Use Of Realism Research Articles

Use of Realism as Social Commentary on Specific Subject Matter in Painting: An Analysis of the Realist Paintings of Zephania Lukamba, Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya

The creation of any work of art often has a purpose or an intent. In this regard, artists endeavour to create pieces of artwork that bear or propagate certain meanings or points of view and also express some social phenomena that are unique to a particular environment or what has often been referred to as a catchment area. This is usually an important artistic undertaking because artists have the innate responsibility to observe certain social peculiarities and visually record them for all their worth. Some of these peculiarities are a reflection of society and its circumstantial behavioural tendencies often brought about by various factors; such as social-economic malaise and bad governance that precipitates social decay. When an artist embarks on such an artistic depiction of his or her own social environment, then there is a need to give it due artistic attention. This study featured 22 paintings based on the subject matter of the overloading of vehicles. Although the paintings appeared generally alike in terms of layout and execution, it is the depiction of the paradox of the repeated occurrence of the same phenomenon which in reality reflects a tendency that is both widespread and bizarre. In this regard, each painting depicts a scene that in reality is in itself a specific curious occurrence. This, in retrospect, can be seen as a type of popular culture of defiance and of the absurd. Since the overloading of any vehicle is ordinarily not only unwarranted and dangerous, but also blatantly illegal, the artist, in his observations which constituted this study, depicts a societal problem that has degenerated into impunity. This study, therefore, sought to find out how effective such focused paintings were as an avenue for social commentary. The artist over a period of time observed incidents of overloading as they manifested themselves in real-life occurrences and made the necessary sketches that were later developed into paintings in the studio. The paintings were examined using formal analysis to delve into their composition and use of elements and principles as well as descriptive analysis to explore their meaning or what the artist intended to convey. The study posits that the essence of such focused paintings in this study is that they become a visual pointer to the wider debate about the debilitating effect of such social malaise upon the psyche of society. The ordinary citizenry subsequently becomes spectators in their own space that degenerates into such recklessness and disregard for individual and collective safety as well as the rule of law

Is there an optimum of realism in computer-generated instructional visualizations?

Realistic visualizations are abundantly used in digital education. However, the use of realism is still thought to risk a cognitive overload due to excessive details. Moreover, it is still not precisely known whether there is an optimal level of realism that benefits learners the most. In two experimental studies, different versions of anatomical visualizations were compared regarding their effects on retention performance and the subjective cognitive load experienced during learning. In Experiment 1 (n = 73), four visualizations with minor variations in the geometry and shading of the model featured in the visualizations were used. Although neither the level of detail in the geometry nor the realism of the shading resulted in significant differences, a detailed model with simplified shading elicited the highest retention scores descriptively. In Experiment 2 (n = 156), a schematic visualization was compared with an “idealized” model featuring only simplified shading and a highly realistic rendering. There most realistic version elicited the highest retention scores, but also the highest cognitive load ratings. Taken together, the results suggest that the optimal level of realism might lie on the more realistic end of the spectrum for learning tasks focused on the memorization of shapes that are assessed using image-based tests.

Is a Preference for Realism Really Naive After All? A Cognitive Model of Learning with Realistic Visualizations

Abstract The use of realistic visualizations has gained considerable interest due to the proliferation of virtual reality equipment. This review is concerned with the theoretical basis, technical implementation, cognitive effects, and educational implications of using realistic visualizations. Realism can be useful for learners, but in several studies, more abstract illustrations have resulted in higher performance. Furthermore, a preference for realistic visualization has been declared as being based on misconceptions regarding the cognitive system. However, we argue that this perspective is unable to fully explain the conflicting results found in the literature. To fill this theoretical gap, we devised a model to describe and compare the various levels of realism found in visualizations. We define realism as a combination of three dimensions: geometry, shading, and rendering. By varying these dimensions, it is possible to create a variety of realistic graphics. Thus, when comparing different visualizations, the realism of each of these three dimensions needs to be considered individually. Based on this technical definition, we introduce a cognitive model of learning with realistic visualizations that includes three different stages: perception, schema construction, and testing. At these three stages, variables such as the perceptual load generated by the visualization, learner characteristics influencing how well details are processed, and test types that demand concrete or flexible representations can affect whether realism fosters or hinders learning. Using the cognitive model presented in this paper, more accurate predictions and recommendations concerning the use of realism can be formulated.

