The French realism of the 19th century could be defined by one tone:mockery.According to Balzac,it was determined by history.The realist writer did not see himself as a romantic mage destined to enlighten his reader or chart the paths of the future.Instead,he pointed out the dead ends of the present,while the bourgeois liberal democracy sought to im-pose its model after the revolution of 1830.This mockery differs greatly from Voltaire's irony during the Enlightenment,which was combative,exercised in the name of certainties,with a clear distinction between truth and lies,and militant for progress.Realist mockery is paired with radical skepticism.The very dialogism of the novel is not to be understood as a celebra-tion of democratic spirit(acknowledging plurality through diverse points of view),but as a global satire of social discourse,a vast cacophony.This aesthetic of disengagement is what we seek to characterize.
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