Clay: Genre 1 key example

Genre
Explanation and Analysis:

“Clay” is a realist short story in Joyce’s short story collection Dubliners. Realism as a literary genre began as a reaction to romanticism, specifically to the ways that romantic literature told rosy stories of heroic adventures and never-ending love. According to realist writers, this was not how life actually was, and literature should reflect life as it really is. In “Clay,” for example, Joyce depicts the realistic conditions of living and working in an Irish laundry boarding-house as well as the reality that older unmarried women in early 20th century Ireland did not have many prospects when it came to romantic love or financial security.