"Thomas Docherty's wide-ranging, spirited account of the role played by a contested aesthetic weaves examples from literature, visual arts, and film . in admirably clear, accessible language that avoids jargon." -- Modern Language Review "This well-written, well-thought-out book applies many Continental philosophical notions to the almost endless antagonisms between artists attempting to depict the world as they see it, and the political power of those who would deny the very need for change." -- CHOICE "Docherty uses these categories to triangulate realism's changing shapes across two centuries of Western aesthetic debates and politics. [The] Politics of Realism leaves scope for a suitable response to how this realism of identity, at least in the European mediascape, might present a form of resistance just as Italian neorealism once did." -- Midwest Modern Language Association.