Colin MacCabe’s Critique of the ‘Classic Realist Text’: a Sociological and Political Perspective

About 40 years ago, as an undergraduate student, I wrote some dissertations that were probably better than anything I wrote as a professional academic, admittedly a low bar. I wrote this one when I was 21. The film academic Colin MacCabe published an essay criticising realist novels and films for having a form that prevented them from being politically progressive, effectively arguing for more…