Los trasplantados o el realismo viajero de Alberto Blest Gana

Este articulo se propone exponer y discutir los valores que adquiere la estetica del realismo en Los trasplantados (1904), novela tardia de Alberto Blest Gana. Para ello se describe someramente el primer desplazamiento de esta estetica, su encarnacion como novela nacional en un texto como Martin Rivas (1862), escrito y publicado en Chile y para los chilenos. Los trasplantados es una novela escrita y publicada en Paris tras mas de treinta anos de ausencia por parte de su autor; el uso que hace del realismo, si bien formalmente se parece al de la novela nacional, adquiere un sentido completamente distinto. La particularizacion de las mismas practicas que en Martin Rivas definia a sujetos pretendidamente aristocraticos, la oligarquia chilena, aqui sirve para mostrar a los rastacueros, sujetos degradados en relacion con la aristocracia europea. Se discuten brevemente esos hallazgos.

THE REALISM OF THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SYSTEM IN ACHIEVING INTERNATIONAL STABILITY: THE MIDDLE EAST AS A MODEL (2003-2020)

Purpose of the study: This research seeks to analyze the nature of American realism in achieving international stability in the Middle East.
 Methodology: This research adopted the logical, historical, and decision-making approaches to measure the extent of its impact on the structure of the international, regional system.
 Main Findings: Based on the nature of the international strategic situation, the American administration is required to change its approach in maintaining its interests through the use of realism in its traditional and modern concept and its contemporary lines of thought that reflect the American political thought at the external level in dealing with the changes and events taking place in the structure of the regional system in the Middle East.
 Applications of this study: This research is scientifically and practically significant since it: Contributes to enriching the theoretical aspect of the academic studies on developments in the reality of the American administration and its use of this model in achieving international stability in the Middle East region.
 Novelty/Originality of this study: This research completely discussed the perceptions about the tracks of the American administration and the extent of use of realism in achieving international stability, especially in the Middle East region. As well as define the realist conditions, means, methods, and tools adopted by the American administration in strengthening the power theory to achieve international stability and enhancing its position in the Middle East.

Realism for the post-truth era: politics and storytelling in recent fiction and autobiography by Salman Rushdie

ABSTRACTThis essay analyses Rushdie’s novel The Golden House and his memoir Joseph Anton to explore entanglements between fact and fiction, raising questions about the perception and use of realism and postmodernism as aesthetic categories and narrative modes in twenty-first-century literature. At the centre of both texts are concerns with identity, politics, mystery, deception and revelation in what is referred to as the ‘post-truth’ era – ushered in by the ‘Rushdie affair’. The argument focuses on the pursuit of truth and interplay of genres in Rushdie’s texts which employ a mode of storytelling best described as a kind of ‘operatic realism’.

Evaluating books by their covers. The influence of realism and complexity in photography on the appreciation by tweens

This research is the first that examined tweens’ appreciation of the use of realism and complexity in photography on book covers for children. Additionally, the level of agreement between tweens’ preferences and what adults think tweens appreciate is explored. Data were obtained through questionnaires filled in by 49 younger tweens, 44 older tweens and 125 adults. The results partly confirm the hypothesis that tweens prefer realistic photographs on book covers to unrealistic photographs. Results on the appreciation of the use of complexity in photography on book covers offer suggestions for future research. Next to that, the results showed that adults correctly infer the preferences of younger tweens, but incorrectly for older tweens. Finally, scientific and practical implications are discussed and suggestions for future research are presented.

