Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature

Creatural realism is a type of realism anchored in the sensual (or sensory) world. It is not related to sensuality in the modern sexual sense; instead, creatural realism means that texts describe events and things in a heightened and intensely sensory manner. This type of realism begins, as Auerbach traces it, in the literature of the Middle Ages. During this time, difficult and sometimes horrific lives on earth led people to see their earthly lives as something lesser—a grotesque existence they must suffer before ascending to heaven. Writers would describe earthly events in intensely sensory ways, leaning toward the grotesque and ugly, to represent this worldview. In later works, however, creatural realism reappears, but this time without the dim worldview of earthly life as grotesque. Creatural realism is instead used to represent the power of the body through the use of intensely sensual descriptions.

Figural realism is a type of realism developed out of Christian traditions. Said describes figura/figural realism as something that defines history as “not only mov[ing] forward but also backward, in each oscillation between eras managing to accomplish a greater realism, a more substantial ‘thickness’ […] a higher degree of truth” (xxi).