Hysterical realism, also called recherché postmodernism or maximalism, is a literary genre typified by a strong contrast between elaborately absurd prose, plotting, or characterization and careful detailed investigations of real specific social phenomena. Maximalism is a term used in literature, art, multimedia and graphical design, and music to apply to post-minimalist movements or works, named in analogy with minimalism. ... A literary genre is one of the divisions of literature into genres according to particular criteria such as literary technique, tone, or subject matter (content). ...

The term hysterical realism was coined by James Wood in an essay on Zadie Smith's White Teeth, titled "The Smallness of the 'Big' Novel: Human, All Too Inhuman", which appeared in the July 24, 2000 issue of The New Republic and was later reprinted in Wood's 2004 book, The Irresponsible Self: On Laughter and the Novel. Wood uses the term to denote the contemporary conception of the "big, ambitious novel" that pursues "vitality at all costs" and consequently "knows a thousand things but does not know a single human being." He decried the genre as an attempt to "turn fiction into social theory," and an attempt to tell us "how the world works rather than how somebody felt about something." Wood points to Don DeLillo and Thomas Pynchon as the forefathers of the genre, which survives in writers like David Foster Wallace and Salman Rushdie. In response, Zadie Smith described hysterical realism as a "painfully accurate term for the sort of overblown, manic prose to be found in novels like my own White Teeth..." Wood's line of argument echoes many common criticisms of postmodernist art as a whole. In particular Wood's attacks on Delillo and Pynchon clearly echo the similar criticisms that Gore Vidal and other critics lodged against them a generation earlier. James Wood (born 1965 in Durham, UK), is a literary critic. ... Zadie Smith Zadie Smith (born October 27, 1975) is a British novelist. ... White Teeth is a 2000 novel by the British author Zadie Smith. ... For other uses, see the disambiguation section. ... Don DeLillo (born November 20, 1936) is an American author best known for his novels, which paint detailed portraits of American life in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. ... Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. ... David Foster Wallace is an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. ... Salman Rushdie (born Ahmed Salman Rushdie, on June 19, 1947, in Bombay, India) is a British-Indian essayist and author of fiction, most of which is set on the Indian subcontinent. ... Zadie Smith Zadie Smith (born October 27, 1975) is a British novelist. ... White Teeth is a 2000 novel by the British author Zadie Smith. ... Postmodernism (sometimes abbreviated pomo) is a term applied to a wide-ranging set of developments in critical theory, philosophy, architecture, art, literature, and culture, which are generally characterized as either emerging from, in reaction to, or superseding, modernism. ... Gore Vidal in 1948, photographed by Carl Van Vechten Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (born October 3, 1925) is a prolific, versatile American writer of novels, stage plays, screenplays, and essays, and, of late, a liberal political pundit. ...

The "hysterical" prose style is often mated to "realistic", almost journalistic, effects, such as Pynchon's depiction of 18th century land surveys in Mason & Dixon, Don DeLillo's treatment of Lee Harvey Oswald in Libra, Christopher Wunderlee's exploration of the mission to the moon in The Loony: a novella of epic proportions, or Robert Clark Young's treatment of the arcana of U.S. Navy life in One of the Guys. This extravagant treatment of everyday events can be found in the work of earlier authors, such as Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast novels, and Herman Melville's The Confidence-Man and Moby-Dick. Even earlier precursors include Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne, often cited as the first postmodernist novel,^{[citation needed]} and The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton. A less "hysterical" version of such a juxtaposition of essay and narrative passages can be found in the work of Milan Kundera. Surveying is concerned with the application of mathematics and physics in obtaining accurate measurements for the determination of the position of points on the Earths surface. ... Mason & Dixon book cover Mason & Dixon, a post-modern novel by Thomas Pynchon first published in 1997, centers on the collaboration of the historical Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon in their astronomical and surveying exploits in Cape Colony, Saint Helena, Great Britain and along the Mason-Dixon line in British... Don DeLillo (born November 20, 1936) is an American author best known for his novels, which paint detailed portraits of American life in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. ... Wikisource has original text related to this article: Lee Harvey Oswald diary Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963) was, according to four United States government investigations, responsible for the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy. ... Libra (1988) is a novel written by Don DeLillo. ... Christopher Wunderlee is an American avant-garde poet and experimental writer. ... The United States Navy (USN) is the branch of the United States armed forces responsible for naval operations. ... One of the Guys is an earnestly satirical and picaresque novel by Robert Clark Young, published in 1999, concerning the fantastical adventures of a man posing as a chaplain on a U.S. Navy ship which goes berserk and terrorizes a number of ports in the Far East before the... Mikhail Afanasievich Bulgakov (Russian: Михаил Афанасьевич Булгаков; May 15 [O.S. May 3] 1891, Kiev – March 10, 1940, Moscow) was a Russian novelist and playwright of the first half of the 20th century. ... The Master and Margarita (Russian: ) is a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, woven about the premise of a visit by the Devil to the fervently atheistic Soviet Union. ... Mervyn Laurence Peake (July 9, 1911 – November 17, 1968) was a British modernist writer, artist, poet and illustrator. ... Gormenghast Castle in the BBC miniseries Gormenghast is a fictional castle of titanic proportions that features prominently in a series of fantasy works penned by Mervyn Peake. ... Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, essayist and poet. ... The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade was the last major novel by Herman Melville, the American writer and author of Moby-Dick. ... Moby-Dick book cover Moby-Dick - the official title of the first edition - is a novel by Herman Melville. ... The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (or, more briefly, Tristram Shandy) is a novel by Laurence Sterne. ... Laurence Sterne Laurence Sterne (November 24, 1713 – March 18, 1768) was an Anglo-Irish novelist and clergyman. ... Postmodernism (sometimes abbreviated pomo) is a term applied to a wide-ranging set of developments in critical theory, philosophy, architecture, art, literature, and culture, which are generally characterized as either emerging from, in reaction to, or superseding, modernism. ... Front page of The Anatomy of Melancholy The Anatomy of Melancholy (Full title The Anatomy of Melancholy, What it is: With all the Kinds, Causes, Symptomes, Prognostickes, and Several Cures of it. ... Robert Burton Robert Burton (February 8, 1577 – January 25, 1640) was an English scholar and vicar at Oxford University, best known for writing The Anatomy of Melancholy. ... Milan Kundera (IPA: ) (born April 1, 1929 in Brno, Czechoslovakia) is a Czech-born writer who writes in both Czech and French. ...

