Whatever happened to realism? What form is adequate to representing our moment situated as we
are after the end of 'the end of History'? In the face of youth revolts and workers'
insurgencies from Cairo to London it seems a good time to test the possibilities of
alternative Marxist defences of contemporary realist fiction. Can realism's techniques
adequately represent the complexity of contemporary political organisation? This book reads key
realist texts from recent decades in order to test their potential to produce the knowledge of
history industrial politics and the metropolis traditionally central to literary realism's
concerns. Positioning himself within and against the inspiration and models of Fredric
Jameson's literary theory and drawing on innovative realist texts the author seeks to draw
the classic realism controversies of an earlier period in historical materialism into
productive conversation with the debates framing the era of austerity.
