In Realism and the Drama of Reference, Meili Steele brings the problem of reference--how language discloses the world--into contemporary critical debates about representation. He explores the potential of reference in the work of three authors in the realistic tradition: Balzac, Flaubert, and James. By defining realism in terms of linguistic practices instead of representational accuracy, this study liberates reference from traditional realist concerns with the empirical universe. Realism thus becomes only one kind of referential practice.

The analysis takes up one text by...