Roger Martin du Gard and Maumort: the Nobel Laureate and His Unfinished Creation by Benjamin Franklin Martin

Martin, Benjamin Franklin. Roger Martin du Gard and Maumort: the Nobel Laureate and His Unfinished Creation. DeKalb: Northern Illinois UP, 2017. ISBN 978-0-87580-749-2. Pp. 234. This monograph represents an unveiling on several levels: an unveiling of the significance of Roger Martin du Gard (1881–1958), within twentieth-century literature , to many contemporary readers; an unveiling of the inner struggle of Martin du Gard, between the adherence to Catholicism expected by his family and many of his peers, and his own religious skepticism; and an unveiling of the mentalities in effect in Europe during the first half of the twentieth century. First, although Martin du Gard is rarely mentioned along with his contemporaries and closest friends, Gide, Camus, and Malraux, he was one of the Western world’s most celebrated authors in the late 1930s and early 1940s, winning the 1937 Nobel Prize for Literature. In fact, the main reason for which Martin du Gard is not often enumerated among these giants of literature is not the lack of quality of his novels. It is because he did not finish the work for which he is best known, Le lieutenant-colonel de Maumort, about the perspective of a retired French military officer on Vichy France. This incomplete novel was only published for the first time in 1983. Second, the unveiling of Martin du Gard’s questioning of the tenets of Catholicism is illuminated by Martin the biographer’s portrayal of the author’s occasionally contentious relationship with his wife, Hélène Foucault Martin du Gard, a devout Catholic (38). The significance of Martin du Gard’s religious struggle may not be apparent to contemporary readers, who are accustomed to hearing debate about religious orthodoxy, but in the first half of the twentieth century in France, Martin du Gard’s doubt brought him guilt and shame, and strife to his marriage (12). Third, this biography of Martin du Gard brings to the forefront, not only the mentalities of the first half of the twentieth century, but also those from the nineteenth that continued to be in effect. The title character of Le lieutenant-colonel de Maumort doubts the legitimacy of his own contributions to the defense of France during World War II, and his faith in Christianity. Overall, this biography of Martin du Gard invites exploration of his understudied novels. Additionally, the theme of inner struggle is accentuated by a fascinating parallel between Martin du Gard’s difficulty with Catholicism and the conflicts in Europe that spurred the World Wars. In both domains, the capacity of the individual to make his or her own choices, within a society that expects narrowly-defined ones, is paramount. This theme recalls the concepts of existentialism, to which Martin du Gard subscribed. The end of the work, portraying Martin du Gard’s acceptance of his own death, is somber, especially in light of the fact that the work that he never finished led to his non-inclusion in the French literary canon. Nonetheless, the raw honesty of Martin’s biography is appealing, especially since internal struggle is an experience to which everyone can relate, and it is in line with Martin du Gard’s own use of realism. Grove City College (PA) Michele Gerring 204 FRENCH REVIEW 91.3 ...

“How much realism is needed?” — the wrong question in silico imagers have been asking

To discuss the use of realism as a first approximation for assessing computational imaging methods. Although in silico methods are increasingly becoming promising surrogates to physical experimentation for various stages of device development, their acceptance remains challenging. Realism is often considered as a first approximation for assessing computational imaging methods. However, realism is subjective and does not always ensure that key features of the methodologies reflect relevant aspects of devices of interest to imaging scientists, regulators, and medical practitioners. Moreover, in some cases (e.g., in computerized image analysis applications where human interpretation is not needed) how realistic in silico images are is irrelevant and perhaps misleading. I emphasize a divergence from this methodology by providing a rationale for evaluating in silico imaging methods and tools in an objective and measurable manner. Improved approaches for in silico imaging will lead to the rapid advancement and acceptance of computational techniques in medical imaging primarily but not limited to the regulatory evaluation of new imaging products.

The Next of Kin: Propaganda, realism or a film with a purpose?

The aim of this paper is to describe use of realism in the World War II propaganda film, The Next of Kin and the purposive approach to public information film making used by the director, Thorold Dickinson to convey a didactic message about careless talk in cinematic form. Through this historical exposition of a purposive and realistic form of public information discourse in wartime cinema, the paper seeks to add to public relations (PR) historical knowledge on the filmic past.

