dirty realism

noun

1. a style of writing, originating in the US in the 1980s, which depicts in great detail the seamier or more mundane aspects of ordinary life

Derived Forms

• dirty realist, noun

Example Sentences

He’s also practically been raised for the gig: His father, Gordon Lish, a longtime literary eminence, is perhaps best known for ruthless editing of Raymond Carver stories that ushered in the age of dirty realism in the ’80s.

From Washington Post

The frank jocularity of the wisecracks bumps up against rogue jolts of cutesiness and a slightly dirty realism, familiar from Sundance dramedies.

From The New Yorker

For the New York Times, Glenn Kenny noted the stylized cinematography by the talented Bradford Young by saying, "Much of this movie is literally hard to see, and deliberately so. Remember 'dirty realism' the label some critics applied in the 1980s to the work of writers like Richard Ford and Jayne Anne Phillips? 'Where Is Kyra?' operates in the realm of begrimed realism — its dark depths are purgatorial, if not outright hellish."

From Los Angeles Times

Remember “dirty realism,” the label some critics applied in the 1980s to the work of writers like Richard Ford and Jayne Anne Phillips?

From New York Times

Elsewhere, on songs like Bottle By My Bed and Pills, Sweeney pulls the curtain back on middle age hardship with a dirty realism largely absent from her first couple albums recorded on major labels.

From The Guardian