socialist realism

American  

Or Socialist Realism

noun

1. a state-approved artistic or literary style in some socialist countries, as the U.S.S.R., that characteristically celebrates an idealized vision of the life and industriousness of the workers.

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socialist realism British  

noun

1. (in Communist countries, esp formerly) the doctrine that art, literature, etc should present an idealized portrayal of reality, which glorifies the achievements of the Communist Party

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Etymology

Origin of socialist realism

First recorded in 1930–35

Example Sentences

Zeng’s art is informed by socialist realism, a style he encountered growing up in Maoist China.

From Seattle Times • Nov. 26, 2023

The school of socialist realism that dominated art in the Soviet Union glorified peasants and industrial workers, depicting heroic, muscular steelworkers and smiling farmers wielding agricultural implements.

From Textbooks • Dec. 14, 2022

Didactic as it is, “One Way or Another” can be taken for socialist realism, but if so, it is a highly original and even critical variant.

From New York Times • Jul. 6, 2022

More intriguing is that the artist didn’t quite abandon socialist realism, the official style she was taught at Beijing’s Central Academy of the Arts.

From Washington Post • Oct. 5, 2021

The KGB agents would chide him for his love of modernist authors who, instead of writing in the impersonal, officious language of Soviet socialist realism captured their individual impressions of life.

From The Guardian • Jul. 27, 2019