The Disillusionment of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Dreams and Ideals in The Great Gatsby

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the American economy ascended, bringing unprecedented levels of affluence to the nation. The chaos of World War I left America in a state of distress, and the generation that fought the war turned to profligate living to recompense. In this novel, Fitzgerald found this new lifestyle seductive and, like Gatsby, he had always idolized the very rich. In this era, unrestrained materialism set the tone of society, which ends to the collapse of all characters and society. This novel represents Fitzgerald’s attempt to confront his conflicting feelings about the Jazz Age. Here we analyze major characters, symbols, themes and plot of this masterpiece as a tragedy, and a social novel. This creative work has been identified as one of the greatest novels of all time with Fitzgerald's incredible use of realism and symbolism. Moreover; there are some elements that make this work a modernistic and existential one. These key elements that made this work a success are obvious in the development of characters, plot, themes and setting throughout the novel. It is a highly symbolic meditation on 1920s America as a whole.

Diminished Returns: Mozambican Masculinities in José Craveirinha'sXiguboand Paulina Chiziane'sO Sétimo Juramento

In the last fifteen years, gendered analysis of Mozambican cultural expression has become increasingly popular. This engagement with the country’s cultural output has successfully elucidated the gendered meanings underpinning both Portuguese colonial endeavour and the Marxist-Leninist rhetoric of the Mozambican anticolonial struggle. However, despite this growing interest in the sexual politics of the nation’s cultural texts, Mozambican masculinities remain understudied. This article recentres masculinities in works by two Mozambican authors: poet Jose Craveirinha, dubbed the founding father of Mozambican national literature, and contemporary novelist Paulina Chiziane, hailed as Mozambique’s foremost woman writer. Poststructuralist gender theory is used to propose that Craveirinha’s attempt to provide a counternarration to colonial mythologies of black masculinity through engagement with an aesthetics of negritude ultimately perpetuates imperial imaginings of black femininity. Chiziane’s text, meanwhile, is shown to make strategic use of realism and parody in order to satirize the gender politics at the heart of early anticolonial writing.

‘This is our city’: Realism and the sentimentality of place in David Simon’s The Wire

Abstract Drawing upon theories of aesthetic realism, this article argues that The Wire develops a tension between the kind of representative typicality characteristic of realism and the exchangeability of labourers and goods in a capitalist system. By developing this tension, The Wire offers a nuanced critique of the ways in which capitalism renders individuals and geographical places as interchangeable placeholders, like pawns in a game of chess. The Wire’s use of realism retains the individualism of person and place, even as these figures represent something more than themselves in the fictional space of the show. I conclude by arguing that The Wire’s realism is mingled with an affective sentimentality associated with the idea of Baltimore.

Evaluating books by their covers

Evaluating books by their covers. The influence of realism and complexity in photography on the appreciation by tweens Evaluating books by their covers. The influence of realism and complexity in photography on the appreciation by tweens This research is the first that examined tweens’ appreciation of the use of realism and complexity in photography on book covers for children. Additionally, the level of agreement between tweens’ preferences and what adults think tweens appreciate is explored. Data were obtained through questionnaires filled in by 49 younger tweens, 44 older tweens and 125 adults. The results partly confirm the hypothesis that tweens prefer realistic photographs on book covers to unrealistic photographs. Results on the appreciation of the use of complexity in photography on book covers offer suggestions for future research. Next to that, the results showed that adults correctly infer the preferences of younger tweens, but incorrectly for older tweens. Finally, scientific and practical implications are discussed and suggestions for future research are presented.

