Sharper Distinctions for Debates over »Realism« in German Literature and Theater

The concept of »realism« has resurged in contemporary literary debates, driven by calls for literature and theater to engage more deeply with its political responsibilities. Following its prominence in the 1930s and 1960s, the past two decades have seen renewed calls for a more realistic approach in German literature. Authors like Matthias Politycki have advocated for »relevant realism« in novel writing, while Milo Rau has called for »global realism« in theater and Bernd Stegemann has extolled the virtues of realism. But what exactly makes it the case that words and performances can impact or change reality? In these old and new literary debates there is usually no recourse to advanced linguistic theories, no spelling out, at least not in detail, of how the influence of literature or theater on the world and our reality should or is taking place. All these approaches are, of course, based on a certain idea of what language is, can, and should be but it remains, in most cases, implicit. I propose making them explicit and expanding our conceptual repertoire when discussing the relationship between language and reality to better understand how particular authors and theorists believe literature should fulfill its political role. Specifically, I suggest complementing the post-structuralist view of language, which is prevalent in literary theory, with categories from analytic philosophy of language. The article has two primary aims: A, to highlight the lack of investigations into how artistic language fulfills its social and political roles, as called for by authors and theorists, and to make the underlying concepts of language in specific cases explicit; B, to complement the dominant post-structural view of language in literary theory with perspectives from a particular strand of analytic philosophy of language. Together, these aims seek to expand and refine our theoretical concepts, thereby enhancing our understanding of the stakes in these literary debates and improving our capacity to reflect on them within literary theory. For aim A, I will focus on the works of Lukács, Brecht, and Stegemann. For aim B, I will engage with the ideas of Searle, Derrida, Quine, Davidson, and Rorty. Using my proposed conceptual tools allows to uncover perspectives that have been previously obscured in literary debates, enhances our understanding of the nexus between language and reality at large, and improves our ability to critically engage with historical and contemporary literary debates.