It is interesting to note, additionally, that hysterical realism resembles an older, more established literary tradition: the classic Russian novel. The works of Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky and Solzhenitsyn, as well as others, are long epic books about a large ensemble of characters. The prose in these novels is rich and thick, going into extreme detail about all manner of things. Coat of arms of Count Leo Tolstoy This article is about the Tolstoy family; for the famous novelist, see Leo Tolstoy. ... Fyodor Dostoevsky. ... Solzhenitsyn was exiled from the Soviet Union for his book The Gulag Archipelago. ...

Hysterical realist authors

• Laurence Sterne
• Thomas Pynchon
• Don DeLillo
• Jonathan Safran Foer
• Zadie Smith
• David Foster Wallace
• Salman Rushdie
• Jonathan Franzen
• Dave Eggers

Laurence Sterne Laurence Sterne (November 24, 1713 – March 18, 1768) was an Anglo-Irish novelist and clergyman. ... Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. ... Don DeLillo (born November 20, 1936) is an American author best known for his novels, which paint detailed portraits of American life in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. ... Jonathan Safran Foer This American author is not to be confused with the Australian media personality John Safran. ... Zadie Smith Zadie Smith (born October 27, 1975) is a British novelist. ... David Foster Wallace is an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. ... Salman Rushdie (born Ahmed Salman Rushdie, on June 19, 1947, in Bombay, India) is a British-Indian essayist and author of fiction, most of which is set on the Indian subcontinent. ... Jonathan Franzen (born August 17, 1959) is an American novelist and essayist. ... Dave Eggers at the 2005 Hay Festival Dave Eggers (born March 12, 1970) is an American writer, editor, and publisher. ...

See also

• Literary theory
• Magical realism
• Realism
• Genre studies
• Postmodernism
• Neosurrealism

Literary theory is the theory (or the philosophy) of the interpretation of literature and literary criticism. ... Magic Realism (or Magical Realism) is an illustrative or literary technique in which the laws of cause and effect seem not quite to apply in otherwise real world situations. ... Realism is commonly defined as a concern for fact or reality and a rejection of the impractical and visionary. ... Genre studies are a structuralist approach to literary criticism, film criticism, and other cultural criticism. ... Postmodernism is an idea that has been extremely controversial and difficult to define among scholars, intellectuals, and historians, because the term implies to many that the modern historical period has passed. ... Photography, Jerry Uelsmann Digital Art, George Grie Fine Art, HR Giger Neosurrealism in architecture Neosurrealism in pop-art Neosurrealism or Neo-Surrealism is a term that has been given to the reappearance of well-known surrealism movement in the late 1970s. ...

External links

• US novelists must now abandon social and theoretical glitter, says James Wood, The Guardian
• Salon.com article in response to Wood's criticism.
• Believer Mag article that discusses Wood's coined term.