Book Review: Victorian Conversion Narratives and Reading Communities

Victorian Conversion Narratives and Reading Communities. By Emily Walker Heady. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2013. ISBN 978-1-40945377-2. Pp. 150. 60.00 [pounds sterling]. Emily Walker Heady of Liberty University intersects literary criticism and conversion studies in her exploration of Victorian conversion narratives and their literary form. Heady asserts that the dual nature of conversion as both internal change and rhetorical performance (2) establishes an association between the private life of the convert and the public community to whom the convert tells her tale. In claiming this, Heady draws together two streams of thought in conversion studies. William James, in Varieties of Religious Experience (1901-1902), represents a stream that views conversion as a private experience, best studied through psychology. In contrast, Michael Ragussis in Figures of Conversion (1995) and Gauri Viswanathan in Outside the Fold (1998) represent a stream that highlights the public and political nature of conversion narratives, making sociology the proper field for its study. Heady's work integrates these two perspectives by focusing on the necessary communicative movement from private to public life through a convert s testimony. Since conversion narratives are commonplace in Victorian novels, they are a fitting resource for exploring her claim that the literary style of the convert's testimony is part of the conversion itself. In five chapters, Heady examines the conversion narratives of prominent Victorian authors: Dickens' Dombey and Son (1846), Brontes Villette (1853), Eliot's Daniel Deronda (1876), Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1899), and Wilde's autobiographical works, De Profundis (published posthumously in 1905) and The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898). In her first chapter on Dickens, Heady analyzes his narration of Paul Dombey's conversion from a money-absorbed capitalist to a man who cherishes his home life and finds spiritual value in the world of business. Unlike the sudden and supernatural conversion in A Christmas Carol (1843), Dickens uses a spiritually-integrated realism to tell the tale of Dombey's gradual and natural transformation (20). Heady claims that his use of realism betrays the Pelagian leanings of Dickens' later theology--conversion by human effort and spiritual education (21-23). Dickens also incorporates a New Testament parable into his account of Dombey's conversion: the Prodigal Son. Through his initially improper interpretation of the parable, Dombey betrays his problematic materialism (28-31). Dickens transitions from a private story about an individual to a public message for Victorian society, Heady claims, when he makes Dombey's amended interpretation of the parable both a means of and evidence for Dombey's conversion. She views Dombey and Son as Dickens' attempt to evangelize his reading community toward a proper integration of the sacred and the secular. Heady uses her second chapter to explore Bronte's struggle to narrate inner change without revealing too much or, conversely, introducing too sudden of a transformation into the story (46). In Villette, she sought to rectify the overly-inward narration of her heroine that had exposed Jane Eyre (1847) to criticism. Her protagonist, Lucy Snowe, undergoes a secular conversion that nonetheless gives room for the workings of providence. Throughout the novel, Lucy experiments with various narrative forms as lenses through which to interpret her own progress through life. She unsuccessfully narrates herself through realism's self-improvement genre (conversion through will and optimism, 48-55), romanticism's Gothic genre represented by Lucy's brief foray into Roman Catholic practice (dramatic and public confessions, 55-61), and the theological genre of spiritual journey, best characterized in Pilgrims Progress (65-66). Through her character's failed attempts at self-narration, Bronte critiques the typical conversion genres of Victorian literature and lands on typology as the most effective framework for Lucy's narrative. …

“The Bigger the Lie, the More They Believe”: Cinematic Realism and the Anxiety of Representation in David Simon’s The Wire

While a great deal of scholarship has been done on the use of realism in The Wire , most work has focused upon the nineteenth-century novel’s influence on the series, ignoring the influence of cinematic modes of realism. In this article I examine the ways in which the television series The Wire is influenced by various modes of cinematic realism, such as Italian Neorealism and the Third Cinema movement. It is my contention that by analyzing The Wire through its connection with realist cinema that we will be better able to understand the series’ complicated relationship with the representation of marginalized classes; while the series strives for realism both in its narrative and its aesthetic style in order to accurately represent the social totality of a depressed Rust Belt city, the series also illustrates concern that such modes of representation may be appropriated as a product of entertainment for the privileged classes rather than as a critical examination of complex institutional problems. Specifically, I argue that The Wire adopts a self-reflexive, occasionally antagonistic stance towards its audience in order to train a critical, active viewer rather than a passive spectator.

