evil of money ruling.Studying the image of Paris in the works of de Balzac, we explorethe criticizes on cities and look into the causes from the writer'sexperience.This dissertation fits into three chapters:Chapter one, "de Balzac in Paris", first analyzes the relationshipsbetween the writer and the city, his survival circumstances, city experienceas well as self- cognition along with his identity and life-pursuing in theadvancement of modernization as a professional novelist who majors incity characters.Chapter two, "Paris in the works of de Balzac: City and people", examines the symbolic meaning of "literature city" which de Balzac "constructs" in the novels by the description of the urban space and thecharacters of citizens. It also analyzed the existence surrounding of theParis.Chapter three, "the city narrates", cleans up the visual angles of deBalzac' city narrates. On one hand, urbanization movement leaded to thefact that a large number of people from other provinces poured into Paris.Different values and social customs produced the inner fierce. In the viewof the outsider, Paris showed its special circumstances by the contrasts theParis and the outsider. On the other hand, de Balzac adopted the visualangle of realism. He regards city as a kind of normal existence. His novels described different life forms shaded by the money, and disclosedthe corrosion to the city for the capitalist civilization.