Abstract
Much hostility towards realism in fiction is, consciously or unconsciously, rooted in fundamental doubts about the relationship between language and reality and the true status of apparently referential discourse. These doubts may crystallise into one of two theses: either that referential discourse is impossible because extra-linguistic reality lies beyond the reach of language; or that it seems possible only because apparently extra-linguistic realities are in fact the product of language, that is to say intra-linguistic. The two theses are, of course, complementary but different writers tend to highlight one or other of them in attacking realism.