A philosophy of practice for systemic psychotherapy: the case for critical realism

An argument is made for Bhaskar's critical realism as a more coherent, accountable and enabling philosophy of practice for systemic psychotherapy than the kinds of strong constructionism and pragmatism that are currently powerful in our field. Constructionism is positioned, not as an opponent to realism in the usual way, but – in a moderate version – as a necessary partner to give realism its critical edge. The dimensions of critical realism are sketched and its potential for the coherent support of practice is illustrated with an analysis of a moment of therapeutic change.Practitioner points Critical realism supports the understanding of multiply interacting causal tendencies, from genetics to discourse, providing a new platform for eclecticism and integration and a renewed, though cautious, relationship with science. The growing split between structuralism and poststructuralism is closed by critical realism, giving the potential for systemic family therapy to become a unified field. The covert use of realism by clinicians is made accountable by critical realism.

The ways in which dramas affect public perceptions of ageing

Soap operas and dramas attract huge audiences and seek to reflect real life (Caughie 2000), yet little has been written about whether depictions of health problems in these productions colour public perceptions of illness. This article examines two portrayals of ageing and memory loss, one from BBC Radio 4's The Archers and one from a BBC television adaptation of Alan Bennett's dramatic monologue Talking Heads. It uses healthcare and media literature to compare their use of realism and assess their likely effect on public awareness. The implications of dramatic representations of memory loss for nurses who provide information and support to patients newly diagnosed with memory problems and their families are discussed.

Forms of Protest: Anti-Colonialism and Avant-Gardes in Africa, the Caribbean, and France

Forms of Protest: Anti-Colonialism and Avant-Gardes in Africa, the Caribbean, and France. By Phyllis Taoua. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, 2002. Pp. xxv, 268. $24.95 paper. In a rich, well-researched essay, Phyllis Taoua examines discourses of liberation by writers from France and the former colonies throughout the twentieth century. Critics tend to tie African and Caribbean writers' political commitment and use of realism during colonialism and early independence to the influence of French literary movements on their writing. Revisiting the issue of agency in political and cultural self-determination, Taoua rectifies some of the misperceptions about the African, Caribbean, and French literary innovations and avant-garde movements, and demonstrates the existence of a dialogue among them. To do that, Taoua focuses on canonical works and authors. The essay is divided into three parts and six chapters. The first two parts consider dominant trends in resistance to the colonial rule: vanguard primitivism, Surrealism, and Negritude during the interwar period, and Existential humanism and new forms of realism, including the African point of view, as part of the postwar debates. The third part analyzes the impact of decolonization on experimental fiction, including the New Novel. In Chapter 1, going back to the interwar years, the influence of Picasso, Philippe Soupault, and Michel Leiris, the author records the link between vanguard primitivism and Surrealism. Taoua's examination of Leiris's L'Afrique fantome enables her to point out the change of attitudes toward non-Western objects. This new interest, she remarks, prompted museums to reorganize their space, but also signaled a commodification of aesthetics and a pillaging of cultural artifacts. Taoua argues that vanguard primitivism did not correspond, contrary to James Clifford's proposition, to a decentering of European cultural authority (p. 4), but remained, like Surrealism, a Eurocentric idiom. Taoua retraces the Surrealists' Revolution in French culture, with their dissension with the establishment but also their own tensions and limitations. In particular, she highlights the inner contradictions of the movement, notably, its appeal for dissidence and revolution and yet its gradual retreat from reality and therefore from history. Taoua demarcates the increasing divide between ethics and aesthetics, how the intended subversion of conventional modes of representation ends up in arbitrariness of decisions. Taoua identifies Andre Breton's lack of engagement through his criticism of class consciousness and his refusal to act collectively; likewise, his lack of interest, at the time, in African and Caribbean matters. His discovery of Cesaire's Cahier d'un retour au pays natal will corne much later. Chapter 2 recontextualizes the significance of Negritude as an anticolonial movement. In that regard, the author advocates for the need of a critical reassessment through the historical lenses. She shows how the Caribbean writers, students, and authors of Legitime Defense in fact pushed their claims further than the Surrealists and challenged the colonial order. Despite a detailed reading of Senghor's Woman and innovative remarks about both Damas and Aime Cesaire's works and significance for the movement, Taoua's query could have been pushed further. Benetta JulesRosette's work, Black Paris, and her analysis of the Negritude generation might have helped to draw a more dynamic picture. As is, the reader is left with three iconic figures without getting a real sense of a generation or dialogue with the other intellectuals in Africa and the islands. Chapter 3 examines the aesthetic shift toward politically engaged realism and the novel, in opposition to Surrealism and its experimental poetics. Taoua closely analyzes the contradictions in the positions of Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus vis-a-vis the anticolonial struggle. …

