Re: Henry Roth: Call It Sleep
Realism and naturalism are like few other movements in literature vastly different from culture to culture. There have been copious comparisons between for instance Zola and Gissing.
However. You conflate "realist" and "working class". There is IMO no reason why realism should not mean linguistically inventive. The inventiveness in many ways can enhance the realist element, and it does in "Call it sleep". Roth found a perfect way to illustrate the linguistic predicament of immigrants in his use of English.This is in the service of a rather strong realism, and for instance German naturalists have used a similar tack. Hauptmann's early plays often only seem to contain 'just' dialect. Actually he is using several different layers of language and translation.
No, the "and" is well placed where it is.
The 'fantastic', modernist elements are a different kettle of fish, of course, but the linguistic inventiveness isn't part of them. largely.
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