Ian Watt, author of The Rise of the Novel, maintained that the novel originated in modern England, came from prose discourses such as the news, political essays and journalistic writing which propagated the Enlightenment, and the novels represent formal realism. The main point of this paper is to examine Watt’s theory of the rise of the novel on the basis of the criticism of antinomy of the Enlightenment and “the public sphere” in Habermas’ terms. At first, I will criticize formal realism, which is not a new literary species, but a formally renovated realistic form that represented capitalism and protestantism. And, then, I will show that formal realism is a kind of antinomy because it turned away from the voices and reality of the low-class and women though the novel concentrated on common people, not the aristocrats. Secondly, I will inquire into the antinomy of the Enlightenment in the aspects of reason, freedom, individualism and women. In my view, as soon as the high-middle class acquired their political rights, these values were no more encouraged and the result revealed antinomy of the Enlightenment more explicitly. Thirdly, I’d argue that “the public sphere” had positive meanings to everyone when the bourgeosie were fighting against the Absolutism and the aristocracy. I’ll also insist that the high-middle class and the intellectuals were in “the public sphere” in which Habermas argues that rationality and equality were thought to have been realized, while the low-middle class and most women were de-enlightened and disciplined by reading the novel privately. In conclusion, formal realism is not the rise of the novel, but the opening of the novel peculiar to bourgeosie parliamentarism from the middle-eighteenth century to the middle-twentieth century.

Ian Watt, author of The Rise of the Novel, maintained that the novel originated in modern England, came from prose discourses such as the news, political essays and journalistic writing which propagated the Enlightenment, and the novels represent formal realism. The main point of this paper is to examine Watt’s theory of the rise of the novel on the basis of the criticism of antinomy of the Enlightenment and “the public sphere” in Habermas’ terms. At first, I will criticize formal realism, which is not a new literary species, but a formally renovated realistic form that represented capitalism and protestantism. And, then, I will show that formal realism is a kind of antinomy because it turned away from the voices and reality of the low-class and women though the novel concentrated on common people, not the aristocrats. Secondly, I will inquire into the antinomy of the Enlightenment in the aspects of reason, freedom, individualism and women. In my view, as soon as the high-middle class acquired their political rights, these values were no more encouraged and the result revealed antinomy of the Enlightenment more explicitly. Thirdly, I’d argue that “the public sphere” had positive meanings to everyone when the bourgeosie were fighting against the Absolutism and the aristocracy. I’ll also insist that the high-middle class and the intellectuals were in “the public sphere” in which Habermas argues that rationality and equality were thought to have been realized, while the low-middle class and most women were de-enlightened and disciplined by reading the novel privately. In conclusion, formal realism is not the rise of the novel, but the opening of the novel peculiar to bourgeosie parliamentarism from the middle-eighteenth century to the middle-twentieth century.

the Enlightenment, the rise of the novel, antinomy, formal realism, Ian Watt, Pamela