Performing Asian America: Race and Ethnicity on the Contemporary Stage, and: But Still, Like Air, I'll Rise: New Asian American Plays (review)

Reviewed by: Performing Asian America: Race and Ethnicity on the Contemporary Stage, and: But Still, Like Air, I’ll Rise: New Asian American Plays Gregory Choy Performing Asian America: Race and Ethnicity on the Contemporary Stage. By Josephine Lee. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1997. But Still, Like Air, I’ll Rise: New Asian American Plays. Ed. Velina Hasu Houston. Foreword by Roberta Uno. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1997. With the publication of Performing Asian America, by Josephine Lee, and But Still, Like Air, I’ll Rise, edited by Velina Hasu Houston, Temple University Press adds to its rapidly expanding Asian American History and Culture series. It is a valuable addition as Lee’s book is the first critical study to cover the broad scope of Asian American drama. In six of her seven chapters, she offers engaging analyses of no less than seventeen works by a dozen Asian American playwrights. Her analytical focus at first glance seems ambitious, almost overarching, if not altogether evasive. The imagined common ground of Asian America—as it’s envisioned in the plays examined in this book—is not located solely in resistance [End Page 303] to racist stereotypes. Nor does it reside in similar historical experiences of immigration, racism, or assimilation, or in a shared cultural background. Instead, these plays presume a more complex imagining of how ‘Asian America’ is performed, individually and collectively. (p.19) Must one assume, then, as have other critics within Asian American studies, that the previously mentioned “imaginings” are shopworn and shallow? Does “a more complex imagining” promise new and deeply theoretical gleanings in Asian American drama criticism? Lee unfolds her strategic answers to this question in chapter one which illuminates the ties between Asian American history, the founding and formative years of Asian American theater, and the development of “a newer pan-Asian sensibility” as Asian American theaters were “forced to cope with new questions about the nature of individual and collective identity.” As a result, “the many different ways in which ‘Asian America’ can be conceived provide a tension that drives theater practice” (p.17). One of the ways Asian America has most noticeably not been conceived, at least by those engaged in the practice of Asian American drama criticism, Lee claims, is as an audience. Lee addresses the concept of “The Asian American Spectator” in the second so titled chapter. The cleaving to dramatic realism by Asian American playwrights and critics raises questions about who is watching the plays and creates a stricture by which plays are praised on the ambiguous merits of “authenticity” or “realness.” The “masculine spectator’s privileged position,” (i.e., that of the historically presumed audience in theatrical realism) critiqued by feminist theorists Laura Mulvey and Jill Dolan, and modified in James Moy’s seminal work as “the persistent desire for the Other and the subsequent commodification of Chinese bodies made into spectacles for the American public” (p.40), is a paradigm that leaves no room for the Asian American spectator without making such a subject position complicitous in its own oppression. Lee raises a series of critical questions in an attempt to realign, if not subvert, the a priori constructs of realism: How do Asian American dramatists rework the existing paradigm of realism to suit their own needs? What dimensions of their use of realism might be considered strategic and political? How must some of the existing arguments regarding realism, spectatorship, and power be revised when dealing with Asian American versions of theatrical realism? (p. 36) [End Page 304] In formulating her responses, Lee adopts as her test texts Frank Chin’s Year of the Dragon and David Henry Hwang’s Family Devotions. Chapter three, “The Chinaman’s Unmanly Grief,” recapitulates and recontextualizes Frank Chin’s attempts to redeem the image of the Asian American male in a comparative reading of his The Chickencoop Chinaman and R. A. Shiomi’s detective mystery Yellow Fever. Interestingly, though Lee is all too keenly aware of Chin’s masculinist posturings, she resists the urge to simply pinpoint his misogyny and have done with him. Chin is aware, more so perhaps than any of the playwrights whose works Lee analyzes, that his audience is composed...